This is just in from Captain Pete and crew on Passepartout - they are 358 miles from Maui, but the wind is light. If you want to track their progess and that of the rest of the fleet you can use this link. Read on...

The wind was great for most of the last day - 15 to 22 kts behind us so we could carry our largest spinnaker. We coverd quite a bit of distance - 358 miles to finish. But, the wind turned very light at the beginning of the last watch (0200 Hawaii Time). Our progress since than has been terrible. The weather charts show 10 kts or less for 1000 miles North and East of Hawaii lasting at least for the next 4 days. If the charts prove correct we might not finish at all. The race times out at midnight on July 10.

We have had a lure out for most of the trip and we say Mahi Mahi jump last night but we have not caught anyhting. We are prepared with wasabi and saki just in case.

The food is getting down to basics but marlene manged to dish up eggs, cheese, potatoes and bacon all scrambled together for breakfast today. Marlene is still doing an amazing job considering what she has to work with. We are on our last roll of paper towels. There is still plenty of rum and wine. We are keeping the water full with only one pump but we have to run it very often. We are having trouble keeping the refrigerator as cold as we would like but the freezer is staying very cold. We could have brought ice cream and still be eating it today. It looks like the refrigerator top (the door) will get new weather stripping in Maui.

The crew is getting along great. We now know enough about each other to make much more clever jokes than earlier in the trip.

The only depressing part is the lack of any wind. Since the dead zone surrounds Maui there is no navigating that will fix the problem.

Pete & Crew

We just received this update from Passepartout and thought we would pass it along...

We made lousy progress on day 13. The wind was a little stronger than it had been but still very light. Turicum and Seeker both gained on us. The three days of light wind have dashed our hopes of beating Strum on corrected time and have made our chances of beating Turicum on corrected time pretty dim. It also gives Seeker a real chance to beat us on corrected time. That is all pretty depressing for us.

But, the wind has picked up smartly (13 to 15 Kts) and we are on a very nice spinnaker run. It looks like we will be able to hold this course almost to the finish. 589 miles to go as of this writing. The crew is getting along well - there is quite a bit of laughing and not very much arguing. That Spanish red I entioned last night is especailly good. We are working on a case of that. It hs pretty much turned the entire crew into wine drinkers.

We have used the spinnkaer so little on this race that we forgot we had a spinnaker net. After the second wrap (1 to 1-1/2 hours and a lot of hard work to unwrap the spionnaker each time) we remebered the net. It has saved us from a third wrap already.

As I write this the crew on deck is reminising about the gale. They now can say they were on the foredeck in a 44kt gale (That is actually just about to become a storm). It is great to have bragging rights. I don't think anyone wants to repeat the experience though.

We just turned the boiler on for the first time since the "Fix It" operation. It works! Thanks Fred for the email help. Right now it is 75 on deck and sunny (6:35PM Hawaii time) and 84 down below. For us northwesterners who think 65 is warm a shower sounds pretty good.

Pete & Crew

For those of you that have been following Passepartout - here is a report just in from Pete approximately 690 miles from Maui --

It is the 4th of July, one of my favorite holidays and the 13th day of the race. We have no fireworks aboard and limited our celebration to an extra bottle of wine - a 2005 Almansa from Compass wines. I have not had this before. Doug assured me I would like it. He was right. It is a very heavy Spanish wine. The rest of the crew seems to agree.

Things have improved a little today. I got the bilge pump fixed. It was the easiest and the most important thing to fix so I tackled that first. The duck bill valves were worn out. A simple replacement did the job. This afternoon I tackled the boiler. Access is extremely difficult. It is located just forward of the transmom and aft of the aft cabin - just above the steering quadrant. It is difficult to get close to the unit with my body and it is difficult to see anyhting becaue then my eyes are so close to the screws I am trying to turn. I got Kris to help. He is younger and stronger. Now the unit fires and cycles as it is suppopsed to. We arejust short circuited a number of control sensors to get it to start the first time. Now it seems to run with no short circuiting required. Maybe fuel built up in the boiler because of heel or speed. When we go fast we build up quite a substantial stern wave which covers the boiler exhaust. Maybe that prevented it form firing and the sensors were sensing the extra fuel and preventing it from firing. We will see how that goes in the future. After all, we all want to look presentable for the dock party in Lahaina so we all need our hot showers.

Our competative situation has changed dramatically for the worse in the last two days. Strum found 20 kts of wind and expected to finish by now. They owe us 4 days and 9 hours so we must finish in 4 days and 9 hours or they will take first overall. We have 687 miles to the finish. Is it doable? It is possible but it will not be easy. We need to be on our speed every minute and we need lucky wind.

Turicum is a worse problem. They are in our class. They owe us 17 -1/2 hrs. As of the roll call this morning they were 120 miles closer to Lahaina than we were. That puts them about 18 hours ahead of us. If we can't beat Strum and we can't close that gap we miss first overall and first in our class. In other words we get feathers for dinner instead of chicken.

This morning we put up the symetrical spinnaker and changed to a course of 230M. We have been able to maintain about 5 kts all day. That is a big improvement from yesterday. Our optimum course to Maui is 219M so we are westing. Turicum is west of us and has been reporting much better wind (and eating our lunch in distance made good). The weather charts do not show the difference but the pattern of highs makes the difference believable. As of 2300 PDT (0600 UTC 5 July) We changed the light wind spinnaker sheets for the heavy wind sheets (3/18"Samson Vectran for 7/16" Samson Warp Speed). We now have 13 kts behind us and we are making 6.2 SOG.

Today was a much better day than yesterday but we have far to go and a very uncertain outcome.

Thank you for all the encouraging emails. We needed them after yesterday.

Pete & Crew

Speaking from experience, one of the biggest fears of every mariner is an onboard fire. Given that, how would you feel if your cargo was a load of fireworks?

Here is the MV Hanjim Pennsylvania on route to Hamburg from Singapore when a fire started below decks and spread to the cargo containers...

Quite a show, but not a good time!

For those of you that are interested, we will be having a no-host 4th of July raft up in Fidalgo Bay to watch the fireworks starting around 8:00 to 8:30pm. The tide will be in so we should be able to safely anchor close to the firing line.

The first one there gets to pick the spot...

The current weather report for the 4th is as follows - A 30 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 67. South southeast wind 6 to 10 mph becoming west northwest - not perfect, but we will take what we can get. Hopefully it will be better than the being out in the storm we had last night!

Hope to see you there...

This report just came in from the intrepid Passepartout and Captain Pete from somewhere in the Pacific halfway between here and Hawaii -

We had our 1/2 way party at noon today. Andy, what a great box. I recognize many of the faces but I wish I knew more of the bodies! The music is great - especially "I'm not trash but I 'm not first class." It fits our American values.

It is 1072 miles to the finish line. We have 18 kts of wind on the starboard beam and we are doing 8 kts SOG. We have 9 days and 12 hours before the race times out. The high west of Maui could move east in the next few days and surround Hwaii with the same wind Strum is experiencing right now (none). If that happens it is possible that no boats will finish. What a terrible ending to a great race that would be.

I just plotted the latest positon reports (day 10). It is obvious that we cannot take any competitor lightly. Seeker is still the big threat but Turicum is trying to do us like we are trying to do Seeker. We need every 1/10th of a knot we can get.

The seas are down to 2-1/2 meters. That is a blessing.

Pete & Crew

The final tally is in and AYC is up just over 2,000.00 from Windermere Regatta proceeds! Thanks to all that made it possible, from Chef Dave Thomson and his crew on the beach to PRO Commodore and all around get it done guy Chuck Tidrington on the water. Please patronize our sponsors Windermere, North Harbor Diesel, Cap Sante Marine, Skyline Marina, and Granvilles. Also Ten Spoon wine is available locally through Compass Wines. This was probably our best ever, great wind, parties, and only one protest! Congratulations to all the winners especially our very own Steve Orsini and crew, wish them luck @ Gran Prix!!!!

It has been brought to our attention that we have not one but TWO (2) AYC boats participating in the 2008 Victoria-Maui Yacht Race. In addition to Passepartout, Seeker captained by Ken Greff is participating as well. Our deepest apologies!

If you haven't been following the race, here is a picture of their current positions (Passepartout in the top track and Seeker in the lower one) - with both being approximately 1700 miles from the finish.



If you want to track their progess and that of the rest of the fleet you can use this link. Stay tuned!

The tide will be in and the fireworks will be great! Come join a no-host raft-up Friday evening, July 4th off Anacortes Marina in Fidalgo Bay outside of the control area. Plan on meeting around 8:00pm, although if you arrive earlier you get to pick the spot!

We will be monitoring VHF channel 72 in case you get lost! If you have been following the news, this may very well be the last big show in Anacortes due to the difficulties associated with large fireworks into the country...

See you there...

In case you don't listen to the news, the schooner Adventuress (133-foot historic sailboat) ran aground at about noon in Wasp Passage between Orcas and Shaw Islands in the San Juan Islands while sailing on a school trip. This unfortunate mishap was reported on CNN, Kiro 7, Seattle Times - just about everywhere (must be a slow news day).

The Adventuress was scheduled to participate in the Victoria, B.C., Tall Ships festival Thursday through Sunday and the Tacoma Tall Ships Festival July 3-7, where it would also celebrate its 95th birthday.

Vessel Assist was able to free the vessel a couple of hours later on a rising tide. It then motored under its own power to Friday Harbor for inspection.