The moon, the stars and the squalls

Date: Friday, July 19th
Lat: 22 50 North
Lon: 155 49 West
Course over ground: 232 degrees magnetic
Speed over ground: 13 knots

After a long night jibing, the sleepless Jeff will pour as much Tabasco in your breakfast as you want

Last night was pretty much postcard perfect with the moon coming in and out of squall clouds, the big sky and the big start, 20-knot winds and nice waves. We were on 300-mile lay line coming from the north. We worked hard all night with lots of sail changes. We went back and forth between spinnaker and jib top reaching going through the whole inventory of spinnakers as the angles got tighter. The jib top is exceptionally fast and flexible when tight reaching and Pegasus 77 was nicely planing and skipping waves, all very impressive.

Squall-busting at sunset – In the front of the squall there is lots of wind, but in the back it is very light

Where are we in the race?

As I write this report, we are 150 miles from the finish and we expect Zephyrus to finish about 8 hours ahead of us with Mari-Cha 5 hours ahead of us. At this pace, we should do well in corrected time. The whole team is very pleased and excited about our performance. Our goals were to get to Honolulu within less than 12 hours of Zephyrus and we think that we can pull this one off! There is still quite a bit of great sailing in front of us. Our goals seem within reach! Fly Pegasus fly!!!

Rudi,sleeping real hard before the very final stretch

100 miles to go!

This is the final 100 miles. We are about 7 hours out, maybe less, maybe more depending on the conditions. We’re stoked. Half of the team is napping for a couple of hours to recover from a very intense night. We made 8 sail-spinnaker changes in 7 hours. And on a boat of the size of Pegasus 77, in the pitch black night, that is a huge effort.

The last 100 nautical miles, 22 30 north, 156 21 west

The finish line is right by the Kaneohe Bay yacht club, one of the two nicest spots in the islands. (The other one being the Waikiki yacht club). We just had the 49er worlds in Kaneohe Bay. Of course the bay is not deep enough to sail Pegasus 77 directly to the dock, so we need to follow the channel that has been cut in the bay’s coral. Fortunately, we sail Finns and Melges 24s in the bay, so we’re pretty familiar. We know that there will be huge plates of fresh sushi and sliced chilled mangoes waiting for us. That makes us work even harder.

Aloha Pegasus!

The Results:

In corrected time, Pegasus 77 easily scored a clear victory over both Zephyrus 86 and Mari-Cha 147. In fact once all was said and done, Pegasus 77’s elapsed time was only 4 hours longer than Mari-Cha 147 and 7 hours longer than Zephyrus 86. That’s an amazing result given the size differentials between the boats. Pacifc Cup 2002, was a great success and the best preparation for Transpac 2003 where we will be racing evenly matched competitors.

Pegasus 77 can smell the barn!

Pushing real hard in the final stretch.