1998
Singlehanded TransPac PreviewThe Singlehanded TransPac celebrates the spirit of adventure that is the common bond between all solo sailors. Now in it's 11th incarnation, a fleet of 12 dramatically different vessels is poised to set sail for Kauai on June 27. Some skippers, like millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, will be intent on breaking records, while others will simply be testing their mettle by undergoing a self-imposed right of passage.
There will be no cash prizes or grandiose trophies awaiting any of them at the Hanalei Bay finish line. But just arriving in one piece will be prize enough - an intangible badge of achievement they can wear on their chests forever.
Three of this year's competitors are veterans of previous races who will attempt to better past performances - one guy you'll meet in the following pages is putting himself to the test for the sixth time!
The stable of boats this year ranges from Fossett's purpose-built 60-ft trimaran to third-timer Greg Morris' 19-year-old Moore 24. But despite differences in each boat's waterline length, surfing ability and creature comforts, each skipper will suffer similar discomforts, will be solely responsible for navigation, sail handling, gear maintenance, fleet communications and cooking, and each will endeavor to make coherent decisions despite the unavoidable sleep deprivation that is inherent in solo voyaging.
Although improvements in nav gear, autopilots, windvane steering devices, solar panels and communications gadgetry has lightened the enormity of the task over the years, the 2,120-mile crossing still transits the same vast, unpredictable ocean. And the organization of the event is still essentially the same as always: totally unspon-sored and administered by an all-volunteer staff.
When the first race was run in '78, an army of cynics dubbed it "crazy" - some even said "suicidal". But dozens of proud sailors - both men and women - have completed it safely over the years, and dozens more dream of accepting the challenge. . . someday.
We urge you to rally 'round the starting line, at mid-day, June 27, off the Corinthian Yacht Club, applaud the fearlessness of these 12 sailors, and let 'em know you hardily approve of their brand of 'crazy' behavior.
We bid good luck and fair winds to all fleet participants - and hope they manage to get a few hours of deep sleep somewhere along the way. Naturally, we'll have a complete report on this year's SSS TransPac in our August issue. - latitude/aet
| - latitude38/aet
June
issue
Andy Turpin, Associate Editor Latitude 38 Magazine 15 Locust Ave., Mill Valley, CA 94941 Phone: 415-383-8200, ext. 112 Fax: 415-383-5816 E-mail: andy@latitude38.com |
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PHRF rating: 105 Yacht Club: Richmond Y.C. Homeport: Richmond Y.C. Occupation: Retired from PG&E Age: 58
"The
thing I look forward to most," says Bruce "is flying the spinnaker in the
tradewinds." No doubt he still has fond memories of crewing on a passage
to the Marquesas a decade ago aboard the Norseman 447 Denouement - skippered,
ironically enough, by SSS Transpac competitor, Dale Parshall. This time,
though, he'll play the roles of captain, crew and cook all rolled into
one.
During
his 24-year sailing career, Bruce has done a great deal of ocean and Bay
racing in a wide variety of boat types - from his first boat, Windy, a
Columbia 22, to the Santa Cruz 70 Mongoose. He's also played key organizational
roles like serving as president of the One Design Association and as a
YRA race officer and member of the YRA Board of Directors. Last year he
added the title of U.S. Sailing instuctor to his long list of credentials.
Bruce bought this Olson 34 six years ago and since then has been perfecting his singlehanded sailing skills and tackling boat projects right and left - roughly fifty at last count. With four spinnakers in his sail locker, Razzberries has more sail options than most - which is wise, since at least one competitor blew out three kites during the '96 event.
Bruce's wife, Lina, who is a member of the SSS race committee, will meet him in Hanalei, and they'll sail back together during the month of August.
Navigation: Garmin GPS 120, Garmin
GPS II, Kenyon C100 Loran, Davis Mark 3 sextant. Steering: primary: Sailomat
601 windvane; secondary: Autohelm 2000, Tillerpilot 2500.
Food: Soups, energy bars, instant
meals, crackers. . .
Special thanks to: His wife, Lina.
PHRF rating: 153 Yacht Club: San Francisco Y.C. & SSS Homeport: Sausalito Occupation: Manufacturer's representative Age: 50
Competing
in the TransPac is not only a great challenge for Jay Capell, but it's
also a homecoming of sorts. The north shore of Kauai holds a special place
in the hearts of Jay and his family, as they've spent a total of six months
vacationing there since the early '80s - previously, though, they've always
arrived by air.
Jay,
like one or two other competitors this year, grew up sailing, but effectively
gave it up for 15 years due to the demands of work and family. Then, in
'95, he decided it was time to get back out on the water and bought his
comfortable Catalina 36, Leilani Too. With his renewed enthusiasm, he began
attending the lecture series put on by the Singlehanded Sailing Society
which led up to the '96 SSS TransPac and the seed of his own personal challenge
to race in '98 grew into a formidable goal.
Jay and his brother Jeff have competed as a doublehanded team in lots of Bay Area races, but Jay's actual singlehanding experience consists only of one Farallones Race and completion of the 400-mile LongPac, which qualified him to enter this jaunt to Hawaii. "After four days I was getting a little stir crazy," Jay recalls. On this trip he'll keep himself occupied with music - like Clapton and the Stones - and reading, including one of his dad's favorite novels, The Broad Highway.
Despite being a relative newcomer to singlehanding, Jay has always had sailing in his blood. "I was practically born on my dad's boat," Jay recalls fondly. His father, Jeff Sr. built one of the original (Myron) Spaulding 33s which were long-time competitors on the Bay racing scene. Now in his 50th year, Jay is happy to be following in his father's footsteps - or should we say along his rhumbline. After a lifetime of sailing, Jeff Sr.'s participation in the 1963 TransPac aboard Emmett Rixford's Annie Too was the highlight of his sailing career.
Jay hopes to do well in the competition, but also intends to have fun: "After working so hard to prepare for this, I'm going to try like the dickens to enjoy it!" His wife, Mary, son Jeff, 18, and daughter Annie, 16, will be waiting for him in Hanalei Bay. Longtime friend and business partner Steve Mason will also be waiting. "He loaned me half the gear on my boat," Jay admits. As a thank-you, Steve gets to use Leilani Too for his own Hawaiian vacation before she is sailed home by a delivery crew.
Navigation: GPS, SatNav, Sextant.
Steering: primary: Monitor windvane; secondary: Autohelm.
Food: Canned stews, pastas, crackers.
. .
Special thanks to: his wife, Mary,
Steve Mason, J.P. Plumley and brother Jeff.
PHRF rating: 160 Yacht Club: Corinthian Y.C. of Bellingham Homeport: Bellingham, WA Occupation: School teacher Age: 48
Ask
a dozen singlehanders how they got into solo sailing and you're likely
to get a dozen different answers. But middle school teacher DeLayne Brink's
reasoning was simply pragmatic: he realized if he expected his wife and
two daughters to accompany him on cruising adventures, he'd have to be
prepared to go it alone on the rough parts.
They
cruised as a family aboard At Last all the way from Washington to Alaska,
gunkholing up the spectacular Inside Passage. But when it came time to
take the boat back, ol' Dad made the two-week solo run from Prince Rupert,
B.C., back to Bellingham.
In recent years DeLayne has often sailed solo in the waters of Puget Sound and occasionally makes a pilgrimage around the rough and rowdy backside of Vancouver Island to Barclay Sound.
Singlehanding
to Kauai will be one of the most challenging feats DeLayne has ever undertaken,
but it's certainly not his only ambitious adventure. He's run a marathon,
biked from Washington to California ("before it was fashionable") and took
his family car-camping through every state in the union - except Ohio,
for some reason - over two summers.
Although he's a self-described "rookie", he has developed his own unique philosophy. "She's not a fast boat, but I'm going to try to beat them all mentally," he explains. If he hears complaints over the net about the lack of creature comforts, he plans to talk about how wonderful his hot shower was. When someone mentions the K-rations they've just had for dinner, he'll chime in a description of the ice cream he's just taken from his freezer! And if the wind goes light, causing others frustration, he'll just pop in one of the 40 action videos he plans to take along.
DeLayne's wife, Pam and daughters Krista, 19, and DeLayne Marie, 15, will meet him after the race for a Hawaiian respite, after which he'll sail At Last home with a couple of friends. Being a teacher, he'll have the rest of the summer to get there.
Navigation: Magellan 5000D GPS,
Garmin II GPS, sextant. Steering: primary: Monitor Windvane; secondary:
Autohelm 5000 ST+.
Food: Frozen pre-made meals, snacks,
PBJ with frozen strawberry and raspberry jams.
Special thanks to: Pam, Krista,
DeLayne Marie, Rodney, Dan, Mike2, Tim, Roger and Dave.
PHRF rating: 171 Yacht Club: Marina Bay Y.C. Homeport: Richmond Occupation: Employee benefits specialist Age: 49
"Although
this is a 'race'," says Mike, "I'm looking forward to slowing down to a
6-knot pace." He claims to be more interested in achieving a personal goal
than in winning, and in a 30-ft, non-planing boat, that's probably the
right attitude to adopt.
Mike's
been sailing since the early '80s, and has been single-handing nearly as
long. "I actually find it easier to sail by myself than with crew," he
explains. Until recently, however, most of his single-handing was inshore,
but he didn't find the LongPac qualifying race last year to be that difficult.
"I actually got more sleep than I do at home," he confides with a laugh.
"If your boat's properly set up, there's really not much to do." On the
long haul to Kauai he plans to keep himself occupied in much the same way
others do: "I'm bringing an eclectic supply of books and music." In addition
to keeping in touch with the fleet by SSB, Mike plans to check in with
land-bound friends by Ham radio.
Like others who attended a recent lecture in the SSS's preparatory series, Mike plans to adopt the sleeping regimine advocated by sleep deprivation experts: he'll try to sleep between 1500 and 1800 and again between midnight and 0300, times when the body supposedly gets the best quality sleep. We'll check with him on the back end to see how it worked out.
As we go to press, Mike is looking for a delivery crew to sail Compass Rose back to the mainland, but if he has to, he's prepared to go it alone. "It's easy to find crew to sail back a $100,000 boat, but mine is the nautical equivilent of a used Ford Taurus!"
Navigation: GPS, sextant. Steering:
primary: Monitor windvane; secondary: Navico autopilot.
Food: Freeze dried meals, fresh-baked
bread, vegetarian fare.
Special thanks to: SSS members,
expecially Terry McKelvey
and Mike Jefferson.
PHRF rating: 162 Yacht Club: Hawaii Homeport: San Pedro Occupation: Retired U.S. Army officer Age: 68
What
can we say about 'The General' - as he is affectionately called in the
singlehanded sailing community - that we haven't said a half-dozen times
before. Talk about a guy who can't seem to get enough time alone on the
open ocean, Ken has done five previous SSS TransPacs ('84, '86, '92, '94
and '96), his fastest time being 14 days, 1 hour and 30 minutes in the
windy '94 contest. He'll do his damnedest to beat that time this year.
So
how does a guy find time to do all the preparations, racing and 22-day
return trips? Easy, he retired 21 years ago (1977) having served two tours
in Vietnam, where he flew "anything with wings or rotors." His final rank
was brigadier general, hence, the nickname.
Ken has become an icon of this event: an affable old salt who endears himself to his competitors with tall tales and a well-oiled sense of humor. We can't recall him ever winning the darned race, but clearly, it's more about the adventure and post-race camaraderie for Ken. He's kept in touch with many of his former 'adversaries' and looks forward to getting to know this year's batch.
"I usually spend time each day on several Ham nets. It's always entertaining, and I get to chat with lots of old friends." In addition, he'll croon along with his favorite bluegrass and country tunes to pass the time and may read a couple of Patrick O'Brien novels.
After singlehanding back to L.A. after the race, you'd think Ken would be ready for a long siesta. Wrong. He'll fly off on a scuba diving excursion to Palau, Truk Lagoon and Kwajalein.
Navigation: Garmin 100 and 45 GPSs,
Zeiss sextant. Steering: primary: Autohelm 4000 (he has three!); secondary:
Navico 5500, 300C and 2500 (2).
Food: "Same old 'live food, dead
food and dog food." Translation: fresh eggs, vegies, etc.; dried pasta,
rice, cereals, etc.; and canned entrees. His favorite sea meals being chili
and fettucini Alfredo.
Special thanks to: his wife, for
allowing him so much time away from their Virginia home (he'll miss their
46th wedding anniversary while bashing up to the Bay from L.A. for the
start). Also, Dair Sails of San Pedro.
PHRF rating: 102 Yacht Club: Richmond Y.C. Homeport: Richmond Y.C. Occupation: Retired Age: 60
"I've
never done a long distance passage singlehanded before," admits Dale Parshall,
but he's certainly no stranger to ocean racing. He began his 39-year sailing
career on Lake Michigan, where he participated in eight Chicago to Mackinaw
races - among others - once winning his class in the worst weather on record.
In
1971 Dale moved to the Bay Area and soon after became an avid Bay and ocean
racer. He's tallied up 30,000 miles of ocean sailing over the years, including
a grand year-and-a-half cruise of the South Pacific which took him as far
'out there' as New Zealand before returning to the Bay via Hawaii. On another
occasion he delivered a Frers 41 from the islands back to the Bay.
When Dale went boat hunting a year and a half ago, he was looking for a vessel that would be comfortable to cruise in, but small enough to single-hand. This comfy Baltic 38 fit the bill. After returning to California, he plans to cruise "where the wind blows."
It's interesting that a guy with his experience is hopeful his Robertson autopilot will steer Giggles "100% of the time." You mean hand steering across an ocean isn't fun? Dale's backup is a Monitor windvane. One of his concerns is handling big spinnakers singlehanded, so he invested in a second pole for gybing.
Dale's been an active member of the Richmond Y.C. for 16 years, during which time he's held a variety of posts including that of Junior Sailing instructor, race committee member and Board member. He's also got some very pragmatic ideas about offshore meal prep, as evidenced by the fact that he was asked to author the "Cooking at Sea" article for the sailing instructions of this year's Pacific Cup. Dale's basic premise is to create meals that are as simple as possible, yet taste better than K-rations.
So why is a 60-year-old guy like Dale putting himself to the test on a 1,000 mile singlehanded ocean crossing? Heck, we don't know, maybe it's just for . . . the Giggles!
Navigation: GPS, Loran, sextant.
Steering: primary: autopilot; secondary: windvane.
Food: fresh and pre-made dishes
then canned goods 'creatively prepared'.
Most people would welcome a bit of acknowledgement for accepting the challenge to sail across an ocean single-handed, but not our mystery man. He does have a valid reason for his clandestine behavior, however. You see, for years he's secretly been preparing for this race - and an indefinite period of cruising afterwards. But as we go to press, he has yet to announce to his workmates that he will soon be clearing out his desk and - literally -sailing off into the sunset.PHRF rating: "X" rated Yacht Club: N/A Homeport: not tellin' Occupation: cruiser to be Age: old enough
We agreed to go along with his anonymity, but insisted on interviewing him anyway. "Fine," said Mystery Man. "You want answers, I'll give you answers."
"What course stategy will you follow? Rhumbline? 1020 Mb line?"
"A combination," replied Mystery Man. "Upon
arrival at each minute of longitude, I will mix a rum drink with the proportion
of juice to rum dictated by the millibars on my barometer (i.e. at the
1020 Mb line I would mix 10 parts juice with 20 parts rum).
"As for navigation, I believe today's
sailors rely too heavily on electronics, which are prone to failure. Even
sextants are typically used in conjunction with a battery-operated watch,
which also can fail. I feel the only logical, foolproof choice is an organic
solution: homing pigeons."
A strong spirit of individualism has always been inherent in the SSS TransPac, so who are we to doubt Mystery Man's methods. His true identity will be revealed, of course, in our post-race report (August issue).
Navigation: homing pigeons. Steering:
primary: hands; secondary: feet.
Food: a high fiber diet; primarily
baked beans, refried beans, 6 bean salad, bean gumbo, steamed beans, bean
soup, barbecued beans and deep fried beans.
Special thanks to: Jimmy Buffet,
Bacardi and Pussers Rum distilleries and the SSS.
PHRF rating: 63 Yacht Club: Oakland Y. C. Homeport: Oakland Occupation: Retired Police Sargeant Age: 55
Steve
Faustina completed the '94 race aboard his Orion 27 Magic Moments, but
only after having to turn back on day one due to a falty roller furling
system and restarting three days later. He then had to suffer the indignity
of receiving an "FAD" in the score box (finished after deadline). Nevertheless,
he's back again this year aboard a sleek 42-footer that was purpose-built
for singlehanded offshore racing. For the past three years he's been preparing
the aptly-named Solitaire for this year's contest, adding everything from
radar to running backs.
"I'm
four years older and will have some physical limitations due to a shoulder
operation," says Steve, "but I'm really looking forward to it." Having
recently retired from a long career as an Oakland police sergeant, Steve
confides, "I now get my adrenaline rushes from singlehanded ocean racing
- it's my drug of choice."
Although Faustina has a much larger boat this year, he's careful not to expect too much success, "There are a lot of fine racers this year. I'm especially anxious to meet John Guzzwell - he's been one of my idols for years." Win or lose, Steve will certainly be more comfortable this time, and with both radar and a radar detector, he'll probably sleep easier too. His PC with weatherfax will give him insights into the best routing, and will allow him to communicate with the mainland via satellite e-mail.
Steve doesn't anticipate that loneliness will be a problem while out on the big blue Pacific, as he'll have favorite companions like Miles Davis and John Coltraine and other classic jazz masters to keep him company.
He's one of the few competitors who has an open agenda at the end of his voyage. He may sail back singlehanded, as he did in '94, or he may opt to continue on into the Pacific. After paying his dues policing the (sometimes mean) streets of Oakland, it must be comforting to know that either option will involve wide open spaces and plenty of time to commune with nature.
Navigation: Garmin GPS, Traxar GPS;
Freiberger and Davis sextants. Steering: primary: self-steering; secondary:
Alpha 3000 autopilot.
Food: freeze-dried.
Special thanks to: his father,
Leonard Faustina, Steve Keefe, Bruce Swartz, Mike Nood.
PHRF rating: 138 Yacht Club: Oakland Y.C. Homeport: Alameda Occupation: International Business Development (computers) Age: 41
Although
Bob Gay learned to sail as a kid in Boston, he suffered a long 'dry spell'
while his career in the computer biz moved him all over the country. When
he relocated to the Bay Area from North Carolina in '96, however, he quickly
rekindled his love of sailing, and soon decided to buy a boat that he could
live aboard.
As fate would have it, the first boat he looked at was Bravo, which had recently returned from doing the '96 SSS TransPac with then-owner Fred Hess at the helm. Bob perused dozens of other boats, but finally decided Bravo was 'the one'. He and his wife Cindy moved aboard and before long he announced his intentions to do the TransPac. Fred Hess became a close friend and mentor, without whom, says Bob, he would never have mounted this campaign.
Like just about everyone else, he'll race Bravo to win, but he is also attracted to the idea of completing a personal challenge. "The boat has the potential to do well," says Bob, "but winning isn't everything. Still, I'd like to show up while some of the other racers are still in Hawaii!"
Since this will be Bob's first singlehanded ocean passage, we asked if he worries about all that time alone with himself - and his own thoughts: "Oh no. I hear those voices talking in my head normally!"
Besides his own intracranial chatter, Bob plans to entertain himself by reading novels and listening to lots of good music - including Jimmy Buffet and the Grateful Dead.
Since he travels constantly for his job with Sun Microsystems, you might think Bob's idea of a break would be to just stay home. But as he puts it, "This race is the perfect excuse to take Bravo on a long ride in blue water. . . with no planes, phones or e-mails." That being said, however, Bob has volunteered to act as fleet communications liaison using his onboard computer via SSB.
Navigation: Magellan Nav 6500 GPS,
Micrologic GPS. Steering: primary: Alpha 3000 autopilot; secondary: Monitor
windvane.
Food: Simple stuff: canned dishes,
fruits, canned fruits. . .
Special thanks to: Fred Hess, his
wife Cindy and the folks as SSS.
PHRF rating: 69 Yacht Club: Shilshole Bay Y.C. Homeport: Seattle Occupation: Boatbuilder Age: young at heart
During
the 10 previous runnings of the Singlehanded TransPac there's been no shortage
of interesting nautical characters. This year, lifelong voyager and boatbuilder
John Guzzwell should certainly be added to that list.
If
the name rings a bell, it's probably because of the famous book he authored
30-odd years ago, Trekka Round the World, which tells of his then-remarkable
four-year circumnavigation (1955 to '59) aboard the 21-ft, fin-keeled yawl
which he built himself to a Laurent Giles design. Those who've read it
will recall the grittiest part, when he temporarily laid up Trekka in New
Zealand and joined Miles and Beryl Smeeton aboard Tzu Hang for a Cape Horn
rounding. They got caught in a monstrous storm, pitchpoled and were dismasted
in the Southern Ocean, finally arriving in Chile after 87 days at sea.
Trekka's
lightweight wooden design was contrary to the heavy displacement cruising
boats of its day, and you might say Guzzwell has taken a 'contrarian' outlook
on boatbuilding ever since. His latest creation, launched at Seattle last
year, is Endangered Species, whose 30-ft laminated wood hull closely resembles
a scaled down BOC boat of the Open 60 class. She employs water ballast,
and carries her ample beam all the way to her transom. Her hull is constructed
from four layers of 1/8" spruce, stapled and laid up in alternating diagonals
and an outer layer of teak run fore and aft. The resulting structure is
so strong that no ribs are needed. She's counterbalanced by a simple, foil-shaped
keel, has beautiful teak decks and carries a laminated spruce mast, stiffened
by four 1/2" x 1/8" carbon-fibre splines.
Before emigrating to Canada as a young man, John's childhood in England included a voyage to South Africa on the family's 52-ft ketch. We're told his father taught him the principles of celestial navigation and woodworking while the family was held in a German prison camp during WWII.
During his long career as a professional boatbuilder, he has built a variety of sailing craft, including the 133-ft Zeus, the 65-ft Farr-designed Lively, the 158-ft topsail schooner Tole Mour, and his own 46-ft pilothouse cutter, Treasure, also built to a Giles design. He and his family cruised the Pacific several times on this boat and in '94 he entered her in the Pan Pacific Yacht Race from L.A. to Osaka, then returned via the Aleutians and mainland Alaska.
Think this guy has a yarn or two to spin? Oh, yeah.
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Bio
text on the way... 
Navigation: ?
PHRF rating: -160 Yacht Club: San Diego, Y.C. Homeport: Rehoboth Bay, DEL Occupation: Adventurer/Businessman Age: 54
Needless
to say, both Steve Fossett and his 60-ft speed machine, Lakota, bring star
power to this year's event. For those of you who don't read the newspapers,
Fossett has made headlines in recent years for his record-breaking attempts
in both sailing and long-distance ballooning.
Earlier
this year, he was forced to abort his attempt to fly his balloon, Solo
Spirit, around the world non-stop after 5,802 miles of flight. In the winter
of '97, however, he accomplished the longest balloon flight in aviation
history - 10,361 miles - flying solo from St. Louis to India.
Steve holds seven world's records in the realm of sailing. After buying Lakota from Florence Arthaud in the early '90s and modifying her, he broke the transpacific record from Japan to San Francisco in '95 with crew, then set the solo record on the same route the next year.
His obvious goal in entering the SSS TransPac is to smash the existing (uncorrected) multihull record of 8 days, 20 hours and 3 minutes set by Peter Hogg aboard Aotea in '94 - after several attempts. Unfortunately, Fossett will be in a race of his own, as Lakota is the sole multihull entry - not to mention the fact that she is expected to reach speeds five times faster than the typical monohull. (Lakota is the sistership to Primagaz which set the 24-hour distance record of 540 KM in 1994.)
An adventurer of the most 'driven' variety, Steve has also swum the English Channel, endured the Iditarod Dogsled Race, driven 24 hours in the LeMans auto race and finished the Ironman Triathalon. Being an enormously successful businessman allows him to finance such personal challenges. Although a native of the midwest, Fossett graduated from Stanford before earning his MBA from Washington University in St. Louis.
Navigation: 'The works'. Steering: autopilots supplied by solar panels.
PHRF rating: 150 Yacht Club: N/A Homeport: Alameda Occupation: Writer Age: 44
A
veteran of both the '94 and '96 races, Greg Morris is regarded by his contemporaries
as a very fun guy, and a bit of a wild man. His idea of a good time is
hand-steering for hours on end.
Greg finished third in class on both of his previous attempts, aboard his Farr 33 Slipstream. This year he's downgraded in waterline length, but upgraded his rating by entering his recently acquired Moore 24, Color Blind, which is appropriately named due to its lavendar-colored hull with a bright orange boot stripe, and green bottom paint. Who needs a radar reflector with that combination? He'll race to win, but his most important challenge is a personal one: to beat his best previous time of 12 days, 21 hours and 37 minutes set in '94 (10:02:29 corrected).
Again this year his game plan will be to self-steer 80% of the time, taking periodic 15 minute naps regulated by his trusty egg timer (while napping he'll let his autopilot do the driving). "I plan to run black at night so I can trim," says Greg. "I'll be up all night and cat nap in the morning."
And what does this two-time veteran look forward to most upon arrival? Party time at the Tahiti Nui bar! On board, however, he claims he'll be too busy to worry about entertainment: "No music and no books," says Greg.
After the race, he'll take the sensible approach, however, and will opt to ship Color Blind home via a Matson freighter.
Navigation: GPSs. Steering: primary:
self; secondary: Autohelm.
Food: Power Bars and canned food;
"My favorite is chili."
Special thanks to: Hal Wright,
Dan and Darin Dowd, Bob Comir and Eric Jungemann.
| - latitude38/aet
June
issue
Andy Turpin, Associate Editor Latitude 38 Magazine 15 Locust Ave., Mill Valley, CA 94941 Phone: 415-383-8200, ext. 112 Fax: 415-383-5816 E-mail: andy@latitude38.com |
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