Vehicles

The Pegasus Open 50 Raceboat Log: Day/Night One

By Brian Lam on July 7, 2009 at 4:39 AM

July 5th, 2:40PM PST, 2009, Catalina Islands: Right before the start, one hour on our way, our hydraulics failed. That’s the system that helps cant the keel. It’s a must have.

Our shore team hustled and made miracles happen. They had just 50 minutes because 10 minutes before the start they have to be off the boat with Crusty and I the only souls on the mighty Pegasus. By the time they hopped into our escort boat, we had half of our hydraulic systems back up. That’s enough to take us to Honolulu safely. Thank goodness for redundant systems, and thanks to Gilesie and Zan for a miracle fix.

Now it is just the two of us sailing on our way to Honolulu. We’re upwind because we must leave the top of Catalina to port. This is the only mark of the course. Next stop, the Diamond Head lighthouse.

We had a good start, just where and when we wanted: At the boat end 10 seconds after the gun. We are now happily sailling upwind, half way to Catalina. Crusty (Mark) is steering.
Course 234° T, Speed 8.2 Knots, Lat 33° 33′ N, Lon 118° 27′ W

July 5, 7:00 PM PST, 2009, Catalina Islands

We are getting ready for a wild and wet night. Now the wind is gusting to 25 knots and the seas have grown to 9 feet. Check out this picture taken from the nav station.
Course 220° T, Speed 10.5 Knots, Lat 33° 05′ N, Lon 119° 05′ W

July 6, 8:00 AM PST, 2009

Mark and I split the night. I stood watch until 2 am, Mark took over until sunrise. We are both wet, cold, battered by waves, yet happy as can be: We sailed fast and smart.

At one in the morning we put up the big Genoa (the big sail up front with about 120% of the usual area), cracked the sheets and stood on 14 to 16 knots. Fast into the night. We saw lights from racers ahead of us, then on our beam (side), then behind us, Then no more.

I saved a life last night. I was hit on the chest by a giant flying fish. I looked at it flapping in the dark amidst the fluorescent krill brought on by the large waves submerging the boat periodically. So, I made a dive for the fish on my way, hit the auto-pilot switch, grabbed the fish, felt a violent right turn, and I got washed to leeward (away from the wind) by a wave. Bloodied nose, bruised knee. The autopilot didn’t engage. But I saved the fish. I wasn’t going to eat it. It was a male so no Tobiko, anyhow. Now this fish has quite a story to tell his fellows. Mark slept down bellow through all of this.

Pushing hard for the record after a wild, wet and exhausting night.

Course 219° T, Speed 14 Knots, Lat 31° 18′ N, Lon 121° 27′ W

Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He’s also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He’ll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50. He and Mark Christensen set the race record for a double handed team in 2008 with a time of 7 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds, besting all boats in overall time for that year.
[Previous Pegasus Sailing posts on Gizmodo, Pegasus]

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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)

  • protohiro
    July 07, 2009 at 2:53 PM

    @Brian Lam: Downwind on spinnaker or is that really the speed it can hit reaching? Regardless, that is crazy fast, I think the "hull speed" of a 50ft displacement hull is like 8 or so.

    protohiro

  • DaisyRuth
    July 07, 2009 at 1:17 PM

    Yikes, flying fish what next.. See any sharks out there?

    DaisyRuth

  • MajorHavoc
    July 07, 2009 at 11:30 AM

    Same here! Can't wait for the next update!

    MajorHavoc

  • Curves
    July 07, 2009 at 10:49 AM

    @OMG! Ponies!: You worry me sometimes Ponyman.

  • *The_Wizard*
    July 07, 2009 at 8:51 AM

    Keep it coming you guys. I'm loving the updates.

  • Duckspwn
    July 07, 2009 at 6:11 AM

    @brandeis1: I was under the impression that if your hands were wet it was kind of alright to pick up a fish?

  • Duckspwn
    July 07, 2009 at 6:10 AM

    @OMG! Ponies!: I would watch out if I were you Brian. Editorial Director you may be, but everyone here knows who is really in charge. We're looking at you Ponies.

  • OMG! Ponies!
    July 07, 2009 at 6:01 AM

    @Brian Lam: I've seen and survived a lot of bad sci-fi. I'm immune to the effects of both versions of "THX-1138", can watch "Attack of the Clones" without getting queasy, and no longer feel a pang of exasperation at either the virus scene in "Independence Day" or Lex's infamous "This is UNIX; I know this" line from "Jurassic Park". I can even watch "Lawnmower Man" with minimal groaning. Watching either "Matrix" sequel leaves me completely unaffected.

    "Transformers 2" proves the destructive power of man over machine. I've been fighting with my insurance carrier for the past week because my policy contains a specific exclusion for bodily caused by watching Michael Bay movies. And considering that I suffered multiple organ failure...

  • Geisrud
    July 07, 2009 at 5:59 AM

    @OMG! Ponies!: That's like some crazy pseudo-real-life meta paper/rock scissors.

    Or as Keanu would say, "Whoa."

  • Brian Lam
    July 07, 2009 at 5:51 AM

    @OMG! Ponies!: no, I think I got it right.

  • Brian Lam
    July 07, 2009 at 5:50 AM

    @protohiro:
    I was on it and it hit 16

  • Geisrud
    July 07, 2009 at 5:30 AM

    @brandeis1: He gave it more of a chance than if he left it laying there in the boat.

  • Geisrud
    July 07, 2009 at 5:29 AM

    @CameraShoe_GitEmSteveDave: I try not to get involved with nature...until it calls; and when nature calls - you gotta go.

  • protohiro
    July 07, 2009 at 5:29 AM

    14 knots! my god this is a fast boat.

    protohiro

  • OMG! Ponies!
    July 07, 2009 at 5:28 AM

    @Brian Lam: Come to think of it, you completely bollixed the formula.

    Nature > Man; Robots > Nature; Man > Robots

    According to "The Day After Tomorrow", the planet will kill us. According to "The Matrix", machines will take over the planet.

    And nothing can rival the mind-numbing unspeakable horror that is "Transformers 2", created by man, which has put me off robots for years to come.

  • OMG! Ponies!
    July 07, 2009 at 5:22 AM

    @Brian Lam: Unicrom eats planet. Machine > Nature.

  • brandeis1
    July 07, 2009 at 5:21 AM

    ... I thought picking up a flying fish messes up the mucus covered on them that helps protect them while they're flying, thus depriving them of one of their major forms of self defense against predators.

    I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't have spent the weekend at Catalina myself over the 4th, but just the same... did he REALLY save that fish?

  • Zkdog
    July 07, 2009 at 5:20 AM

    @Brian Lam: That liine of thought is so full of win.

    Zkdog

  • OMG! Ponies!
    July 07, 2009 at 5:05 AM

    @Curves: I've got a fish story that I live-blogged.


    July 30, 1945, 00:14
    Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte... just delivered the bomb.

    The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water.

    00:26
    Vessel went down in 12 minutes.

    00:56
    Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that when you're in the water, Chief? You tell by looking from the dorsal to the tail.

    01:16
    Just found out that our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week.

    05:34
    Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin', so we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know, it was kinda like old squares in the battle like you see in the calendar named "The Battle of Waterloo" and the idea was: shark comes to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin' and hollerin' and screamin' and sometimes the shark go away... but sometimes he wouldn't go away.

    06:36
    Sometimes that shark he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. And, you know, the thing about a shark... he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living... until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'.

    06:38
    The ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come in and they... rip you to pieces.

    08:12
    You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don't know how many sharks, maybe a thousand. I know how many men, they averaged six an hour.

    August 2, 1945, 8:06
    On Thursday morning, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boatswain's mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up.

    8:07
    Bobbed up, down in the water just like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist.

    August 4, 1945, 12:03
    Noon, the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us. He swung in low and he saw us... he was a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper. Anyway, he saw us and he come in low.

    15:12
    Three hours later a big fat PBY comes down and starts to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened... waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went in the water; 316 men come out and the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.

    OSCAR PLEEZE!!!

  • Brian Lam
    July 07, 2009 at 5:02 AM

    @CameraShoe_GitEmSteveDave: How I see things: Nature > Machine > man.

    Think: Tidal wave wipes out a city of robots that just wiped out mankind.

  • DayWeSpilledThePaint_GitEmSteveD
    July 07, 2009 at 4:57 AM

    See, that's nature for you. You try to help it out, and in the end, it made you leave a trail for sharks. Damn flying feesh.

  • Curves
    July 07, 2009 at 4:50 AM

    I loved the fish story. Thats the sort of stuff we would never hear if they werent live blogging this.

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