Family and Friends
Thursday, June 30, 2016 – Race Day 26
WEATHER: At last, the three crews in the second half of the fleet should experience a reprieve from the 20-25 knot winds before the front runners. Winds will clock for all teams from the NE to the preferred direction of ENE. As the high pressure system jostles about to the north, the wind over the next 48 hours will fluctuate between 10-15 knots and 15-20 knots. Surfing conditions will last through the weekend with 2-3 meter following seas, so we should continue to see high mileage days for all teams.
We are pleased to announce that the Great Pacific Race Headquarters have officially made the move to Hawaii!
You too may be thinking of making travel arrangements to the islands and so we would like to give you an insight on how to anticipate the arrival dates for the rowers.
If you visit the YB Race tracker on the website, click the triangle above the word ‘Leaderboard’ in the white box on the bottom left. Look for a drop down box in the top left of the white box, which offers the VMG options: Start and Recent. The closer teams get to Hawaii, the closer those two dates become. For example, for Uniting Nations, their VMG Start arrival date as of this post is 17 July and their VMG Recent arrival date is 14 July. Therefore, it is a pretty safe bet (but not a guarantee) that Uniting Nations will arrive between 14 July and 17 July. This assumes that the team will continue to row steadily.
On the app, click on the icon ‘Leaderboard’ on the bottom right. At the top of the page there are two boxes, VMG Start and VMG Recent. Look at the estimated arrival date listed under VMG Start. Now compare that to the VMG Recent. For example, the VMG Start arrival date for Fight the Kraken is 19 August and the VMG Recent is 2 August which is a bit wider of a window.
VMG stands for Velocity Made Good, meaning speed which counts as progress made towards the intended goal. If you recall at the beginning of the Great Pacific Race, all teams were forced by the prevailing conditions to head SSW and SW. This period of the race gave most teams poor VMG as they were heading for the mark in a roundabout way, on a course south rather than west. Now that all teams are, more or less, pointing straight for the finish line, the VMG Recent brings the arrival dates closer.
We suggest booking closer to the VMG Recent if you HAD to book today. Otherwise we suggest waiting just a bit longer until the dates get closer together.
If you are planning on coming to Hawaii, please reach out and let Race Headquarters know. We can be contacted at media@greatpacificrace.com
Meanwhile, out on the Pacific, our support boat continues to make its rounds. Today they are making their way toward Pat and Liz on Team Ocean Hearts, to share a bit of belated birthday love.
Louis Bird on Sons of the Pacific (SOTP) was still talking today about the visit they had from the Galen Dianayesterday. “It was so great seeing those guys on the Galen Diana. Such a morale boost. I can’t wait to have a drink with them in Hawaii.” We also received a little insight as to the battle happening in the back half of our fleet. Louis told us “You know I didn’t care about racing, but you know when you’re in a race and it becomes competitive… Can you tell me how far ahead Row Aloha is and how many miles there are between us and Fight the Kraken?” Sounds like Louis is getting serious about the race! We look forward to seeing if they are able to make a move on Row Aloha who are only 41 NM ahead of them, and if they will be able to fend off the Fight the Kraken girls who have once again closed the gap with SOTP by another 4 NM.
Louis went on to tell us a bit about his adventure and experience thus far in the Great Pacific Race. Here is what he said:
I’m on deck. We’ve got a big following sea, so I’m steering with one oar and we’re doing 2.5kts!
I feel good physically. Both Erden and I are in good spirits. I probably get about 5 hours of sleep in every 24 hour cycle. I have trouble sleeping during the day, but I lie down and I read and I get some rest.
It sounds like Louis has really settled into the cycle of being on board an ocean rowing boat. We look forward to what will happen in the coming days with our three boats battling it out.
We might have heard of a slight advantage that Row Aloha and SOTP might have over the Kraken girls this morning. They reported in “burr, good morning! woke up to rain and an ipod that deleted all music. Vicki is considering calling it. going to be rough!”
Of course we know they are kidding, but we are wondering if they have started singing to make up for the deleted iPod.
GREAT PACIFIC RACE STANDINGS as of 4:00 pm PDT today
1 Uniting Nations: ROWING – 813 NM to finish, Rowed 1471 NM
2 Team Ocean Hearts: ROWING – 1008 NM to finish, Rowed 1378 NM
3 Moana Uli: ROWING – 1131 NM to finish, Rowed 1179 NM
4 Row Aloha: ROWING – 1308 NM to finish, Rowed 1068 NM
5 Sons of the Pacific: ROWING – 1349 NM to finish, Rowed 1010 NM
6 Fight the Kraken: ROWING – 1373 NM to finish, Rowed 988 NM
Endurance Limits: RETIRED – Rowed 241 NM
Endurance Limits USA: RETIRED – Rowed 207 NM