Gilligan's Island

Hi friends and family,

I always wondered just how come Gilligan's Island's, "Professor", took something like 12 to 16 years to get them rescued when it, the real Coconut Island, is less than 2 miles from the north shore of Oahu. Could he have been chasing Marianne for all those years, or was it a time/distance warp? Anyway, after having sailed approximately 1200 miles to essentially go from Kaneohe Bay to Honolulu and back, a round trip distance of about 70 to 100 miles depending on which way you go around the island, all I can say is that there appears to be a distance anomaly around the Hawaiian Islands that puts anything the Bermuda Triangle can throw at you to shame. Well, maybe that's not quite right, but you get the idea. Another movie I'm reminded of is "Ground Hog Day" where Bill Murray goes through the same day, time and again, until he finally gets it right. Maybe we'll finally be able to "Escape Hawaii" when we finally get it right. Hmmm - could that be another movie? - I sure hope not.

Here's another thought: Our first delivery attempt we made it a bit over 400 miles out before turning back. Our second delivery attempt we made it 200 miles out before turning back. Considering this, if we go nowhere, we'll actually be making progress without touching a dock line. Now that's efficiency in travel!

The good news is that our crew requiring medical attention is at the hospital and being treated as we speak. We're dock side at Kaneohe Yacht Club and figuring out where to go from here. Well keep you posted.
Saturday, August 30th, two thousand what???
Kaneohe Bay, Oahu.

Skipper John

John has turned back towards Hawaii again. This time due to a medical issue. One of the crew - not John - has a swollen leg. They don't know how serious it is and John decided to head back to Hawaii. He's treating the person with bed rest and antibiotics and if there is significant improvement in 24 hrs they will turn around again and continue on their way.

I'll keep you posted.

Here are some position updates from John. The transponder is now working. Even though the wind is lighter that the first attempt, it seems the seas are not helping to make it a more comfortable trip. Hopefully when they get futher away from land things will settle down a bit.

Position 2300 HST; 08/27
23 31.505 N
158 22.765 W
Course approx 360
current speed 5.8 knots

Update from earlier Wednesday.
We are 75 nm north of Oahu and it is 1700 on 8/27. Really uncomfortable with winds 17 - 22 and lumpy seas.
position 1700 HST: 22deg 51.4 min N
158deg 2.33 min W.

The Return Begins - Again

John and crew left Honolulu at 8:23pm PDT on Tuesday, Aug. 26. The transponder hasn't been activated yet, but we should be able to see their signal on Thursday. It takes a while to get the signal synced up. The good news is that conditions should be milder for the first week than they were on the 1st return trip. This will give them a chance to more easily settle into their routines.

There are 4 total on the return crew, including John. The other folks are Jay Bryan, a friend from our yacht club, and Scott and Tarnia. Scott was refered to us by another friend from our yacht club, and Tarnia's info I found on the Pacific Cup crew list. We were VERY lucky that these folks had the time available and were able to get away on very short notice. It looks like everyone will get along well.

Thanks to everyone for their continued good wishes. I don't know how often we'll get updates from John and crew, but I'll post them as they come in. The link to the tracking site is on this blog site as well as a link to Tarnia's blog site. Tarnia has a personal transponder and her uncle will be updating her site as he gets position updates.

A quick update. John has his new delivery crew together and should be starting the trip home early Tuesday morning (Aug 26). He'll turn the transponder on again so we can track his progress. The new crew seems like a good bunch of people and should get along well together. There will be 5 total, which is good in that it gives John the flexibility to not have to stand a specific watch and he can handle things as they come up as well as the navigation and checking the weather. John should be home by mid-September.

Hi everyone - a quick update on John and Music. Music's repairs have been completed and she is in a slip at the Waikiki Yacht Club. Nothing serious was found which is good news. We've been working to get a new delivery crew together. The original crew had to head back to their respective homes and jobs. We have a few leads on crew so hopefully John will be able to start the trip back by the end of the week (Aug. 22/23). He'll turn the transponder back on when he starts out again so we can track Music's progress home.

A few folks have asked how John is doing. He is doing well and is in good spirits. There is some disappointment in the delay and he was hoping to be almost home by now. But these things happen and he's making the best of it. Waikiki Yacht Club is very nice so he has a good place to spend a few days. There are a few small projects he wants to do before starting the return trip, like re-bedding a hatch so it won't leak. I've passed on all your best wishes to him and he appreciates your thoughts. We'll let you know when he starts the trip home.

Music in Honolulu

Music arrived in Honolulu Monday late afternoon. She will be hauled out on Tuesday and we'll see what repairs might be necessary. We'll keep you posted as to when we plan to renew the delivery back to San Francisco. Thanks for all your kind thoughts and wishes.

Music's Arrival in Honolulu

From: Music
Sent: Sunday, August 10, 2008 7:22 PM

We should be in Honolulu at the boatyard late tomorrow afternoon. Saw what was most likely a sperm whale early this AM. Hal saw it first and just missed seeing it breach. When it was about 100 yards off of our port beam, I saw it rise vertically out of the water about half its body height and slid back down. Then it positioned itself with its tail toward us and slapped the water until we couldn't see it any more. I could be mistaken but I think it was not happy, believing us to be intruders.

Karen asked how long it takes to go 160 nautical miles (NM). Well the short answer is that it depends on the conditions and how fast you are moving. On this point of sail, a beam reach, it takes us about 24 hours in 20-25 knots of wind. Going North a few days ago, when the seas were large and confused, it took us an eternity, even if it was only 24 hours.

For Dive Buddy Jeff: Good one about being marooned!!! - You obviously know my sick sense of humor!!

Sea Bird

We had a sea bird land on our bow pulpit yesterday afternoon - got several photos. Landing the first time took several attempts, but eventually the bird made it. After that, it would rest a short while and fly around the boat and land again. It got successively better with each attempt. We had a really nice sun rise this AM and very few squalls last night. The weather is definitely milder - yeah. But we were not successful at running the water maker yesterday, most likely due to being on port tack and heeling just a little too much. Rudder seems to be managing OK for now. ETA for Oahu should be about sometime Tuesday morning. Love, John

Music heading back to Hawaii

I wanted to let you all know that Music is heading back to Oahu. She got hit with a rogue wave last night and it has affected the steering. Sometimes it steers normally and sometimes it gets very stiff. John went over to see if something was jammed in the rudder or if it was visually damaged and couldn’t find anything. He’s been in contact with Jim Jesse and Svendsen’s boat yard and they all agree something is going on, but nobody seems to know what. So the crew decided it would be better to head back while they were still close to land. It’s a tough decision for all of them as it was a hard 400 miles they just sailed. We'll keep you posted.

Position Report: Midnight 08/08

Position: 27 deg 16.37 min N; 156 deg 42.30 min W;

20-25 kt winds all day and evening; yuck!!
Slowly and very wetly crawling north. Tonight we started getting squalls right after sunset.
Everything is wet below decks - isn't life fun.
Guess we're paying for the down wind fun we had on the race. Hope things quiet down in a day or so, but for now we're growing webbed feet and gills, just like in the movie "Water World".

Right now, we are about 350 NM north of Oahu and these conditions are supposed to continue until approx. 30 deg North, or about another 160 miles.

Love, John

Transponder is now working

Music finally got the transponder activated so we can now track the return voyage. There is a new link for the return on the right side of this blog. They are in the Return 1 group. Please continue to send your comments to them - I know they really appreciated hearing from you during the race and this is an even longer trip.

They are making progress, but it is still windy and uncomfortable. Their plan was to head north to about 39/40 degrees (about even with the Calif/Oregon border) and then motor a few days through the high pressure zone and then hopefully start sailing east. For those of you unfamiliar with weather systems- there is a large area of high pressure, called the Pacific High, that basically doesn't have much wind. During the race they stayed below the high, now they have to get over the top of the high before they can sail east to San Francisco. So the return trip will be longer in both miles and days.

When conditions settle down I expect to get more updates from Music. Currently it is just position reports. I try to send them a little message every day so feel free to pass on your comments any time. Aloha, Gail

The Return Begins

Music left the fuel dock around 2pm Tuesday. The wind is building for a few days - at least according to the kite boarders and they would know. We didn't activate the transponder until just before they left and it appears we didn't do it right. I've sent them the info about how to activate so hopefully we can see their progress in a few days.

Here's the first update:
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 4:11 AM
Hi Dear,

Position:
22 deg 38min N; 157 deg 44 min W;
I'll check the transponder tomorrow. Close reaching and uncomfortable, but reef main and stay sail doing well and still giving us approx 6 kts tonight.

Love,
Me

Team Trophy Award!

Congratulations to Music on being part of the Team Trophy Award! Teams consisted of 3 boats from the same yacht club and the trophy went to the team with the best performance. The Encinal Yacht Club team took 1st! Besides Music, there were 2 Cal 40s in division A that took 1st and 3rd. A great race for all.

We're doing a final bit of prep for the return trip to San Francisco. John plans on leaving Tuesday, Aug. 5. There will be 4 people on board for the return - John, Simon, and Steve who were race crew and our friend Hal who is flying in Monday to help. We plan on updating the blog during the return and they will have the satellite transponder so we'll be able to track them. So check back in a few days!