Gladys from a pacific island…

Mr Cunningham yachtmaster instructor examiner extroidinaire and sea survival instructor.

Mr Brooks at the finish last sailed with him in 2007 aboard Yeoman as usual he is the brawn on the boat! No disrespect Rob 🙂

Peter Grannis – Mr Hubbards friend from New York

Henry Maxwell – unfortunately suffers from sea sickness his first offshore race was transatlantic on Dawn Star! Pretty crazy way to start out. Solid sailor

Hubbard Junior it has been far too long since I got to hang out with him on a boat.

Mr Hubbard in his standard yachting attire – Brooks brothers button down shirt, kakhi’s and normally a straw hat but that went overboard unfortunately.

Our navigator Michael Lawson aka Forepeak Troll – rarely on deck but he was for the start and at one point in the race he went forward of the mast for some reason!

Cameron Oakie and myself in a little rain shower. Cameron is Will’s cousin he sailed the boat throught the Pacific lived on the boat in Sydney with Will and then did Hobart race, Transat and Fastnet. He works for an environmental not for profit in Long Island Sound.

Mr Hubbard at the helm and of course myself going into the first night. It has been a long time since I sailed with the Hubbards – too long. Looking forward to a project with them next year.

Abby with her first flying fish. Abby is 18 and is studying Marine Biology at University in Rhode Island. She is a tough cookie doing the trip in only a inshore caribbean jacket until Myles like a gentleman lent her his splash jacket. She was given the t-shirt – I am no longer an offshore virgin in Bermuda by Michael and loved it.

Myles helming halfway across in the gulfstream. There wasn’t much sun until the last day. I had Myles on my watch and there was only a little bit of brother sister tension!

We finished at 4am on Tuesday morning it was a very slow last 30 miles taking us about 10 hours. Our result was mediocore but we had a great time doing the race as a crew. It was the easiest in terms of conditions race that any of us had done just a shame we went the wrong way on the course.

Tomorrow 11 of us will head off on Dawn Star to Bermuda from Newport. Sorry don’t have a picture of the boat but she is navy blue with a teak deck and she will not exceed 8 knots! After that she just digs a bigger hole in the water. Will Hubbard has sailed her 40000 miles around the world including transatlantic race, fastnet, sydney hobart and now we are off to Bermuda. It is great to be sailing with the Hubbards again and obviously my little brother Myles.

You can track us at http://www.bermudarace.com/OntheRacecourse/RaceTracking/tabid/199/Default.aspx

Looking forward to spending some time with my little brother on the race and then the whole family including ‘my’ dog Draeger when I get to Bermuda.

On the bow furling the code 0 after hoisting the kite.

Very close racing. We are the red bow on the right just behind Campagne.

Reaching with the big kite dropping the solent and off we go downwind.

The three pictures are by Meredith Block.

Racing was postponed while the breeze attempted to fill in. Finally we got a race off but it was necessary to put all out crew weight forward and low as the Class 40 has a very wide stern with lots of surface area causing drag.

We saw a lot of the Code 0 and the big spinnaker. Tons of sail changes can’t even remember how many in only two races.

Our tactician PJ sitting on the leeward rail under the jib getting a tad frustrated!

The current turned on and at some points it was a struggle to make it against with limited wind. The last race of the day was shortened to finish downwind at the entrance to the harbour. As with all days of hardly any wind positions changed rapidly and we went from 3rd to finish 6th on the last race. With these boats a few knots increase in wind will propel the boat quickly past a boat that didn’t get that wisp of wind.

Our results were 3, 6, 8, 5, 6 for the inshore series ending up 8th overall in the Atlantic Cup – joint 6th in the inshore portion of the event out of 14 yachts.

Meet Stephane he is the skipper of Bureau Veritas in the Atlantic Cup. I am racing on his boat for the inshore portion in Newport RI. We did 3 races today each about 12 miles per race with 14 Class 40’s on the line. Being the only French person on the boat he is having to use his brain a lot to understand what we are all talking about. I think he is enjoying being at the helm and having the rest of us put the sails up and down!

The first race of the day was in fog for portions of it we did a great job at the corners and were able to pick off some boats at some of them. We did have one problem on a leeward drop where I grabbed the belly to pull the spinnaker down and when it refilled it tore (the spinnaker has worked hard). So after racing we went to the Quantum loft and did a repair. I was all set to do the repair myself but the service manager who opened the loft up (as he had a repair to do on the sevenstar class 40 spinnaker) decided to help out so it was a team effort. Thanks Joe at Quantum!

Unfortunately without the large kite for a long downwind we had to fly the medium kite in lighter air so instead of catching on the downwinds which we had been doing on previous legs we ended up holding position. The last race of the day they shortened course at 4:45pm, it didn’t really make sense. We were disappointed as we were hoping to catch some boats on the upwind and the marina was upwind anyways so it would have been faster to have raced back then motor. There were about 5 boats all within a minute of each other.

It has been good fun to be on the bow again with code 0’s, solents, asyms all needing to go up and down on short courses. I have a great mastman who has rescued me a few times as I have been lifted off the deck when trying to douse the massive spinnakers between the two of us! My PFD saved my ribs from a good bruising when the spinnaker refilled in a douse and sent me slamming against the rig. I am sure I will be sore tomorrow morning.

So results today were 3, 6, 8. Tomorrow we have two races stay tuned!

Today we were meant to race to the Farlonnes on Rhumb Boogie but as the boat had jobs that needed doing we didn’t go out to the ocean. Instead we worked on the boat and went for a short sail in the bay to check rig tune and all the other things we had done. It was a beautiful day at Southampton with 12 knots of wind and after going upwind we turned and hoisted the kite gybing a few times before heading back in.

When I was on my way home I got a phone call from some friends asking me if had gone out as they were concerned. They knew one of the kids on the boat who set off his EPIRB. The reports started to come in about an accident at the Farlonnes. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/14/BA0O1O3H5G.DTL The accident is tragic and there are at least two people I know well who were on the boat.

While on the downer my sister in law informed me that the divemaster (Ryan) we went diving with in Bermuda on the wreck a month ago lost his life diving this week in Bermuda. Such a friendly great guy.

Getting off your couch is risky and living life to the full is rewarding so we will all continue to go sailing and diving. However, stay safe out there everyone and sometimes make the hard decision to turn around or maybe ease up a little like I did on Aconcaqua. Some things are not worth your life. There are so very many great things to look forward to doing and you need to grow old to see your kids or nieces and nephews grow up.

11:30pm update…. the guys I knew on the boat didn’t make it. Very very hard to comprehend at the moment. One of them I sailed with in the great lakes doing the mac races it was a great summer I also sailed with him a lot on the Farr 40. RIP..

This is a picture taken of the boat in the accident. It was taken on their way out the bridge by sailing photographer Peter Lyons. peterlyonsphoto.com

In less than 16 hours I will be on my flight home to San Francisco for the first time in over a year and half. Very much looking forward to it. I will have to re learn how to drive my truck and get myself set up in my new place in Mill Valley looking over the square. Looking forward to my first bay area race on the 14th April on Rhum Boogie to the Farlonnes. Today for the first time I finished a regatta and someone else took care of the boat. Hannah and Sean left the dock for Antigua a few hours ago and I get to fly directly home. The repair to the boat was complete but it will need to be finished off in Charleston – respray of awlgrip.

Today 40 Degrees didn’t go out racing as the crew wanted a day by the pool so Hannah and I went sailing on a 63 foot racing/cruising trimeran called Paradox.

Both of us got to helm and it was a great trip around the islands effortlessly moving at 12 knots upwind. Cam Lewis the famous trimeran sailor was the navigator, there were 4 french sailors, a british guy called Sam and the owner who is from the Bay Area.

Today we blasted downwind with the A3 back to Nanny Cay from Virgin Gorda. We unfortunately had an incident on the start and by the time we were back racing we were a ways behind so decided to go conservative with the A3 instead of flying the A3 in 20 knots gusting higher. A beautiful day on the water followed by some boat work so we can be on the water racing tomorrow for the start of the BVI regattta proper. Only 3 days left then I am headed home to California finally after so long away – looking forward to it.

We moved to BVI and within 5 minutes of getting to the house it was full of 16 crew while Hannah and I made salmon, couscous and grilled veg for dinner. The forecast for the race up to virgin GordaWe was for under 5 knots of wind so I took the boat with 7 others while everyone else went by ferry. The race committee boat postponed the race as there was no wind and put up the follow me signal. At this point Neil from Acadia a friend of mine motored up and started towing us at 8 knots – much better than 4 knots under our own steam:-). We never did reach that wind so unfortunately they are having a race tomorrow to make up for it so there goes my lay day of diving. Things could be worse in paradise. Tonight and tomorrow I am off dinner duties as we are going out at Bitter ENd YC and Leverick. Yippee.

For this regatta we are racing under a different rating so we can’t use our code 0 which means of course that we will wAnt it!

Finished racing at St Thomas and now we are moving to the British Virgin Islands tomorrow. We will load 10 onto the boat and 7 will take the ferry over to Tortola. We will move into our houses over there and then on tuesday there is a passage race up to Virgin Gorda. We spend a day in Virgin Gorda where I hope to go diving with some of the guys before a race back. The regatta website is http://www.bvispringregatta.org/bvi/.

David who I raced with to Hawaii came in to day so I am looking forward to him coming aboard. Hannah (40 degrees boat captain) and myself are exhausted and the crew is out partying so we are attempting to sleep with the music blasting out from the yacht club. It has been a hard few days racing the boat around short courses and my tan lines are interesting to behold! I believe I might get the rudolph award with my bright red nose 🙂

My friend from the bay area Michelle will be at BVI so it will be great fun to catch up with her after such a long time away.

Have a great week