The Stretch Run

We're heading into the final stretch run, 400 miles to go, a drag race to the finish. The good news: we're in front of a few boats. The bad news: we're behind more boats. But we've raced our race and can't be too disappointed with where we are. We didn't have one day of bad wind (light wind yes, bad wind no) and threaded the high beautifully.

As we come up to the islands, activity is increasing, boats are getting hit by more squalls and the occasional whale (ouch!). We have a naval exercise in between us and the finish line with ~38 ships and ~8 submarines. You can be sure they won't show up on AIS and will know where we are long before we know where they are. I just want to see a submarine, I'll keep a lookout downwards.

We're looking at a Monday arrival, a day to two earlier than expected. Weather's good, crew morale is high and a pizza sounds just about perfect. Aloha.

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it's getting tropical

the weather is turning, it is definitely getting tropical. the foulies came off, some people are in shorts and it's getting good. Our competition is north and west of us, looking at the sky they are very warm. Soon soon soon.

Our days' runs have been 145, 181, 181 and 188. That's point to point each day at 1:45. We're even getting faster.

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We are off and running

Day three of our adventure and due to technical, ahem, blogger constitutional issues, our first blog post. The start was fantastic, we were escorted to the line by a friend in the CG auxiliary and out the gate by five dolphins. We had friends and family at the club, on the GG Bridge and up in the Headlands. Rumor has it that some even had signs!

Our first night gal was to beat, nay pinch, to the farallones and get west west west. We made it and boy was it cold. good thing we packed thermals. First night sightings, one whale, two crabpots and a lot of commercial traffic. We made 145 miles in the first 24 hours.

Once we got to the wind we started following the great circle and were on our way in great wind. Cold, but great, wind. No more wildlife except for two flying fish but we did make 181 miles on the second 24 hours.

Now we've picked our spot to the ridge and are reaching our way down there. Great Start!

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Crew Dinner...the Start is Tomorrow

The crew went out for a nice dinner to get carbo-loaded for the race. The carbs came from all the usual suspects: sugars in the margarita mix, rice, and beer. I think we're fit and ready.

The crew is sleeping on the boat tonight to get an early start. We still have to get the frozen foods loaded, all the gear on deck lashed down and our game faces practiced. After that, we start.

Aloha Hawaii.

Waiting is the hardest part

The boat is ready. The crew is ready. Our families are ready (for us to go). What are we waiting for? Oh yeah, the starting gun. And the wind. Either way, Oceanaire is in the starting gate, pulling at the reins, ready for a couple of furlong dash over to Hawaii.

Let's get going....only one more day!

Something Heroic

Actually, sailing to Hawaii is something short of heroic, but is certainly comic. I was trying to come up with a T-shirt design that speaks to what this race/trip is about. Everything that I came up with looked like a t-shirt from a tourist bar in Key West...not the look I was shooting for.

Then I realized, sailing the high seas is kind of heroic, the sort of thing that Frank Miller should make a comic book about. We have an arch-nemesis, Pacific High. We have to overcome personal shortcoming (my fear of the Ocean). And we have a plot...you know, the race and the fundraising. And we have a cool name, The Oceanaire Six. This is comic book material. All we needed was a comic book cover.



Now that's comic.

P.S. I'm not really afraid of the Ocean, though it would be funny if I was.

Couple to Sail Pacific Ocean for Charity

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - On July 15, 2008, Garrett Caldwell and Lissa Bisson, aboard their Alameda, CA-based yacht, "Oceanaire," will embark on a 2070 mile extreme adventure sailing across the open ocean from San Francisco Bay to the Hawaiian Islands, to benefit the lives of domestic violence victims around the country.

Read the rest of the story at MSNBC.

We don't talk enough on this blog about why Garrett and Lissa are doing the race. Sailing for Smiles is all about raising money to help victims of domestic abuse. Garrett and Lissa's non-sailing lives are in the world of dentistry and they've taken their expertise in this field to help restore the broken and damaged teeth of survivors of domestic violence.

Sailing for Smiles is raising a lot of money (see bar on the right for the progress) to help this program. It's important to remember that sailing is a luxury that not everyone has...if we can help spread awareness and raise money for an important cause while doing this race it makes it that much more meaningful.