We are in the final stretches of the race. We hooked up with a nice squall last night that picked up to about 28 knots of wind speed. It was all hands on deck to get the weight moved aft and all the crew weight. We gybed and have been aiming from Hawaii. It’s a very close race with Magnitude right now.

Everything becomes a little more difficult when we are trying to figure out where they are with a six hour delay on the tracking. They have been doing a good job to use that delay to their advantage and sneak away from us. The outcome of this race will probably be decided in the next 12 hours depending on wind direction and strength. The boys are working really hard on the handles and the drivers are taking every wave they can. The boat is settled into a nice groove right now and the off watch is trying to get some rest before a bug push tonight. We have ETA of tomorrow morning. Wish us luck on this last push and hopefully the next update will be from land.

By the way, the tracker will go live when we hit 100 miles from the finish. So west coasters, get up early and check it out! And east coasters, enjoy a nice breakfast while we make final gybes down the Molokai Chanel and into Diamond head!

http://live.adventuretracking.com/transpac2011

Thanks,
Doogie

We definitely have a race on our hands. Magnitude found something last night that we did not have. They used some leverage and now we are working hard to figure out what the next phase of the race will be. Everyone is putting in the extra effort to keep the boat going at full pace. Moving the stack, trimming hard, and making sure all our maneuvers are all hands.

The mood on the boat is good but focused on working hard and getting there. We can all start to feel that Hawaii is arriving.

Oh and is it getting hot. The inside of the boat is getting unbearable – especially after moving the stack and getting a full sweat on.

See you all in a coupe of days.

Doogie

Zio enjoying some authentic freeze dried Mac and cheese. The freeze dried pasta meals are especially tough on the Italians!

We are having a very pleasant night of sailing. About 13 knots, clear skies and some nice seas.

We can see a few squalls starting to form which might give us some work at sunrise. The maneuvers have calmed down allowing everyone to catch up on some sleep.

Doogie

Lots of work are the words for the last 24 hours. We are defending against magnitude, trying to anticipate the breeze, and conserve our assets. There were lots of maneuvers and a bit of an issue. Are all solved now but the team worked hard all night trying to stay in phase with the breeze and keeping the boat going fast. The same routine has continued during the day with little rest.

On the food side, matty pulled out a nice half way meal. We had freeze dried rice and beans, fresh avocado and tortillas to make some burritos!

Needless to say that a few hours later the boat did not smell very fresh.

So overall we are happy but nervous about covering magnitude. I’m sure they are working hard on their boat also to try and catch us.

Hap enjoying a nice afternoon on the aft stack.

Well, we are well into the transpac. I can’t go into all the maneuvering details in case our friends on magnitude are reading this. But needless to say that the tactical battle is in full swing. Both boats are trying to learn each others strengths and weaknesses. The 6 hour delay in the scheds also makes things a little more tricky in trying to understand who has what kind of wind where. We had some tricky sailing last night with it being very dark and very shifty breeze.

Conditions on the boat are definitely starting to get warm and sticky. Getting any air circulation through the boat is a premium.

Moving the stack is becoming a constant activity. Up, down, forward, aft…

Soapie is working hard on finding us the right lane of breeze as we approach the pacific high.

Doogie

Thomas having a bit of a clean up. Yes, the french do clean!

We are currently ripping along at 15 knots. People are eating, the boss is smoking a cigar and people are happy. We have our A2 up after going through a couple of changes. We sailed all night with our r2 and were moving along nicely. We had several peak speeds of 25 knots as the breeze built but mostly under control.

On other subjects, most people ate lunch today, freeze dried chicken teriyaki. And peoples first bowel movements started happening also. So all in all, a pretty exciting day!

The water is warming up and the thermals are coming off. Mickey is already walking around downstairs in his speedos.

We are keeping a close eye on Magnitude. They are definitely keeping us on our toes.

The talk on the boat is to juggle how high to go but stay away from the high. So right now we are having a pretty normal transpac.

JV driving, pirate on the main, Thomas trimming the kite, and last but not least, Blue and reaper on the handles. Oh and mickey in the back taking care of business.

Doogie on Day 1

Last night was spent mostly sailing just off the breeze. Mag was behind our line when it went dark. It’s been very wet on board with lots of water down below. Constant bailing.

We went through the changes. From the j2 only to j2 with a genoa staysail. Then a change to the jib top. About an hour ago we put up the r2 and our now ripping. Actually we have been ripping all day touching over 20 knots regularly. We have been putting reefs in and out often. We just took a reef out and had a minor issue so that meant a trip up the mast. Not that much fun.

Doogie

Hello Bella Mente Family,

I just wanted to send a short note to let you all know Bella started the Transpac Race today at about 1:00 PDT. All looked well from our vantage point on Point Furmin. Bella seemed to be moving nicely against our main competitor, Magnitude 80. Magnitude seemed overpowered sailing upwind in 15-18 knots of breeze.

Hopefully the additional righting moment we have on Bella will prove to help in this race. We should be able to use that stability for the first few days before the sailing angles get deeper, and we put up the spinnakers for the rest of the race

Current routing from this morning has Bella finishing in about 6.5 days (early morning on Friday, July 15th). This could be a record breaking run, so keep up with the boys on their way to Hawaii

A big thanks goes out to all of our suppliers and support team for getting us to the start. It was no small feat after out mast failure in March. We also added water tanks and a new bowsprit, and also shaved some weight off the keel. In addition Bella has had some creature comforts added so the team gets proper rest, and is as comfortable as possible.

Special thanks goes out to:

-Brad Fitzgerald and the team at Fitzgerald Racing
-New England Boatworks, Don Watson and Tom Rich
-Hall Spars and Rigging: Gunnar, Ben, Eric, Tom, and Dave Moffett, and the rest of the team in Bristol
-Future Fibres Rigging: Alex R., Ewan, and Alex W (who is now racing to Hawaii)
-North Sails, Chris Williams

I am headed back to Rhode Island tomorrow to continue the build of the new Bella Mente; I will be available any time and will be on East coast time. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, or need to get in touch with someone on the yacht in an emergency situation.

Thanks, and wish for the best in our quest for the Barn Door Trophy!

-Rob