Tony Chapman (Neil's Chapman's cousin) is currently sailing the Transpac to Hawaii aboard Pipe Dream, a CF 37, he sends this special report for Boatshed.

We have now been sailing a steady 7 to 8 knots on a heading of 240 degrees for what seems forever, but really has been about 72 hours. This seems to be a good course and as of the position reports this morning we are right in amongst the fleet. Our best 24 hour distance to date is 178.9 nm. The weather continues to be 100% overcast but the temperature is slowly rising.

We are all damp and a good day of sunshine to dry everything out would be welcomed by all aboard. According to the weather report this morning it may remain overcast for another 24 hours.

The Sailmail software that allows us to transmit and receive e-mails using the single side band radio now appears to be working fine. Initially we were receiving error messages after closing the software and re-loaded the program at least five times. We have also been using Garmin Mapsource software to plot the daily positions of some of the fleet on the laptop and visually see how the other boats are doing in comparison to us. We all feel relatively good about where we are at this time.

For those of you not in LA you should be aware that we were TV stars on the morning of the start of the race. Skipper John was interviewed at the dock by KTLA Channel 5 during the morning program between 7 and 9 am, and the footage was repeated during the day. The studio interviewer commented that John looked like Ted Turner and Joe was a life-vest model. The rest of us tried to look busy rigging the boat and the halyards were re-positioned about 10 times. The studio cut to video footage of some of the big boats in big seas and winds during the interview and made it appear that we would be doing the same. This may have scared some of our friends staying ashore if they got the impression we would be doing this on Pipe Dream. We are promised copies of the tape when we arrive in Hawaii.

Everyone has gained their appetite back and are currently looking forward to lunch which may be tamales. For lunch yesterday we had pasties made by Scott's mom (Thank you). Unfortunately the crew had to make do with cheese and ham sandwiches for dinner courtesy of yours truly.

http://www.transpacificyc.org/

Owner: John Davis
Sail number: 47560
Rig: Sloop
LOA (ft.): 37
Draft (ft): 6
Beam (ft): 12
Hull color: White
Yacht Club: Seal Beach
Hailing port: Long Beach , CA USA
Class or type: CF-37
Where built: Long Beach
Year launched: 1974

Rating and Division Assignment:
Transpac Rating (TPR): 257.821
Racing Class or Division: Aloha B

Skipper : John Davis
Navigator: Tony Chapman
Watch Captain: Lou Schweitzer
Crew: Matt Reavis, Scott Smith, Joe Martony