Galveston to Gulfport 5/25 and 26

[ChrisK]

Race tracking

http://americanregatta.com/regattas/2012/galveston/

[Andrea]

Both the Cruising start yesterday, and the PHRF start today got off without incident.  Shortly after the start Friday, Angantyr encountered "issues" and decided to turn back to HYC.  Semper Fi lost a cushion overboard, and when they turned on the motor to retrieve it, the motor began smoking.  They continued to sail but then decided they might need a motor when they reached Gulfport, so they went into Sabine Pass to see if they could accomplish quick repairs.  Failing that, they decided to return home.
Tracking for this regatta is accomplished using SPOT and KATTACK, a very reasonable alternative to the now defunct IBoatTrack and to TrackLeaders used for Harvest Moon. 
Centurion seems to be the only boat right now who can point high enough to hold the rum line.  The others seem to have varying strategies. 

[Andrea]

Centurion's pointing ability was short lived.  Have to wonder if it was not observer error, as she seems to be running into the same issues as the rest of the fleet.  Looking forward to a good party in Gulfport on Thursday.  But it may be a long haul for the racers and cruisers to get there.

[Bee]

Looking at the Grib files it would appear that for the short term winds as they near the mouth of the Mississippi will be light and out of the East.  Sailing to the East, close to shore, should work to those that can stay there a long time.  The 120 should be the best pointer and right now it appears that's true.

Being the old Phart that I am , I would have headed South until I couldn't stand it anymore.  Sure wish we could have figured out how to get enough beer on board to make the trip on my 105.  Even Charles' dragging a jet fuel tank behind probably would not have been enough.

[Bee]

For those of you not in the know the idea was to fill the fuel tank with a sufficient amount of beer and CO2 pressure so that the spigot on board would supply all the beer we needed.  The liquid bread would have kept us going with just a minimal amount of that stuff called food.  After all, the Vikings did this and look what they achieved.

[BJSailor]

Has anybody had any positive communication (radio, sat-phone) with Escapade in the last 12+ hours?  They seem to be headed the wrong way and have a couple of dipsy-doodles in their course track.

Just sayin'.  Positive communication (i.e., check in's) is a good thing.

[Andrea]

No on Escapade from the RC, but I do have a different SPOT available for Cache if anyone is interested. 
Have tried texting Escapade, as that has the best chance of getting through, absent a sat phone.
Cache's alternate SPOT is:
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=089bKKhrnlQ1T6ygyS6EKF4K7Nfa8REeJ
We hope to get him back on Kattack but the holiday makes life difficult. 
It looks like Makan Angin may be having a SPOT malfunction, because sailboats don't go that straight, and because his track shows him missing the mark. 
We had a boat go off tracking and off sat phone for 8 hours last night.  Had to call the CG before he finally realized his phone and SPOT had both gone to sleep. 

[Andrea]

Escapade is finally heading toward the mark.  If any one sees anything go wrong, feel free to contact me directly

[Bee]

Looks like Rebecca has taken off.  If the forecasts are correct that may stop shortly.

Looking at the winds, I know for sure we would had run out of beer before we even got close.

[Andrea]

Talked to one of the lead boats.  Communication was spotty it it sounds like the two leaders ran into light air and fired up their iron gennies.
We are at Gulfport.  Nice facilities.  Looking forward to a good party.  Live music with great food.  Come join us.

[Bee]

Any results?

[gwittich]

Results have been posted on Regattanetwork.
GW

[Terry Young]

I was on Cache? and I notice the spot tracker not working late in the game, way after we reset it, and realized the batteries die. Luckily one of our crew members(Denny) wife was following us on a personal spot tracker that Andrea was in contact with and saw, all was well and we were able to finish first place in our class. Gulfport was a great place and everyone was very helpful. And the race committee did a great job as always. Andrea, Jim, Sam, and all the others, that stayed up all hour keeping a watchful eye on use making sure we were safe, many thanks! Terry Young       

[Bee]

As someone watching on the sidelines, I have to say I was very happy we did not enter.  I can joke all I want about beer but the lack of winds would have been even more frustrating.  The Andrea bunch always does a good job. No surprise there.