Sleeper due in

Hey everyone,

The Sleeper delivery crew should make port sometime this evening.  They are caught in a bit of a dead spot at the moment which is slowing them down but we still expect to see them around 9pm this evening.  More details to come.

News from the high

Good morning friends
Hopefully the last note from the pacific high....ground hog day like adventures.
Yesterday was amazing...again..we stopped to swim for 20 minutes.  We took gopro video (available later) of our antics.  Flips off the bow, swan dives off the cabin top and some general relaxation in the clear blue pacific ocean...in bikinis and board shorts.  Gonna miss this.

Amazingly, Madie was almost not going to swim since we had spent the first two hours of our daylight shift combing, washing and conditioning her mane...but she yielded and was the last out!  Stuart was at the helm when Rebecca jumped in after throwing out safety lines but miscalculated how fast 1.5kts was in swimming speed and for one moment was swimming for her life (:-) then Stuart turned the boat to her, we hove to and she grabbed the safety line.  Very funny moment captured on video but I will need help editing it for effect.

Once back aboard we continued our motoring journey and worked on another set of tan lines.  Rebecca cheated and normalized to one set of bikini tan lines.

As the sun set, stunning us again with colors and clouds, backed up by spectacular stars and the new moon slice (bowed and wished for love and happiness to come to you Nyati) we donned our foul weather gear as it got quite wet and chilly.  The girls are holding out and still barefooted.

We wish y'all were here with us.

Wind starts up again tomorrow if my software is correct and then we have a straight run to San Pedro.  Perhaps there by Wet Wednesday racing series...at least we hope to come through the harbor with our Boat decals and Vector 450 crew shirts on...YES Terry the decals are still on and we have video from the water level to prove it!

8-10 update

Hi Friends
We just found out that Rebecca was a smoker and is now free of that .... for now.  Congrats.

A slow day through the high but nice and warm.  The evenings are chilling down and we are all in foulies but with no shoes.

Everyone has weird tan lines from their different levels of dress during the day.  We hope to get photos for you all to see it first hand.

update 8-9

Hello Friends
Well Trevor told me that when he raced the big boat to Hawaii he caught Mahi Mahi off the back of the boat, 25 ft line in the face of the following wave and well Trevor we have done that too.  3rd fish in 1800 miles...not such a good average but it sure made for an exciting shift change.

Seems our best time is from 10-11 in the morning.  The SKP lure was out.  Madie was driving and I was trimming.  Everyone else was below making yummy oatmeal with raisins and walnuts.  Madie heard the bungee pop and I turned to look and saw a 3ft Mahi launch for the lure and hit it...FISH ON. Then the chaos to get a camera up so we could capture this moment properly as we hadn't in the past.  So Becca made it up to capture the finale of bringing the beauty aboard.  Rick and Stuart then proceeded to follow Trevor's reco to fillet the fish, no deheading or gutting, and we had two 3 lb fillets shortly.

Peter treated us to dinner of fresh backed Mahi fillets with tortelli with Pesto.  Then back to shift work.  Wonderful finish to a slow day of motor sailing through another high.  5 kt winds all day.

Today started with the winds coming up to 12 so the engine is off and Madie is at the helm trying to coax 7kts of boat speed.  Wish us luck...
Cheers
Sheri

Thursday 8-8 update

Hi Friends
What a show last night was for meteors.  We saw all kinds.  One was so bright with such a long burn time that we all thought it was a flare or fireworks.

Today finds us moving around another high so we will probably motor most of the day but if we can sail we will try.  We have 70 gallons of fuel left so plenty to get across a 200 mile high.

Cheers

Position: 35 14'20.82 N,  136 42'11.40 W
Course: + 143, Speed: + 7

Update from the delivery crew:

Hi Friends
The ocean has turned more familiar...darker in color with more texture.  The skies still swell and squall but with less commitment and luckily we have avoided most of the squalls for the last two days.  Everyone getting comfortable with reading where they are forming, where they are going and devising the sail plan to escape with the boat safe and sound.  Great team work.

Music libraries are a daily discussion topic....and ever changing through the night shifts with the girl and boy teams showing disparate tastes, although Madie and Becca know a broader spectrum of music than would be anticipated by their ages.

Food stores were well provisioned so we are still eating well. Good thing as we have been skunked with catching fish for the last couple days.

Still seeing lots of trash.  Yesterday proved to be the saddest sight with a 6 ft ray appearing to be tangled in a line with a net.  The ray flopped on the surface showing us her white cream belly and wing tips as she tried to free herself.  A painful example of the nature of the impact the trash is having on our ocean.  Please donate to your favorite organization or go out and clean up your favorite beach.

Monday Morning Update from Sheri on Sleeper

Here is the Monday morning update from Sheri:

Hello Friends
Yesterday was a momentous day with us passing through the imaginary halfway point.  Just around sunset we moved through mile 1112.5.  We had a small celebration sharing a bottle of Menage a trois and toasting to Neptune and friends not with us. 

Jared shared a personal moment with us in remembrance of his dear friend's Dad 'Joel'.  He shared wonderful stories of his childhcod and Joel's playful spirit and mischievous engagement with his son and his son's friends (Jared).  Joel had the gift of a smile and a contagious sense of humor.  A toast a cheer and then it was back to business: Transpac. 

Sunday night was a roller coaster ride that saw winds ranging from 15-25kts.  The Appethyl A2 spinnaker was superb! Although challenging to keep filled with wind as the boat lurched and rolled on the liquid silver, cloaked in black.  The four most experienced drivers - Ron, Bryan, Chad and Andrew steered us through until dawn's light.  Where the wind didn't let up but the sunshine made the situation seem so much less treacherous.  Jared is on the helm now coaxing beautiful boat to find her true course to Oahu in 20 kts of breeze: FRESH.

We are doing well against our competition, which is tough.  This morning's position report finds us still in second place behind Dorade and ahead of Westward and Between the Sheets.

Perhaps today the wind backs and we make the turn towards Molokai.

Keep us close to your hearts and on your minds.
Cheers
Team Sleeper

Sheri Saturday Morning Update---The Couscous Disaster!

From Sheri Hunt this morning...

Please forward to all you know who may be interested as I have a limited address book.Well we lost our 1st in class and 1st in fleet position to Dorade last night. We are now corrected to 2nd in class and 2nd in fleet. The big boats start today so the race is on. We have about 1200 miles to go and are hoping to make it to a new windline by the end of the weekend.

This morning we were welcomed to the day by a frigate gliding across the wave faces effortlessly. 1000 miles from land and he decided to come to say hi. Circled us twice on his fly by and the off into the sunrise.

A squally night with us seeing winds up to 22kts but with no consistency.  Lots of stars and many of them shooting. The worst part so far is the smell in the house of fermenting couscous!  4 lbs or something like that was lost to the port bilge area due to water in the bilge that was isolated from the pumps due to the heel angle of the boat for the first 3 days.  When if finally splashed into the crew bunk floors it was too late to salvage the dry stores in the port lockers...the boxes were left intact except for soft bottoms and no couscous.  ;)  We bailed the bilge but the little couscous culprits remained in isolated compartments...a proper bath for the boat and crew upon arrival in Honolulu.  

Keep us close in your hearts and on your minds.

CheersTeam Sleeper.

Saturday Racing Update

As we near the near the half way point either late today or tommorrow, Sleeper still seems to be in a good position a little off to the right of the rhumb line...

Division 8 leader Manatea had about a 150 nm lead over Sleeper, but being a 65 foot boat she owes a lot of time to Sleeper. Ron had been keeping near Division 7 entry Gefion for quite some time, however Gefion has now bore off back to the rhumb line. Interesting because division 7 leader Kiho (about 50nm ahead of Sleeper) is starting to head back to the right of the rhumb line. The tactics and battle for wind are obliviously well underway!

Only a few crew updates from the last day or two. Sheri Hunt was able to report that the crew that initially fell victim to seasickness have since recovered and are doing fine. And after a cold and wet first few days the weather is now starting to improve with more sun than clouds and warmer temperatures.

As of the last couple of updates Sleeper had been running first corrected time, but we'll see what the next couple of days bring as Sleeper crosses the halfway point!

Tuesday Noon Race Update

Day one on the ocean is behind us. And things are looking good as most boats in the fleet seem to have been able to find some wind all night long.

Here is the current positional update from Yellowbrick as of this morning...

Most of the boats are steering south of the rhumb line chasing the wind. As you can see, during the night Sleeper turned even further to the left to do this. And from the telemetry it looks like most of the boats were able to keep up 8 knots all night---not too shabby! But even with the various course adjustments, most of the fleet is still within about a 5 nm radius.

If you want to read up more about the pacific high and how it determines the best route to Hawaii, check out this excellent article at Cruising World. 

Sleeper @ the start...

Thanks to our sponsor Vector450 here are some great photos of Sleeper at the start of the Transpac today! It is GO time for Team Sleeper!

Sleeper photos at the start on Facebook

Live Race Results for Team Sleeper

We're counting down the minutes until the start of the 2013 Transpac for Team Sleeper! To keep tabs on Sleeper---as well as all of the other boats---here are some links to the all of the satellite tracking data...

The current leaderboard with all boats

Google Earth link to live race update (Google Earth required)

Race update in a simple format for the web


We will be providing Google map positions for Sleeper every few hours via our twitter feed @team_sleeper as well.

We're twenty minutes from the first start, so it's time to get excited!!

Bio: Ron Simonson, Captain

Ron Simonson
Captain

Ron on Set

Born and raised in the south bay area of Los Angeles, Ron has spent most of his life near the ocean. A graduate of Torrance West High and California State University at Long Beach, he now resides in nearby Redondo Beach. When not pursuing his passion for sailing and racing, Ron works behind the camera as a member of Hollywood’s special effects community.


Growing up in Torrance, California the ocean was never far away. Starting with surfing—which is taught in high school gym class—Ron developed a love of the beach and water. However, it was in Sea Scouts that he was introduced to sailing and something that would become a personal passion. Spending summers sailing to the scout camp on Catalina Island, Ron grew to love and appreciate the challenge, hard work and patience that is required by ocean sailing. Shortly after high school Ron acquired his own sailboat, one of the fiberglass classics, a Cal 20. Used as mainly as a cruise boat—but sometimes a one class racer—Ron spent many weekends plying the waters between LA Harbor and Catalina.

Temptress

After graduating from college and getting started in Hollywood, Ron upgraded from the Cal 20 to a Catalina 38. Christened ‘Temptress,’ the 38 was a crusing/racing hybrid of a boat which just happened to be hull #1 of the series. Catalina Yachts has always been primarily known as a fiberglass builder whose boats sailed well—but were not quite race material. The Catalina 38 tried to break that mold. The boat itself was not designed by Catalina, but by Sparkman and Stevens. And instead of being a cruise boat—like most of the other Catalina designs, the 38 was a race design. Ron’s boat actually started life as a racer in the Congressional Cup of 1980. It was this crusing/racing hybrid pedigree which lured Ron into buying the boat. Used as a cruiser for the first part of it’s life, the temptation to get into organized racing slowly grew and by the late 1990s it became a reality. Starting with weekday evening club races and then growing into the more professional weekend races, Ron’s passion for racing slowly began to outgrow the ability of his Catalina 38.



In 2003 Ron settled on upgrading his boat and found the perfect candidate—over 5000 miles away from Los Angeles! But to racers, there is no distance too far. Ron set off in the spring to see the boat that would become Sleeper in it’s home port outside of London. The Jeanneau 44 was already employed as a racer by it’s owner, competing in the cold and wet North Sea. It was love at first sea trial—the sailing term for ‘test drive.’ So the deal was made and the plans were made to ship the boat back from dreary London to the sunny waters of Southern California.

Once Sleeper was in California waters Ron’s passion for racing grew exponentially. Day long weekend races grew into multi-day offshore races—Around Catalina, Santa Barbara to King Harbor, Long Beach to Dana Point. Building up to Sleeper’s first complete Newport to Ensenada race in 2007.

Ron at the Helm of Sleeper

The Transpac has always been a lifelong dream of Ron’s. And now with the boat, the experienced crew and some sponsors to back him up 2013 will see that dream become reality...

Provisioning for the Transpac

Provisioning

Provisioning a sailboat with a full crew for just a weekend is quite a task. But when the race takes the team away from port for three weeks, the task gets exponentially more difficult.

Unless I have a particular dish in mind I shop like I believe most people do—a kind of haphazard without a clear list in hand. I may think of things I need to get during the day, but I rarely write them down. Shopping therefore becomes an aisle to aisle adventure–where I hope the sight of a product triggers my brain into remembering that I wanted to purchase that item. But let’s face it, that strategy rarely works well. However, since most of us are never that far from a grocery store, having to make a random shopping trip to pick up something you forgot is not such a big deal. But when there are  no stores within 500 miles and your name isn’t Larry Ellison—with a fully stocked megayacht shadowing your race boat—creating meal plans, menus and the associated shopping list is one critical task.

It All Starts with a Plan

The starting point is the meal plan—breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Usually the point person for provisioning submits a menu to the crew and asks for input and any suggestions for the meals. In the case of Team Sleeper, Sheri Hunt has taken on the role for meal planning and provisioning of the boat. The menu itself is a balancing act, one of making good tasting meals that do not require too much preparation or too many ingredients while still providing needed energy to the crew. Also thrown into the equation is the possibility of rough weather where a meal needs to be served with almost no preparation. The menu is created after taking into consideration all of these factors, and then the Costo shopping trip to end all Costco shopping trips can begin.

Water

As recently as 15 years ago nearly all potable water for long duration race and cruising trips needed to be acquired in port and stored on the boat. And with 7 people on board—requiring anywhere from 6-10 liters of water a day just for drinking—the size of the tanks and the weight of the water could seriously slow a boat down. At 2 pounds a liter that would be over 3000 pounds of extra weight! Thankfully the last decade or so has seen remarkable progress in the design of on-board watermakers. Using seawater under heavy pressure these devices can take in seawater and generate potable water. Early designs were costly, used quite a bit of power and were far from reliable. But today’s offering are cheaper and more thrifty on power—but still a bit on the unreliable side (you can ask the crew about that!). Even with the watermaker on board Sleeper will start off with full water tanks, but that amount will be about ½ of what would have been required not long ago.

From the archives...

Here are some random pictures from Sleeper's delivery cruise from Channel Islands Harbor to Marina del Rey...

Ron heading back to the cockpit

 I'd say the companionway rigging is a wee bit more complicated these days...

We even had a nighttime visit from some dolphins...

Welcome to the Team Sleeper sailing blog!

Welcome to the official blog of Team Sleeper!

We're counting down the days to the start of Transpac 2013 and we'll keep you up to date with all of our latest information and news right here.

You can also follow our tweets on Twitter @team_sleeper and also join our Team Sleeper group on Facebook !