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The last shifts, the end is near, we’ll be crossing the finish line later this afternoon, but.... where the heck is Maui...?!!!
It’s odd to know the island is there but you can’t see it and don’t know when you will. Every 10 miles someone brings out the binoculars to see if they can be the first to spot land.
The spinnaker went up at sunrise, as planned, the boat sped up another 1.5 to 2 knots, back to our 8 to 12+ knots of boat speed, we adjusted our course to be more efficient and concentrated on the driving.
The boat was banging back and forth as we fought it’s natural tendency to round up with short, efficient movements of the helm. The boat was screaming along, rushing to get home like a hungry horse heading for its barn, this stallion was going full out.
It wasn’t long before we were in trouble again, the strop bridle finally failed (gotta talk with Dave about that 36 hour “guarantee!”). The spinnaker was saved by the ingenious safety that Steve rigged up but we could no longer fly the spinnaker without building and installing a new bridle (no time). We were only 30 or so miles away and knew we would make good speed under white sails, although the angle wouldn’t be as efficient we’d still make good time.
The call was made, white sails it is. Douse the spinnaker and bag it, we won’t be needing it anymore. As we raced to the finish line the winds were picking up 25, 30, 35+... We knew this would happen as we entered Pailolo Channel and the islands of Maui and Molokai squeezed the wind.


One more jibe then the finish line.


The winds rose, high 30’s at times peaking at 40. The jibe went well, like a well oiled machine, the islands came into view... soon the Ka’anapali resort area was visible and the finish line would be crossed. The finish line is a little odd in that one point of the line is on a balcony in a vacation tower on the shoreline of Ka’anapali and the other is a GPS point out in the strait. It’s a “virtual” line so the crew, always searching for some indication of crossing, constantly was asking if one thing or another was one point of the line. We finally spotted a balcony with a large orange, diamond shaped nautical looking display that could only be the one end of the line. This was confirmed by Gunnar and, with John at the helm, he soon told us we had crossed, the race was done!


We had done it! A great cheer went out, hugs and handshakes all round.


We were quickly greeted by a local pilot with a large cooler bag full of beer and drinks. But no celebrating yet as we needed to drop and secure the sails. Down came the jib, on came the motor. The winds were in the mid 30’s so the turn head to wind under full sail heeling the boat way over, even wetting the toe-rail in the water as the boat came head to wind. Down came the main, all sails secured and soon we were under way by diesel power.


Beers were opened and we toasted to a good, successful, safe trip. 12 days, 9 hours, 25 minutes and 8 seconds... across the finish line, achieving our goal of 13 days or less!
Our handicapped, corrected time was: 8 days, 19 hours 45 minutes with the winning boat achieving: 8 days, 3 hours, 57 minutes.
We soon learned we had secured 1st place in our Division. That’s two Vic-Maui’s, two 1st place finishes, pretty darn good. We also soon learned that our crew mate, Gunnar, won the Navigator’s award as the best navigator of the race. Congratulations Gunnar, an award well deserved.




A bit about 13 – THIRTEEN The word play we do on the boat, it’s an exercise we do as a way to pass the time, keep our minds busy and for camaraderie. The number 13 was chosen as it has a special meaning to all of us this year.
Some people might think it’s an unlucky number but to us it’s a very lucky number.
It was John’s goal to arrive in 13 days or less. He knew it was doable as two years ago the race duration was 14 days and 15 hours, with a good 24 hours in very calm winds and no headway. He wanted to challenge the team to achieve or better a 13 day crossing.
It was also the number of the boat Havoc, owned by Gunnar Jonsson and his wife Ede. Gunnar lost Ede earlier this year to cancer and he also had bypass surgery shortly after. Almost all of us on String Theory, over the years, have sailed on Havoc, sailed with Ede and have been the recipient of the experience and wisdom so generously dispensed by Gunnar.
For us 13 is a lucky number.
We are lucky to have achieved our goal of sailing to Maui in 13 days or less, to have sailed on boat #13, Havoc, to have sailed with Ede and Gunnar and to still be sailing with Gunnar.
13 is a lucky number for us and we are so grateful.






Team String Theory was:
John Mortimer (Skipper/Owner)
Gunnar Jonsson (Navigator/Driver)
Don McFarlane (Driver)
Steve Dillon (Driver/Pit/Mast, Soft-Shackle Maker)
Mike Copps (Driver/Pit/Mast)
Keturah Witter (Driver/Pit/Sailor)
Dan Tresa (Driver/Pit)
Dave Maskell (Driver/Foredeck/Mast Monkey)
Bryan Ekman (Driver/Pit/Mast/Foredeck – whatever needed to be done!)
Tim Mastel-Marr (Driver/Foredeck)


Miles sailed by A team: 1189.9
Miles sailed by B team: 1188.1

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We’re getting close now... It seems to be taking forever but these last 300 or so miles seem to be the longest we’ve had. With the difficulties from yesterday we’re taking things a little easier on the boat. We sailed on white sails all last night, making good time and saving the last, good spinnaker for the daylight hours when we can watch it closely and sail it carefully. With the tricky winds we’ve been having we didn’t want to risk losing our last spinnaker as we approach our final run to the finish line.


We’re consolidating our lead and first place position in our division. The sun is hot and winds shift, gusty, but generally in a good direction. The seas are easier to take as the waves are down a little but still squirrelly and difficult to drive in.


The blogger had difficulty working at the navigation station today as the heat and movement of the boat was making him nauseous, my apologies for the short entry today.

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Good winds today, in the 25 – 40 knot range. “A” team is happy to report being the first team to achieve 42 nm’s on their 4 hour shift. That’s an average of 10.5 knots per hour fro the shift. The competition between A and B teams are heating up with each successive watch wanting to “best” the mileage of the previous watch. It’s become quite serious with no one allowing early hand-offs of the helm from one shift to the other in fear of losing a tenth of a mile to the other team. In fact teams are “dragging their feet”, attempting to sneak in extra time on the helm in order to steal just a fraction of extra mileage from the other team. It does get frustrating when you’ve calculated it takes 36 seconds or so to do a tenth of a mile and you saw the odometer click over close to the end of your shift, then to realize that the next team is calling for time to give up the helm and you know there’s almost another tenth about to click over.... just a few seconds more. I’m sure it was about thirty seconds ago that the current one clicked over, if I can just squeeze out another 6 seconds... Yesss!!!


Albatross! A common sea bird, an amazingly agile, very large bird that rarely stops flying and rarely flaps its wings. It’s a master at gliding and taking advantage of the up-drafts created by the large winds, waves and strong breezes. In and out of the waves it weaves itself in a seemingly endless search for food. We’ve had one bird follow us for nearly 24 hours now and decided to name it Eric. I don’t know why, it just sounded good ... Eric the Albatross. A second one appeared late today, we think it’s a female, we named it Erica. They are now Eric and Erica Erickson. All albatross’s are now either Eric or Erica, all from the Erickson family, silly but fun.


Another lunar rainbow, 2nd time this trip, also calling them “moon bows”.


A halyard failure at 2:45 pm today. The primary load one, port side broke and fell to the deck. It had chaffed clean through, probably at or near the turning block at the mast head. This wasn’t a big surprise as we had been keeping a close eye on it, but it’s failure meant that another trip up the mast was in order (the 5th for Dave) to re-run a new halyard, inspect the strop bridle and assess the set-up. We need another 36 hours or so out of it, it’s come such a long ways, our entire effort and placement in the race is dependent on that strop holding up.


As Don said: Three halyards in repair, top engineering effort needed.


Up Dave went, repairs successfully completed he reports that another 36 hours is “guaranteed!”


“All Hands! All Hands!”
The call went out at early in the evening after the start of the 10 till 2 shift. “The spinnaker has blown!” The B shift was on watch, Don on the helm Dave and Brian in the deck trying to pull down a ragged, flogging S4 spinnaker. Dan and Gunnar in the pit working the halyards trying the lower what was left of the sail.
Keturah was the first to spring out of her bed. With her PFD always at the ready she was at the top of the companionway stairs in a flash. Not knowing what exactly what the problem was but clearly knowing a problem had arisen she repeated the “All Hands!” call. Soon we all were topside working to get the boat and the sails under control.
The S4 spinnaker had blown its seams and was tearing itself up at the top of the mast. We needed to get it down! A good five feet of the sail was still flying up at the mast head, which kept pressure on the halyards so the sail wouldn’t drop to the deck, it needed to be pulled down. The problem was there was only a very small, very strong luff chord available to us and it was barely the size of fishing line. We could pull the sail down using this line but it is so thin that the risk of it sliding through our hands, cutting our fingers was very serious. We had to wrap it around something, we needed to take the pressure on something other than our hands and fingers. The extreme wind and flogging of the sail was creating a situation that sustaining an injury was very possible if we were not careful. The solution came in the form of a wrapped up, unused halyard at the base of the mast. We wrapped a section of the thin spinnaker line around this large bundle of halyard and worked the spinnaker to the deck of the boat. Down it came, four to five feet at a time. It wasn’t a quick douse but it was safe and no one was injured.
We had also success with Steve’s safety, it worked to keep the spinnaker from falling into the water in front of the boat. Although the spinnaker failed, the halyards, strop back up and safety had not.
Back to white sails for the night, we’d contemplate going back to our spinnaker “Aqua-man” in the morning when we had light.
Our speeds were still good, only losing .75 to 1 knot under white sails. But that was over the water, our VMG wasn’t as good as we couldn’t point onto the course heading (210) as well under white sails. This is the beauty of a symmetrical spinnaker better down-wind angles.


Gunnar assessed our position and that of the other boats and figured out that if we sailed carefully and reasonably fast we could consolidate our position as first in our division and possibly gain on one or two boats to improve our overall standing. This was our game plan.


Hurricane Darby has been part of our weather considerations for a few days now, but in watching its speed (10 knts +/-) we have determined we can out-run it and be across the finish line before it reaches Lahaina. We are seeing its speed drop and know it will soon be a tropical storm, but it is packing some good winds projected to reach 50+ knots. We don’t want to be in that kind of wind.


208 miles to go, we’ll be over the finish line tomorrow in less than 24 hours!






Quote of the day from Steve: We don’t have problems, we just have solutions!

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“That ship is 800 feet long and 100 feet wide, it won’t even feel us!”
Those were Gunnar’s words in the early hours of the morning shift today as the consideration about passing a deep sea cargo ship was taking place. This ship was on a collision course with us and closing fast, we needed to alter course. There was talk about steering a course taking us past but in font of the ship, this was quickly and vehemently dismissed by Gunnar as the risk’s are many and not worth the small loss of distance taking the safer route behind the ship. After this short deliberation Don turned us to avoid a collision and we sailed past the enormous ship then worked our way back to the line – 210 degrees. While on this maneuver, in extreme winds, sometimes gusting to 40 knots, Don was able to get the boat up to 18.9 knots, tied with Tim’s speed record.
The night shift also saw very high winds (30 – 40 knots) with Mike twice hitting a boat speed of over 18 knots on one driving shift. The waves were more manageable today, much less squirrelly and not as steep as previous days. Everyone was able to drive today providing good stints of rest and recovery for each person as we cycled through the various work positions on the boat.
Tricky winds were our challenge today. They were very shifty at times and although the wave were more consistent the winds were an extreme challenge at times. On several occasions accidental jibes took place causing the boat to heel over hard and even round up. The crew is experienced at recovering from these unintended maneuvers so there was no damage or injuries, just a lot of noise and flopping around.


The weather is getting noticeably nicer with Dan providing the quote of the day: “All I need to wear today is my PFD!” Wrong Dan!, Very Wrong!!






Another lunar rainbow tonight, we feel very lucky to have the opportunity to see this phenomenal sight.

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A good day of sailing today. The problems encountered were relatively few (thank God) but our routine inspection of chafe areas and rigging revealed some ongoing issues with the halyards and the strop harness. This rigging is only a fibrous material, although very strong along its length, it can be chewed through quite quickly by small sharp edges of wayward screws or metal plates, of which there are many on a sailboat. The constant back and forth, up and down grind motion of a fast moving sailboat on the ocean are ideal conditions for weak parts to break or fail. The consensus, at the end of the day, was to keep an eye on the strop, not go up the mast, just sail the boat as fast and hard as we could. We had time to make up and miles to put on so we put the peddle to the metal and off we went.


A bit about our skipper and boat owner, John (Mort) Mortimer. He, along with his wife Marie, have prepared String Theory above and beyond our expectation when it comes to boat readiness and provisioning. There is more than enough food to choose from, although we have a set menu there is always the opportunity to improvise and plenty of food to go around. In fact we often found ourselves with more than enough and ended up, shamefully, feeding the fish. Our nightly “grab bags” of snacks (assorted chocolate and granola bars, wagon wheels, gummies, nuts, etc...) were also plentiful and great for that needed bust of energy on the 10 till 2 or 2 till 6 am shifts when it was hard to stay awake.
John, ever the polite Englishman, loves to race. Although he takes good care of his boat, he isn’t afraid to fill the sails and “heat her up” knowing the race is only won by those who go all out to push the boat as hard and as long as necessary. This is how he has prepared ST and this is how he expects us to sail her. This is how he sails her.
One amazing upgrade John made to his boat is he re-built the rudder to a special “racing” spec designed by Farr designers. In what can now only be described as fortunate circumstances, John was able to re-build the rudder of String Theory because of damage incurred when we (the team) put her on some rocks during a training race (Patos Island) earlier this year. A good 10 to 12 inches of the rudder was damaged in the incident causing an insurance claim and the subsequent re-build. John, negotiating with his insurance company, was able to have the new, high performance rudder made from carbon fibre. This performance design was lighter and stronger and designed to enhance the characteristics of the boat under the loads experienced like those we were racing in. And boy, what a difference! This new rudder translates the feel of the boat, through the helm, unlike the old one, in that it literally “stuck” to the water. When the old rudder would cavitate and lose contact and performance, this new one would grab the water, hold it and not let go. It was only when the boat was healing over significantly (30+ degrees) and the performance of the rudder was compromised by the angle of attack into the water, did the rudder feel like it was under-performing. A big reason for our ability to sail the boat fast and hard was the confidence we had in the new rudder and it’s ability to keep good contact with the water.




Tropical heat intensifies, reliable trade-winds enhance exciting nights


No new speed records to report.

168
 
The A and B teams are working hard to log in more miles, each are approaching the 10 knot per hour average with the distances between each team very narrow.
 
Speed record today: 14.9 Keturah
 
Maui, here we come!

168
“Flying Fish!” has been heard a few time today. It’s a wonderful experience to see them for the first time, and again every time we get the chance. They have been small ones so far and not very frequent yet, but that will soon change.
 
 As we approach the half way mark (1154 nm), probably closer to the end of the day, the question of visiting “Don’s Halfway Gourmet Cafe” has come up and it is a GO!  What a treat. Nowhere else in the world does this Cafe exist, it is by special invitation only, to a select, limited number of individuals (10), at a location that is only divulged at the last minute and a mystery menu only divulged at time of service. I am able to share the menu with you (as we’ve already eaten it) and can report it tastes as good as it looks:
 
                                Dates Stuffed with Gorgonzola, wrapped in Proscuitto
                                Chilled Avacado Soup
                                Alberta “AAA” slow roasted Tenderloin
                                Jumbo Parwns d’Orleans au Gratin Potatoes
                                Sherbert Roll and Cheese Cake Squares
                                Served with Red or White wine
 
                                Violin accompinament (conditions permitting).
 
Needless to say the Violinist couldn’t make it as the weather was not up to his liking, but the dinner service as amazing and a great treat.
 
The evening’s sailing has resulted in the need for a few repairs today. Steve aka “Mr. Fix It”, attended to the regular “chaffe” inspection routine and discovered a few things that needed special attention. The Boom vang, which we modified a few days to reduce its noise, had a broken shakle that was barely hanging on (replace). Tightening again of the steering cables, taping of some lifelines that working sheets are rubbing against, inspection of the external halyard set up, etc...  Steve and Dave are our go-to guys looking to fix, grease, tape, tighten, loosen, modify, weave, run, try, etc... you name it and they have probably done it. At times though, when all the little things have been fixed and all is in order, we get a little nervous, they only seem happy when fixing something. Like a hungry dog on a soup bone these two want to be chawing down on a problem. We’re worried they may in fact intentionally break something in order to have someting to fix! 
 
Good downwind sailing today, winds of 14 to 30 knots: Travelling hot in radiant times eases exagerated  nerves. The A and B teams are working hard to log in more miles.
 
Speed record 14.9 Keturah, winds 14-30
Distance 220+ nm, just over 1100 to go.

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It’s Friday!  Day six and we’re still in our fowlies, no end in sight, no tropical heat, no clear skys, no constant trade winds, not a pleasure cruise. Nope, it’s looking to be one of those years where we have to fight hard for every mile in challenging conditions, grey skies, winds 13 to 25, no stars, no moon, dark nights, lots of work.
 
But it’s the end of the week, not that we can tell, every day seems to meld one into the other. Because of our choppy sleep schedule it seems there are two mornings every day so it is easy to lose track of what day it is and what time of day it is. Our schedule, baring any necessary “all hands”, is four on, four off, four on, six off, six on, then it reverts to four off, four on, four off, six on and six off, etc... on and on till we get to Maui. The watches cycle at the same time every day. The six hours begin at 6am till noon, then from noon till six pm, then the fours are from six pm till 10 pm, 10 pm till 2 am, then finally 2 am till 6 am completes the cycle (and we do this for fun!).  The hardest shift it the 10 pm till 2am shift. It’s all in the dark and one was probably well asleep from their off 6 pm till 10 pm shift.  The 2am shift is tough too but we get to see the sunrise, which is always a delight and amazing display of the hope for the day to come.
 
Another great activity on this day was we all had showers! We have lots of hot water from running the motor every day to charge the batteries and keep the fridge/freezer cold.   It was great to get cleaned up and smelling nice, because, you know, sometimes a guy just likes to feel pretty.  Well, maybe not pretty, but good, or at least not rank. We’ll take not smelling bad any day over the four or five days of accumulated stench from being too hot due to being overdressed and working hard, then too cold from not working enough and sitting for long periods of time in our wet clothing (and we do this for fun!).
 
A common saying from our skipper is to “sail her like a stolen rental!” well, as Steve just told me, if we’re sailing her like a stolen rental then we’re sleeping in the trunk of a moving stolen rental!  Sleeping is a challenge to say the least. Not only are we swaying side to side, front to back but there is constant noise from all the movement of people and boat hardware, also the rush of the water going by as the boat travels at 8 to 13 knots is amazingly noisy. Combine all this together with the rushing wind and breaking waves and a choppy sleep pattern and it makes for pretty trying time to get any good sleep. But when we do sleep and it does come, eventually, it’s efficient and effective. We all are getting enough to function well, drive well, eat well, make good decisions and take care of one another.   
 
As Mike said:  They have intense real times every evening now!
 
We have received great news! All our hard work is paying off, apparently we are in 2nd position overall and 1st in our division. This is inspiring and has been a good boost to the crew. We’ll soon be at the half way point and working on the fast half as the race always seems to go faster in the second half. Not only do we not have the Straits to get out of but we’re getting better at driving and have a more constant and efficient sail set. Here’s to “sailing it like we stole it!”
 
New speed record : 14.9 by Tim, downwind in 10 to 20 knots, gusting to 28knts
 
The Vic-Maui is about Adventure, Teamwork and Challenge, we are certainly experiencing our fair share.

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The wind has finally filled in behind us, although quite lite it is nice to be running downwind averaging close to 9 nm per hour on each shift. That’s more than 200 miles per day, a great psychological boost to the crew knowing that we are eating up the miles.  The competition has heated up with the A team closing in on the B team but still lagging a little behind.
Running downwind can be a bit tricky and nerve wracking until you get the hang of it.  We are reaching speeds over 12 knots and there is thirst for more.  But as much as the speed is exciting, there are a number of things that need to be watched and processed all at the same time for downwind sailing to be successful and not catastrophic.  Visual inputs from the sails, the boat, the horizon and instruments along with feeling and anticipating what the boat is doing beneath one’s feet all must be taken into consideration and reacted to instantly. You need to know a heading to sail, the compass bearing to steer to. Then you need to know where the wind is coming from and how much you can turn the boat in each direction (so as to not round up into the wind or collapse the sail behind the main, either of which is not good).  From there you need to watch the Spinnaker out in front of the boat as well as the bow of the boat as it travels through the water bouncing along, up and down crossing the horizon. The trick is to keep the spinnaker full out front, pulling the boat along as it squirrels back and forth wanting to round up or collapse down. This is not a natural position for the boat to travel and the only way to keep it in this direction is to work the rudder constantly, teasing the craft to stay in the sweet spot of maximum speed and away from the more natural tendency of head to wind or to back wind.  The responsibility is totally on the helmsperson. They need to be focused and have all their concentration on the task. From all the inputs available they chase the wind and waves looking to “surf” down a large cresting wave as it passes under the boat. This will deliver optimum speed. The boat races down the front of the wave being pushed by the wind. We work to set up this scenario time and time again looking for the elusive personal best speed record or, if lucky the top of the leader board! 
 
The race has had its first retired vessel with Crossfire throwing in the towel due to “multiple major mechanical failures”. We are disappointed to lose a competitor but understand that safety is a priority and the race is long and dangerous. The “space ship” that is our boat must be reliable and dependable for the entire crew over the entire duration. If it isn’t then the wisest course of action is to head back. Last we heard she is sailing back to Seattle.
 
On the topic of a dependable vessel, today we sent Dave up the mast to check on our external halyards,  he made a few adjustments but was happy with the lack of wear. So far that set up is working beautifully. Another boat system is presenting itself to be a concern. The steering cables and wheel bearings seem to be giving us issues. The cables, which are brand new especially for this race, have been stretching. This was not unexpected as it has happened before and is a chronic issue with Beneteau boats, so Steve squeezed himself down into the rear garage behind the Wheel to make the necessary adjustments. This has made a big difference in the feel performance of the steering.  The bearing on the other hand is a different matter. Although not critical it seems there is a metallic thump sound every now and again coming from what we suspect is a bearing around the steering shaft attached to the steering wheel. There is no fear of losing steering it just appears to be a wear issue that will need to be addressed at some point when we have access to parts and professionals.  
 
Top speed of the day: Don at  13.9
 
A big “Thank You” to Brenda for her wonderful Pasta Cream Chicken, mmmmmmm Good!
As Gunnar stated: Thrilling high intensity ride through endless expanses nautical

96
 
Well that was a BFU!
The first opportunity to launch a spinnaker and it did not go well! For some reason the port spin haylard outer covering has cut away and bunched up exposing the internal core and rendering the line useless.  For the next several hours TST worked to figure out the source of the problem and a solution that is both workable long term and safe. The solution came from the most experienced member of the crew, Gunnar, in a pair of external halyards, one down each side of the mast, and two turning blocks at the mast head strapped above the exit point of the old halyards.  Needless to say much speed and many miles were lost in the preparation and execution of the work-around but we got it rigged and we soon had a spinnaker billowing before us as we resumed the task at hand towards Maui.
 
As Keturah stated: Twisted Halyards Incite Reduced Travel; Expensive, Even Now, or from Don: Two Halyards In Ruins, Two Extra External Now
 
The winds are off our starboard back quarter pretty consistently with a strength of 8 to 20 knots. We are achieving good boat speeds of 9 to 12 knots. With a rolling sea state of short, shallow cresting waves. The big ones haven’t set up yet so surfing down the waves isn’t happening but we know they will come.
 
Looking around the inner cabin of the boat the term “low hanging fruit” came to mind as I see swinging hammocks of oranges, apples, grapefruit and veggies. There must be somewhere near 70 or 80 oranges, about the same for apples, 20 or so grapefruit and a 3 foot long hammock stuffed with lettuce, celery, tomatoes, cucumbers and kiwi’s. The fresh produce has been wonderful on board. Many of the crew are eating an orange every morning and it’s not uncommon for someone to eat a kiwi straight – skin and all. The plumbs and grapes are disappearing quickly as well. We all know the need to keep our bodies hydrated and energized and the importance of fresh produce isn’t lost on anyone.
 
We’re starting to think about having showers as well. The growing stench below decks can no longer be blamed on the rotting fruit (there is none!). Our fresh water maker is working well and skipper John is confident we can have showers, something we all are looking forward to. Managing personal hygiene isn’t difficult it’s just we have limited our clothing quantity so as to reduce weight. The plan is to have everyone get “ripe” at about the same rate so no one particular individual can be singled out. It’s a good plan and there certainly will be a rush to the front of the line for the shower once the water is ready.
 
A little about the crew. There are 10 of us on board; three from Alberta, six from B.C. and one from Bellingham, Washington.  Dave, Don and Tim are from the Edmonton area, Mort, Gunnar, Mike, Dan Steve and Brian hail from the Vancouver area and Keturah lives in Bellingham.  There is a great deal of sailing depth and experience in this crew with everyone a talented driver not afraid to do what’s necessary behind the wheel in whatever conditions are present. There will be a combined total of about 24 Vic-Maui crossings with this crew once this one is complete and many tens of thousands of blue water sailing miles worth of experience. This crossing alone adds 2308 nautical miles and at least 300 hours to each sailors resume and experience bank.  If you were not confident in your blue water driving skills before this race, you certainly will be after it!