Osaka Cup-news from aboard Turbulence.

Good Morning, At the moment we are travelling along quite comfortably at about 5 knots SOG and have been for the last hour or so which is probably the best weve acheived in last couple of days! Been very depressing the last few days for us both being lucky to do 40 miles a 12hr block and watching our freinds on Escapade clocking through the miles like a steam train just adds to the hurt but we are happy for Rob and Joey and we havent given up on a miracle Stephen Bradbury performance for Turbulence! Weve had heaps of rain squalls most with no more then 20knots breeze and a fair bit of rain which is good because it gives us a chance to shower only problem is when some Dickhead (ME) decides that we will leave the masthead kite up through one squall that hits over 30 knots and the kite breaks down both side of tape ( mind you the boat was sitting on 20 knots comfortably )top to bottom we are now no masthead kite for rest of trip! We actually believe we can fix it and i can just see the look on Dougies face from Seaport sails when hes going to have to fix our repair job when we return priceless! The cryovac meals are starting to taste 100 times better and our only major food dilema is that we are a day or two away from having no sugar left! To say that we are enjoying this at the moment would be an absolute lie on both our accounts and anybody who enjoys sitting in no breeze for most of trip going nowhere in a hurry is full of ....! Anyway all the best!

Paul
Turbulence

Osaka Cup- Onboard update from Southern Cross skipper Yasu this morning:

April 12th 2013
Position – 08:12 S 154:25 E. Weather – Fine. Sea – .5 m.  Wind Speed – 12 knots N-NW.  Heading – 315 @ 4.5 knots. Sails – Main Full & Jib Full. Crew – Well
Yesterday afternoon a gentle breeze from the northwest sprung up and we reached 9 degrees Sth at 15:40

Later at around 18:00 a strong squall appeared with the wind reaching 25 knots. We were suddenly doing 13 knots and so reefing the main and reducing the jib by two thirds, we were soon back to 5 knots.

Aided by the north flowing current and with the wind now around to the NW, we’re able to keep a constant speed. We really need this wind to continue.

Yasu

Osaka Cup- Update from Escapade 11/4/13

At 1800 EST this evening Escapade report her position having run 100 miles since the previous sched. good excuse for a splicing of the main brace we say, and so it was.
Meanwhile the hounds appear to have lost the scent and are sniffing around the equator trying to pick it up again ... except that is for Optimus Prime who must have the other copy of Escapade play book "travel the road less taken" and are getting a good run out wide.
Thats all for now, we leave you with Escapade thundering through the Caroline islands at 9+ Kt having cracked off 20 degrees to duck an atoll up ahead. We've checked two charts and an admiralty pilot book to make sure this one is where we think it is!........

And a good place to point it too given some of the smells coming from other directions!
0300 Thurs 11/4
something has definitely died up in the starboard quarter berth, be it an errant flying fish (we regularly find dead ones on the deck each morning although not fresh enough to eat), Andy (has been missing again for a few days), Joey's socks, a dozen eggs, or whatever, oh boy is it high up there. The other one is the atolls we are starting to pass, unfortunately all at night so far. The first one we decided to give a wide berth to leeward as it was pitch dark and chart disagreed with the chart plotter by about a mile on the location. No problem locating it in the dark however, you could still smell the bird droppings from 5 miles!
nothing much to repot today just the usual life aboard. Dragged the main down through the centre hatch at 10 pm last night to repair the damage done when a stronger than usual squall came through. The squalls usually cause an increase in wind speed of 5 - 8 knots, this one was more like 12 - 20 increase. I know it got to 35kt because that is when the high wind alarm goes off, which it did and kindly popped up a little window in the instrument I was concentrating on to tell me that there was a bit more wind about. Pity it also obscured the bit of data I was using to keep me on course.
1730 11/4
no problem, has joey has already noted we wiped out the sikaflex and sticky back repair tape and set to work. found another hole up on the boom section and fixed that in situ.Continued to hum along at 7 kt until the sikaflex set and put her back up again. by now the wind had settled into the ~20kt beam reach we were expecting and we are now reaching under @2 and 3rd reef doing around 8 kt. squalls have mainly abated and the sun has spent the day trying to peep through.
Joey went searching for the source of the smell and returned with the eggs, one of which was cracked - very carefully dispatched to neptune.
How am I? Nice of you to ask, Hot, wet, hairy and smelly (not as bad as the egg). Wet - either from the rain, the spray or the sweat, often all three.
The $20 Supa Cheap Auto fan is the most used piece of gear on board at present and we can only sleep with it pointing at us all the time.
Ciao Robert

Osaka Cup-Ode to the Equator.

'Zero Zero Zero Zero N 152 29 E' was the position at 0600 this morning from Wasabi via their mandatory email Position Report.

Well… It has taken us 19 days to make the EQ.

The crossing was not as you would have imagined, no red line across the ocean, no dancing girls, no fireworks. After a night of getting smacked by one rain squall after another and a visit by a fishing trawler (came within 900m in the middle of nowhere) we were drifting along at only a couple of knts.

Our chart plotter calculated that we had 644 hrs to run, I.e. 26 more days, I hope OP’s tracking numbers are more accurate.

Yesh we cracked the “fizzy wine” and toasted all who needed and deserved toasting, drank a little and back to managing the stalled boat. Sorry no dress up on this boat…

All else on board is in good condition, crew fit and surprisingly healthy. The seal is still intact on the “room” for those of you who know.

Now bow down and off to the next mark of Guam.
Bruce

And news from Optimus Prime on their crossing last night.
"And we're in the Northern Hemisphere, crossing at 160 17E @ 21:21... The Champagne has been cracked with an offering to King Neptune, a blessing of the boat and of course, a few bubbles for ourselves! RC has asked for a story of our crossing, instead I wrote a poem.

We've crossed the equator under a dark nights sky
Like Slim Shady said, we go round the outside

Guess who's back? Did you think we were through?
To the hounds of the West, we're gunning for you!
And still, there's another, out the front runnin'
Fear not, little Escapade, there's a freight train comin'

There's no second prize, we came for the win
Be first to Osaka, the first boat to pull in
It may be a pipe dream, it does seem so
Cause over our shoulder comes a rampaging Gusto

With many miles to go it's far from done
On our voyage to the land of the Rising Sun
North West to the Far East, across the Pacific
If I dont say so myself, this poem is horrific...

But for now we toast to the king of the sea
Raise your glass for King Neptune and may the force with us be
TT