This page provides photos, e-mails, and other information describing most Brown Sugar's voyage during the 2005 Transpacific Yacht Race. The BS crew began the race in Los Angeles on July 11and headed for Honolulu. Here is how the race unfolded:

Tuesday, July 12

We are glad to announce that Michael Cummins, a family friend of BS crewmate Paul Erickson, has created an excellent blog site for Brown Sugar. His site includes some cool maps pinpointing the location of Brown Sugar and its competitors out there in the Pacific. We applaud Michael for his dedication to Paul and the Brown Sugar crew. Here is Michael's first blog entry for July 12. Thanks Michael!

First Email Messages from Brown Sugar!

The haggard crew of Brown Sugar found time on July 12 to transmit their first e-mail messages via their satellite phone. These messages, among others, appear below exactly as we received them.

From Russ Turk to his wife Jodee on 7/12/2005 at 11:20:38 AM Pacific Standard Time:

Just wanted to say hello. We passed Santa Barbara island at 8:30 this morning. At roll call I was able to write down every racers lat/lon. We all are pretty close (probably a ten mile radius). Looks like a duck pond out here. We judt passed Illusion at sb island and are side by side with Ralphie. and able to talk to one another. I will check email this afternoon around 3 pm. perhaps the crew will compose a letter. I just needed to download some wx. so i figured while i have the phone setup and it is calm, i would check for mail.

Wednesday, July 13

Click here to view Michael Cummins' blog page and map showing Brown Sugar's position in the Transpac Race as of the morning of July 13.

Thursday, July 14

Click here to view Michael Cummins' blog page and map showing Brown Sugar's position in the Transpac Race as of the morning of July 14.

From Russ Turk to his wife Jodee on Thu 7/14/2005 12:52 PM:

All is well. we are in first place for div v and 6th for the fleet. this will be the first email or chance to get the computer out. the weather has been a little too rough for attempting. we are all tired and wet. we will decide today whether to crack off to cover the fleet. Afterthat it should be a little flatter and i can type and think better. do not worry about emailing me the position for now. ihsve been recoring them and mannually logging the info. thats all for now. Russ

From Steve Brown to his wife Jennifer on Thu 7/14/2005 1:15 PM:

Hi Jennifer, it's going well, Windy and wet. Only a moderate amout of seasickness. 'We have been able to hold the high line, which will make us look good early, the proof will come later.

love you Brownie

Friday, July 15

Click here to view Michael Cummins' blog page and map showing Brown Sugar's position in the Transpac Race as of the morning of July 15.

Friday, July 15

Click here to view Michael Cummins' blog page and map showing Brown Sugar's position in the Transpac Race as of the morning of July 15.

From Russ Turk on 7/15/2005 at 2:12:27 PM PST:

Hi Babe: Ignore the earlier email regarding the server. it seems to be working now. I will try and do the group thing later. I need to get some sleep. We are going for the trophy cannot let the Cal 40's get there first hahaha. we plan on staying with the great circle route. looks to be paying off. just a difficult point of sail too dark out and big following seas. we should shine when the running leg comes sunday? love you Russ

From Paul Erickson to his wife on 7/15/2005 8:02:44 PM Pacific Standard Time

Dear Wife, Day 4 and more of the same. CONSTANT heading, wind speed complet overcast day and night etc. We lost some ground to the Cal 40s yesterday but these are better conditions for them. We're ALL anticipating shifting winds, warmer weather and a change of pace SOON we hope but it looks like we have to wait and sail another 24 hrs. this way. Too much food available including the melting ice cream that we had to throw out today and to top it off it looks like we're going to run out of cooking gas at this rate. Fortunately most of the meals are already precooked except the steaks which we are going to do on the BBQ. I'll have tartare before I give it to the fish.

Really a good crew and things are working out for the best with only minor glitches. I'm really looking forward to getting this bitch sailoing on her lines and sailing fast down wind and putting a lot of distance on the Cal 40s and Sensation who started today. We havent been good of keeping everyone informed so pass along the news. Ok to send us short emails. Love, Paul E.

From Russ Turk to his wife Jodee on Fri 7/15/2005 12:11 PM

Everything is going rather well. We are in first for Div V and 6th overall. WE lost a little ground last night. Fluky wind, overcast ,no moon and following seas made it difficult to stay dialed in for speed. We are happy for now withour position with respect to the predicted weather. WE will all be happy toget the spinaker out and show everyone what Brown Sugar can do on the run. Spirits are up despite the lack of quality sleep. A shower saturday will be the highlight. we are all looking forward to our Steak dinner on the grill or the oven if it still too rough. Winds are blowing 18-22 knots from 355 degrees seas 6-9 feet. we havve travelled 600 miles so far and have about 1650 miles to go. The hard parts just about over. soon we shall be surfing into the tradewinds at 80 degrees water and air. Thats all or now

Sent From Russ on Fri 7/15/2005 12:56 PM

I hear you got some great pix and the website. We all look forward to checking them out. Aloha!

Saturday, July 16

Click here to view Michael Cummins' blog page showing Brown Sugar's position in the Transpac Race as of the morning of July 16.

Progress report from the crew sent Sat 7/16/2005 4:08 PM:

Sorry not much of an update but here it goes: No one has slept more than 2 hours driving in the dark with no moon was intense! Changed tactic to cover the fleet to the south and try and avoid a predicted hole directly in front of us about 250 mile away. Not so gnarly now! wind is blowing 17 knots and deep behind us. The air is warm p . we cleaned up the boat and re-organized the mess. fire drill after fire drill has left the place a disaster. not to mention tossing things around when we roundup.

Shower water is warming on the deck in the sun shower now that the waterfaucets are working. we think tomorrow will be our half way dinner if it is smooth enough. Running low on cng so we are economizing.now! lots of food-not much time to eat. We all will be a few pounds lighter and a few bruises darker with spotted boat bites. Just passed B'quest in our dive to the south and saw Odessey? in front of us both staying their course to the finish. Pretty closes for 800 miles of racing.

This crew update was sent by Paul Erickson on July 16

Well sports fans this isn't the Tour De France but its about just as long time wise and distance. Check out www.transpacificyc.org to check out the race and see how we're doing on Brown Sugar. The first 5 days were on the wind until 2am today when we could put up the 1st of our 7 spinakers in inventory. Haven't seen the sky once day or night yet. Everything getting sorted out and we're sailing more like a well oiled machine each day. Try to keep you updated if this works as we progress. PS: Our friend Cecil Rossi on Oddesay is on our nose a couple of miles ahead. We're the little boat (37') going after the BIG guy (58') It's FUN!!!

From Rick Brizendine to his wife Shannon sent 16 Jul 2005 15:19:40-0700 Subject: Day Warm

Howdy: You may have written but we have not yet downloaded so I apologize for not being responsive if you have. I title this "Day Warm" because it is the first warm day we have had--yet still no sun. It gave us a chance to clean the boat from stem to stern, you can imagine how 6 guys working on a 24 hour schedule for 5 days can create a mess. Add to that the degree the boat heels over back and forth again and again (are you burping yet?) and there was everything everywhere. Durant and I have been sharing watches, the 7-10 pm and 4-7 am. Dusty & Steve have had 1-4 and Russ and Paul 10-1am. During the day we all just rotate. We are so goofy it is really a crackup.

Last night we were able to fly a spinaker for the first time. That is the goal from the start so it is a big milestone for us. Steve decided at 1am and every sail change is "all hands on deck". We raised it at about 2 and it wasn't exactly time yet so it was a wild ride. We all ended up with about 2 hours of sleep last night. Right now, 3pm, Russ and Paul are top side, Dusty, Bill and Steve are sleeping and I will too after I send this. We are now in 2nd place in our division and 8th overall.

Somehow 2 boats that started yesterday are in front of us--its just math. We are in the controlling position on the course and there are only 2 boats in front of us so we are still in great shape--only 1,415 miles to go. The second half will likely go faster than the first half--if the wind does what is supposed to do. I am going to try to call you tomorrow on your cell phone, probably around 9am. Miss you and love you all! PS: Will you sign us up for the good parties please--word is they are selling out. I don't need to go to all but I do want to go to all of the good ones. TTFN

Sunday, July 17

Click here to view Michael Cummins' blog page and map showing Brown Sugar's position in the Transpac Race as of the morning of July 17.

Sent from Steve Brown to his wife Jennifer on Sun 7/17/2005 3:29 PM:

Hello Honey: I can't believe we have been out for a week. and still are not half way. The early part of the race was unreal, I knew it would be hard but this was beyond my expectations. It went from three to five knots of wind to thirty to thirty five and stayed for two days, we sluged it out and looked good in the standings, we have now changed our set up for later down the course and are diveing low to stay away from the Pacific hi presure system, many of our compettors have taken the hi road and are looking better in the daly roll call. This is tough to take after hanging for so long. We are hopeful that we will prevail at the finish, another thousand miles beyond. Love you, Brownie

Sent From Russ to his wife Jodee on Mon 7/17/2005 at 3:38 PM:

W e had to make a radical change in our game plan. looks like all the good wind will be way to the south. We are diving deep and it was very expensive slow and difficult to steer. However, the wind angles are great for us now making good speed and the vmg is alright. hopefully we will cash in and not be followed for a day. Ralphie was pretty smart early and may have the shooting match. we plan on an intercept move for friday. Illusion appears to be doing the same. those to the north are taking a big risk by not dropping into the better wind velocity and direction. Perhaps the Hobie 33 can hang in the light wind but it would have been death for us. Wishing we were smarter three days ago.

Showers were the order of the day. After almost aweek it is amazing how a bucket of salt water and soap can make you feel especially withe fresh water rinse. The watermaker is working well so we have showered through most of it. We will charge bateries every day and make water. Lots of food and beer left. Ithink we may have to crack into the second twelve pack tonight and celebrate a thousand mile. (preety low beer consumption for 5 guys and six days). I doubt we will be so miserly now that thing are quite comfortable. I think by wednesday our arrival date may be fairly accurate. Today I went up to the top of the mast to inspect the mast and rigging. Everything looks great. The view was awesome. I could see for miles and not one boat anywhere. I took pictures of the crew from up top and they of me looking up. No fish so far. but we have not tried much in the good areas. Should be much better within 400 miles of Hawaii. Love Russ

From Paul to his wife on 7/17/2005 5:03:57 PM PST:

Running out of gas - for cooking - about 4 days left so the motivation is on with a little renewed energy as well. Working the boat is tough in these conditions -sloppy swells 4-10', wind 14-18 kts. Sailed into a shit hole of a high last night it was hard to drive in the total blackness for more than 1/2 hr at a whack. This is worse than any IFR flying with EVERYTHING constantly changing. Can't depend on the instruments since they veer every which way. This includes the Windex atop the mast, the electronic digital readouts at the mast and in the cockpit, GPS, fuzz on ears etc. all moving at different rates in different directions while the swells push you around like a ping ping ball in a big dark blue pool all with a bag over your head since its in total darkness. Weather warm but in 7 days we have not seen the sun, moon or stars. We trust they're still out there somewhere.

At 3 am we made a big tactical decision to gybe to port for the 1st time and change to our lighter weight spinnaker to reach out of light winds. We should have done it a lot sooner but got greedy. Back into the hunt today now that that we're pissed off. I've been on the computer looking at weather until my eyes get blurry. Wow! What technology being able to sit here using an Iridium phone downloading current and projected wx and communicating with all of you. Thanks to our son Nedko, Dee Smith, Mark Rudiger and Andy MacDonald for the help in getting us started in the right direction.

Just changing to our asymmetrical spinnaker and take another gybe. We're hunting down our good friends Don Jessberg and Randy Ferguson on Ralphie who today moved into the lead in their class. After lunch it's up the mast time again to check for wear, chafe, loose parts and general condition. We send the 17 yr old, Dustin, up. They don't want to haul up an old Orca like me. Dustin and his father are the stars today. What an experience to see a father and son team sharing such an adventure and enjoying each other and being BIG contributors to the sailing. Dustin is the best and most enjoyable young man I've sailed with since Hogan Beatie who by the way starts today on Roy Disney's 86' Pyewacket trying for another record passage to Honolulu.

Val, have a GREAT flight to Hawaii tomorrow and don't get into too much trouble with Carlee and Bobby. I can't wait to see you SOON!!! Regards to all, Paul E. - 6 days to go? - About the same time it will take Hogan in total! Imagine us both surfing down the Molikai Channel together towards the finish lineside by side even though we had a 6 day head start.

Monday, July 18

Sent From Russ on Mon 7/18/2005 at 2:45:47 PM PST. Subject: Summary of 7/17's standings from Alaska Eagle (The Transpac Communication Vessel):

Sounds like you did the right thing diving south. Div I & II start was great! Unfortunately, they have the best wind of all 3 starts. We were racing the MaxZ's at 15 knots out of the gate in a power boat. J

7/17 (from Alaska Eagle) Commanders weather forecast was correct, the weather has gone to hell in a handbasket. Boat speeds are down significantly with only a handfull of boats covering more than 200 miles in 24 hours. Ralphie is the furthest south and clearly read the tea leaves. She has jumped into 1st in class and 2nd overall. Interesting that 3 of her stablemates are back in the hunt holding 4th,6th & 7th positions. Kahoots continues to be the overall leader in class and fleet followed by Ralphie in the Cal 40 fleet and Innocent Merriment in Division 3. The sun continues to elude us but hope springs eternal. We have passed the half way point but cannot smell the pineapples yet. For the moment we're listening to old Hawaiian music as a solace. No fish yet. The big boys start today at 1300. I'm sure they're all raring to go. We should hear their thundering hooves by tomorrow. Stay tuned, GB aboard Alaska Eagle.

Good morning: just got off my shift (4-7am). I think I got about two hours of sleep last night. When I finisheed up my 7-10pm shift last night, I realized that I still was trolling a jig. I thought there was a little more drag than usual. That was the easiest 25# dorado (mahi mahi) I ever caught. What a beautiful fish. She was just surfing along with us doing about ten knots. Paul steered while Steve, Dustin and filleted the fish on the deck. quite the challenge at any speed. The new knives worked great!

Sailing speeds fell off during the middle of the night. Perhaps we did not dive deep enough soon enough to avoid the trough. We were forced to jibe for a more favorable south heading. More damage toour velocity made good to the finish. Roll call is in a half hour so I must get prepared. Hopefully the position report looks decent for us and the folks to the north got hammered worst than us. Russ

Tuesday, July 19

Team update sent Tue 7/19/2005 at 2:21 PM

We have just passed the halfway mark (1125 nautical miles left). We opted to celebrate the occasion with fresh caught mahi mahi on the barbeque. What an experience surfing down wave doing 10 knots and cooking on a gas grill. Rick made fresh hand made cole slaw and rice. It was so good we decided to cook the rest of the fish. There are a lot more we that one came from! If weather conditions permit we will have Ribeye staeks on the grill for brunch. It is really amazing how much food we have left. We all lost five pounds the first half and will probably put it on in the last half. We passed about a mile or so in front of Incredible early todayand have left them in our wake. As always, we are awaiting our 8;00 am roll call to hear where everyone else is and our position in our class and fleet.

The weather looks decent between here and Diamond head. We have been hoping the trades will pipe up into the 20-30 knot range. Small weather cells have given us some 23-26 knot blast and the boat comes alive; driving along at 10-12 knots easily. The sunshone through today for the first time since we started. Its about 80 degrees and gorgeous. I took my first celestial sighting today. We are position into our slot now for last half of the race. Weather condition look good and we feel good about our big dive to the south. Thanks for everyone support and emails. We will try to give more updates now that things are settling a bit.

From Paul on 7/19/2005 at 4:01:57 PM PST:

Yesterday we passed the point of no return or the 1/2 way point. We thought we had an excellent day in that we sailed a pretty direct course and never ran out of wind or speed. We were a bit disappointed today to learn that we did only 175 miles to Morning Glory's 396 a new Transpac 24 hr run record. Hell they can water ski behind that bitch at those speeds. Our good friend, Morgan Larson, is a watch captain aboard MG racing against his best bud Hogan on Pyewacket, Disney's sistership to MG. Go boys!

Last night we had our 1/2 way dinner which was to be steaks which we just had today for lunch hot off the BBQ. Instead we BBQed the Dorado - 45-50 lb - (its getting bigger each day) we caught the night before complete with MAID service thanks to Val. Best meal yet thanks to Rick and Russ.

Last night we were great night fighters getting Dustin, our 17 yr old on the helm to keep us going. He's the BEST helmsman in these conditions staying focused. Hell he probably doesn't have to worry about much at this stage in his life. When he's not steering or doing the foredeck he goes into eat and sleep mode something like eat, sleep, sail, eat, sleep, eat while sailing, sleep, eat ... you get the idea. When one of us mere mortals gets behind the performance there is always father Bill to kick our sore butts into gear and get us going again. Rick is doing a great job in the galley and driving dept and Steve is our fearless leader and cheerleader when not sleeping on the low (bad) side. A little jab there.

Russ is our utility man --navigating, fishing , cooking, driving, communications officer. Boy did he almost F___K up last night. We have to give mandatory position reports 2Xs/day or be penalized 30 min for each missed report. We were having such a good time last night we missed our 1715 report. I reminded Russ who jumped to the radio to try to save the situation by calling in late at 1800. Fortunately another boat who said they had us in sight relayed in that we were trying to report in. Russ kept hailing the communication vessel Alaska Eagle with no results though we could still hear others. We began to think we had a real problem. Steve was about to put Russ on the hot BBQ when Russ figured out he was using the VHF radio mic not the SSB radio mic which by the way are identical. BIG OOPS! This will be a story that will be immortalized in the sailing community.

Yesterday we got broken clouds and a little sun only to have the clouds cover us again at night for another pitch black night. Today we have a HOT sun for those of us who haven't seen it for over a week and now clearing sky's and light to med wind. We'll have to wait and see what tonight and tomorrow bring. No sea life except a few flying fish, one which hit Bill in the head last night and gave him a start. Looks like we're crossing the finish line Sunday unless the wind picks up. That is all. Paul E

Team update sent Tue 7/19/2005 at 3:33 PM

Another beautiful day of sailing. Celebrated less than 1000 miles to go. Steaks on the BBQ rice and red wine. Smooth sailing 12-18 knots of breeze bright hot and sunny about 80 degrees. Lotrs of sunscreen going around listening to tunes and showers. We nare in the slot and hopefuly a better slot than our competition. Each day we hope to pick-off another boat in Div V.

Wednesday, July 20

Sent From Russ on 7/20/2005 at 2:42:57 PM PST

Thanks for the updates. I have been busy messing around with celestial nav stuff. I wiil calc and plot tomorrow. We have a contetst for guessing our finish time. My guess is sun 9:00 am. Todays run is looking to be our best. Hopefully we pick off Super Gnat. Time for my shift at 700pm need to put my stuff away and will try and sleep after 10. talk to you tommorow. Russ

Sent from the Brown Sugar crew on Wed 7/20/2005 at 3:53 PM:

Charlotte, You all stay tuned now you hear. Welcome to the South. These Carpetbaggers are starting to think of turning in our Yankee cards and joining the Confederacy we're so far south and here's little secret. We just looked at weather and decided to adjust our leveraged southern position and crack off a bit more to what we think is better wind relative to those north of us. Remember when we started 9 days ago we were the boat MOST north. Can't believe we've hit both corners top and bottom and surviving as well as we are. We're going for the gusto; no guts no glory at this point!

Looking at Transpac's results as of 0800 this morning we appear to be grinding down our competitors including our friends in the Cal 40's. Today we have sun and wind; what a change as it appears that we have FINALLY made it into the trades. We're now averaging 7.6 kts and heading 254' and just UNDER 800 miles now. Only 800 miles is still a way to go but seems like a walk around the block to us now.

Dirty clothes that don't have sentimental attachment are going overboard to 1) reduce stink and 2) save weight. The weight Nazi, Paul, has been pumping unnecessary water overboard taking into account our sealed emergency water and other consumable liquids available. Bill is now shifting weight around the boat to get it to slide down the waves better. He's also looking around to see if there are other consumables that might take a trip to Davey Jones Locker i.e. over 200 lbs of canned food. With the exception of our eating machine Dustin I don't think it would hurt the others to go without a a meal or 2 toward the finish. Don't worry loved ones we're keeping the light weight stand bys like mac and cheese. We won't starve.

Beginning to look like a Sunday afternoon finish. My first in day light a; a novel concept. Yesterday was steaks on the Barbee for lunch and just light cheese, crackers a salami for dinner. Russ is running out of his private stash of diet coke so he is motivating us to get to Honolulu SOON. No new marine life or boat sightings recently though the Swan, Incredible, in front of us passed an abandoned 40' boat last night and reported it to the fleet and Coast Guard The story of this boat was in Latitude 38 this month so now we know where it is.

Russ got out the ol' sextant and is making the required shots to satisfy the Transpac requirements as antiquated as they may be in this era of GPS. With the sun out and entering the trades with warmer water temps. we are now going to a combination of bucket baths supplemented with a warm FRESH water rinse from the solar shower - MOST welcome. It was a pretty ugly sight to see a grown man naked with his head in a bucket with his extremity point toward the wind Gods .Perhaps that was what it took to get us going though. Yes, we do have photographic not pornographic proof. We still enjoy maid service from our favorite doll but we are all looking forward to more familiar flesh when we arrive in Honolulu soon.

Can't believe that 800 miles to go seems like soon. If you want to get a feel for what we've done so far just think about taking 2 Suburbans and welding them together bumper to bumper which is about 37' - our length. Then heal (tilt) your new creation about 20-30 degrees on its side for 9 days and drive it from California to Chicago at about a 7mph average, non stop 24/7 - sounds like fun doesn't it? Well thats what the crew (nuts) of Brown Sugar have accomplished in the last 9 days. What price glory!

Charlotte we send our most humble regards from the Confederate South. Best regards from your most Southern of gentlemen and crew, Rhett

Thursday, July 21

Here's a map showing the progress of Brown Sugar (its the green star) and its competitors as of the morning of July 21:

From Russ on Thu 7/21/2005 at 10:07 AM

Roll call is at 8 am pdst. as we travel west each moring it is darker. By the time we get to hawaii itwill be 5am. We made good speeds all day and most of the night.right now I am waiting for the position and ratings. We are crusing along nicely in 20-23 knots of wind riding on the end of what maybe one of the last squals this morning. Lately we have about six squals a night. most are mild 20-25 knots. We have not seen more than 30knots. Need to run now time to jibe back toward the squal and toward the barn (Diamond Head). Russ

From Russ on THU 7/21/2005 10:50:36 AM PST:

Not our best jibe. need to perfect that manuvre before we get to the Molikia channel. Running low on minute on the sat-phone. so please do not send the charts. they are nice but ...I just got our position still in 3rd about an hour brhind Suiper gnat and 10 hrs behind Soap Opera. I wil lcheck emails tonight. Russ

Friday, July 22

This morning’s BS update was sent by Paul on Fri 7/22/2005 at 8:07 AM

Great last 48 hrs with the spinnakers up. Yes many spinnakers of different sizes, shapes, weights and colors; one for each condition. We haven't BLOWN up any sails YET or had any gear failures. Lots of brain farts but everything else OK. Why do we mostly change sails and gybe at night when its dark and we have to wake everyone up to do it?. Are the wind Gods against us? It this just part of our training program.

Two things have become apparent today. The more Steve talks and steers the more off course we get. Lesson :Though Mr. Brown thinks he's in his element he can't multi task by B. S. ing and driving at the same time; a major violation out here. We flip him off the helm and replace him with Dustin while only 17 can focus when it becomes too much! Second; SIX PACK ABS. Wait until you see this crew come off the boat bare chested with their new 6 pack abs. OK for some of us it will look more like and empty Diet Coke can but anyway it will be an improvement (of sorts).

We keep sitting on this mighty yacht rocking CONSTANTLY side to side 10- 20 degrees each way with our body's trying to compensate for the motion doing mini crunches. We all wake up for our first watch in the morning and run for the head for the Advil or aspirin bottles. This 2 week adventure will be like the longest isometric and yoga class endeavored by anyone in this crew. We're finding muscles and strains we didn't know excited - so loved ones go easy on us when we arrive!

The mileage meter just ticked under 600 nmi. (just like a sail from SF to San Diego) to go so we are anticipating a Sunday afternoon arrival if everything remains fairly constant but this is ocean racing at its best so situations change rapidly. The excitement wil be in finishing with somje of the BIG sleds that started a week after us. We've hung our collective butts in this crew to be the boat furthest to the South by analyzing the weather off the computer and daily reports so we'll wait and see if we can make further gains.

Some have asked what we do at night. Sorry to inform you that we race 24/7. No,we do not take down the sails and anchor for dinner and all go to sleep and bursh our teeth the next morning and set sail in the new day. First we'd have to anchor in about 6'000 feet of water. Anchorling requires about a minimal scope of 7-1 ratio would mean that we would really need somethoing like 42,00 feet of chain and line which would sink this boat on its own. We keep a watch system with 2 people to a watch. 3 hrs per watch which theoretically gives you off 6 hrs until you're due back in action. The way it usually works though is that just as you get to sleep they call for all hands on deck to do a sail change or to gybe and with any luck it can be both at the same time and at 3am. When off watch you cook, clean, navigate, work on weather and strategy, repack sails etc.

Sent by Steve on Fri 7/22/2005 at 8:10 AM

We eagerly awaited the morning roll call, with great expectations we listened to the grim lay of the grain, we think the two man Hobie 33 is too far to catch, the second place boat is within range by an hour on corected time. All we can do now is sail as hard as possible, we have taken the dive to the south and are praying for a little leverage on the competition. All this from 610 miles out? The weather is just not going our way at the moment, we need some wind to initiate surfing conditions, this is the only way we can make up the short fall.

The current wind is about ten knots short of surfing for us, so we try to adjust to the polar scale and produce the best VMG, Russ the navagator has just anounced that we are averaging 8 knots, and is upbeat, but he's always up. The Southerly route may still have some suprises in store for us, for now it's light in the morning and a little more in the afternoon, with still a bunch of miles to go. light a candle for us, speak to a priest possibly. We do believe this route does have more wind than the boats to the North have, who knows, maybe the light stuff will be our savior. Capt'n Brownie

From Russ and the BS crew via Jodee Turk on Fri 7/22/2005 at 10:06 AM:

Hi Brown Sugar Fans. Just needed to let everyone know--With just 488 miles to go, Brown Sugar is a solid #2 as of 8:30 AM today! (They're almost 4 hours ahead of their closest competition on corrected time.) Sounds like those boys have been workin' hard. Go BS, GO!!!!

Message from Russ: I hope they had as little wind as we are having! Caught another Dorado today. Working completing all the neccesary paperwork and strategizing for the approach to Diamond head and the channel. Good chance we will have some schooling from some of the big boats. Chilli for dinner unless we catch something better. Last night we saw a light from a boat about 5-10 miles away. Guessing its a racer. Probably Incredible. Sky was clear with 12-15 knots DEAD down Wind. The winds is now piping up to 18-20 as I am writing. This will help so far today we are averaging 7 knots-too slow! Thats all for now. Russ

From Paul on Fri 7/22/2005 at 10:29 PM

Everythings going our way? We haven't gotten our daily results from our shoreside support gal Jodee today probably because she is out celebrating her birthday with Buster. Happy Birthday Jodee! Yesterday was what it is all about. Breeze 20kts (we wish it was more) and a great Pacific swell runing. We surged ocassionally surfing all day and most of the night. With a bit more wind and steeper swells we should be surfing in the mid teens but had to settle for a constant 10 - 12 kts in speed. Our surprisingly fastest speed so far has only been 14.4 kts.

Hell some of the big dogs behind us AVERAGE that and that's in light wind. They are really impressive when they can turn them loose. When they go full throttle they can get into the 30's. Perhaps we'll get a chance to see some of that when they come to The Big Boat series this September on SF Bay right after Nedko and Mario WIN the 470 Worlds on the Bay representing StFYC and Bulgaria. Its great to sail for Bulgaria like I did in the 2002 Star Worlds with Nedko. Most of the boats have USA, GER, AUS, NZL ...with the boat # at the top of their main but when you sail for Bulgaria I can pretty well guarantee you're the only one with BUL on your sail. Most people can't figure what BUL stands for. I just tell them its a short abbreviation because we couldn't afford to add the SHIT!

Yesterday brought not only great weather for the FIRST time but lots of marine life. There were incredible schools of flying fish. Remember Bill got hit in the head by one a couple of nights ago. They are incredibly slimy smelly critters with gross slimy scales leaving a trail behind on anything they come in contact with. Then toward sunset we had about 20 porpoises surround the boat and wouldn't leave us alone. I thought a couple of them wanted to jump into the cockpit to check us out. I don't know who enjoyed who's company the most? Sailing under a full moon with a constant breeze was exceptional though again not as productive as we had wished. We changed watches while dinning on another fine home cooked meal prepared by Pam - pot roast. Of course we had a little Cabernet to compliment it.

By the way how's the freeze dried food on Sensation boys? Missing those Bacardi and Cokes? We're having problems with our refrigeration here. It seems that it has gone into freeze mode so we just add the excess ice to our drinks! Had to rub it in but don't worry you only have 1100 miles to go to our 375. We're still saddled with our 2 Rip Van Winkles. Dustin and Steve. I think they're having a contest to see who can out sleep who!

With 375 miles to go on the GPS it's telling us that we should be ariving in a meer 53 hrs - don't count on it though. It looks like a barrage of boats should be finishing all day Sunday. Pretty exciting stuff for us to think we'll be at the finish with the likes of Genuine Risk, Morning Glory and Pyewacket. We are starting to have some communications problems so don't know how much information we'll be able to keep sending out especially after Jodee leaves for Honolulu Sunday but we'll keep trying. We're headed directly for the Molokai Lighthouse at 9 kts now - hope it holds! This ain't no Oklahoma

From Russ on Fri 7/22/2005 10:31 PM

Winds are a little light 14 knots. this is much harder to deal with than more wind. We actually sail best in 20-26 knots. The weather forecast looks light most of the morning and may not get over 20 before we finish. Soap Opera is going to be very difficult to catch. The boat is probable 1/2 the weight of us. WE hope they are getting tired. We are trying to sqeeeze every bit of boat speed we can. The Cal 40s are on our list! need to correct out on them