All set up waiting for posts from John and Gail.

Karen

The night before the day after

Sooooo. Here we are a little over 12 hours before this shin dig starts and well, we're tired. been a long day but Music IS ready. Crew on board include Hal & Laurie, and George & Kim. On a personal Music note. Once we pass into Mexican waters Music will have sailed the entire west coast of the 48 contiguous states. Actually Music has sailed more than that, having been to Port Hardy on the Van Isle 360.

Cheers to all,
John

2 years and 1 day (Sept 21, 2010) after finally arriving home from my Pacific Cup sojourn Music sailed out the Golden Gate and turned left. Where are we headed? Sunny San Diego for the start of the cruising rally "Baha Haha". For those of you not familiar with it, This rally launches from San Diego and finishes at Cabo San Lucas at the southern tip of the Baja peninsula. We have 2 stops along the way, the first being Turtle Bay. Total distance is about 850 miles, as measured on Google maps, so this measurement is not in nautical miles.

We only have 2 days before the start and lots to do but, I'll post again when I can.

Cheers, John

John's Home Safe and Sound 9/20 14:45PDT

John's Home!!! He was about an hour ahead of schedule for his arrival and almost caught his greeting committee unprepared. But we rallied and had boats out on the water and around 30 people at the dock to welcome our wayward sailors home. I was able to climb aboard Music a short way before she arrived at the dock and it was marvelous to be able to sail into the slip with John and crew. Gail

John here; While we pulled into our slip at Marina Village on Alameda Island, at about 2:45 PM, we passed under the Golden Gate Bridge at 13:33 PDT on Saturday, 09/20, officially ending our return delivery from Kaneohe Bay, Oahu. Why the Golden Gate bridge? - Because our "delivery route" started upon exiting the Sampan Channel, leaving Kaneohe Bay and ended at the Golden Gate Bridge. Here are some statistics:
Length of delivery: 16 days, 19 hours, 13 minutes. Length of route: 2354 nautical miles; Crew: Scott Saulovich - outstanding helmsman, sea \chef; Steve Jacobsen - outstanding helmsman / fish filleter/ dorado grill meister; myself, John McCartney - skipper/navigator.

Thanks to all of you for your support during the race, throughout my extended stay on Oahu, and over the course of all three delivery attempts coming home!! The total distance I personally sailed trying to bring Music home was about 3800 - 3900 miles, including the returns to Oahu. Special thanks to my lovely wife and personal support - Gail Lapetina!!

John's Almost Home!

Here's what we've been waiting for. John and Music should be back in the slip mid-afternoon on Saturday, Sept. 20. Wow - what a summer.

0900 Position 9/20
37.49N
123.05W

Distance to GGB (mile rock really) 30 NM

9/19 Update

Yippee - Music is only 168 miles from home as of 9am Friday morning. So I think it's fair to say they will be home sometime this weekend. They're showering and starting to straighten up the boat a bit and spirits are high.

Position: 9/19 09:00PDT

37.56N 126.03W

speed 5 knots, course 78 degrees

9/17 Report

John has less than 300 miles to go - yeah! Some of you have asked about an ETA but we sailors are a superstitious lot and don't want to jinx anything. So we're not prediciting an ETA yet. But I'm hoping it will be this weekend.

Music Position 18:00
38 27.832 N
130 50.493 W

HI Dear,

09/17; 0900 and we took down the spinnaker as we were getting lifted to the north too much, but we got about 100 miles out of it from 17:15 yesterday to right now - yeah. Part of the winds lifting us north were due to the low passing to the north and us still being south, but still slightly in front of its center. As it passes we should start getting lifted and be able to sail more to our destination, but that probably won't happen for several more hours, and maybe even not until tomorrow.

12 noon: So now its back to a double reefed main and furled genoa (to the second reef), 20-24 knots of wind, busy seas, and sailing on a close reach, but as close as we can to the GGB. Even so, we're still getting pushed north more than we want to. In the next couple of days, however, we will not always be sailing as fast as we currently are. And, while at this moment it doesn't look like the hi will reform in front of us, if we are still out here after the low passes, then we will most likely have to deal with "dirty air" from this lows passing.

1700: It's still blowing like stink (20-25 kt) and we've reefed the genoa to about 80% now and are still making 6.5 to 7.5 kt through the water. Next, we'll start spilling air from our main to slow us down. I sure hope this low passes soon.

1800: We just tucked in the third reef in the main and boat speed is still 6.5 to 7.5 - It feels slower though but the boat doesn't seem to be working quite as hard.

XXOOXXOO,
Me