Pacific Cup Day 8 – Waves – Friend or Foe?

It’s been all about the waves. Today we had a bit of everything. I screamed obscenities at the waves, I loved the waves. We had the A4 up in 25 knots doing steady 10-11’s with long surfs up to 15, but couldn’t fly a spinnaker in 20 knots earlier because of the waves. Spadefoot seems to have a love, hate relationship with the waves as well. Do to a variety of reasons certain waves will easily roll Spadefoot and spin the boat out. We’ve probably wiped out 10 times requiring complete release of the spinnaker sheets and blowing the main to recover. We’ve tried every combination of sails too, chasing an ever changing environment of wind and waves. I think we have made at least 17 headsail changes and close to 10 times we’ve put the reef in our out of main. We’ve really been trying hard, but sometimes nothing seems to work. As it is, the last two nights we’ve sailed with just a #4 jib and a reefed main. It was the only combination we could find that we could steer. Somewhat differently, tonight we have a #4 and full main up, but the winds are stronger (20-25) and the waves better such that we are doing 8-10 knots with lots of higher surfs into the teens. It not really a slow set up at the moment and quite easy to drive.

Since leave San Francisco we have not seen less than 10 knots of wind and have seen less than 15 for maybe 30 minutes in total.. Mostly the wind blows 15-20 for a few hours then 20-25 for a few hours, then back. 15 knots is pretty tame for Spadefoot. 25 knots is full on, Down below the water rushing past the boat is deafening, but you get used to it.

The Fat Boy bean bag we aquired has been magical. It is right in the middle of the boat down below and the only place we’ve slept . We sleep in full foulies, bootts, and harness. Usually our harness tether is still clipped outside as it not very far and it is one less thing to do if we need to hop to save the driver from a wipe out.

We’ve seen only 1 ship and no other sailboats since the first day.

I just fell asleep while typing this. I’m not going to proof read it before sending. I suspect it has some nonsensical stuff up there. That’s the reality out here.

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