While the North Eastern Pacific weather settles nicely, the team is putting the finishing touches to Pegasus 50. We could have a fast race. The record is a possibility. It may be windy. Preparation is all the more important.

Now we must make sure that all systems are a go. This is a very advanced and complex boat. There are a lot of systems to check: we have a canting keel, 6 separate water ballast tanks, two rudders, two moving dagger board foils, duplicate wireless networking systems, two satellite communications systems... it goes on and on.

For optimal speed, doing a last minute thorough bottom clean is a big plus. At the same time we verify the integrity of the canting keel mechanism and all the movable foils. This picture shows how polished our bottom is before she re-enters the water.

Pegasus 50 is now back in the water. Personally I am spending the day working here in Santa Cruz. Crusty is in Long Beach unloading everything from the boat, cleaning everything out, and then reloading everything very carefully - right down to the forks and spoons. Our sailor's food gets loaded at the last moment. It's all frozen in dry iced day-boxes. Right now our frozen food is sitting in a rented freezer in Long Beach.

Because there are only two of us sailing, the logistics are that much more important. Any preparation before the start of the race pays immense dividends during the race when we are so busy sailing the boat, just the two of us.

Tomorrow we get to go for the last minute shopping items. Crusty needs a pair of sandals and I need a different hat. Important details.

I will fly my plane to Long Beach late tonight after work. It's just an hour's flight.

Now we are running routes and the different forecasting models are very different as you can see from the chart. Wildly different. In fact I don't believe any of them. The great news is that the weather on the Pacific is settling. The upper level blockages are dissipating and we may be in for a more classic July North-East Pacific weather pattern.

I have to confess that I have been arguing with myself as to the playlists for the soundtrack during the next 8 days. Lots of deBussy, ravel, Faure and of course Iz!

The boat will make it to Long Beach today and I will post some pictures soon.

Today for the first time I took a serious look at the weather. What a mess! In 11 crossings I have never seen such messy weather patterns in the usually very predictable Pacific.

The weather chart says it all. Instead of one beautiful strong, stable high pressure centered somewhere 800 nautical miles from San Francisco, there are now 10 different weather systems playing with each other. Yes, climate is changing! This makes it all the more interesting for the Transpac. We start Sunday the 5th at 1 PM out of Long Beach, California. I'd love to celebrate the 14th of July or Bastille Day in Honolulu watching the sunset by Diamond Head. But a lot has to happen before that!

The Pacific has been highly unusual over the last 30 days. In particular, sea level pressure has averaged below normal off the California coast and much below normal over the central Pacific, northwest of Hawaii. This pattern has resulted in a weak Pacific high, ridged in a north-south orientation.

That means that the wind has been a right-shifter along the California coast and weakened the strong North Westerlies that are typical of the first two days of Transpac. But, things may be changing fast.

My bet is that by the end of the week we will see consolidation of the high given the trends on the 500mb chart and as a consequence a more typical, fairly windy race. But it could go either way!

The Boat will make it to Long Beach this evening. The delivery team is making good progress.

Our goal for this race is the double-handed Transpac record. Last year we established a new double handed record from San Francisco to Hawaii. This year we start from Los Angeles.

Just two of us: Mark Christensen, VP of Engineering at Fullpower/MotionX and myself, Chief tinkerer at Fullpower/MotionX and 2250 nautical miles of open ocean between the start and Diamond Head!