Almost wet in filming with my iPhone.

Position is: 23 20 N, 153 24 W
TWD 072 @ 15, Swell 2 m from NW, Sky 80 clear, 1019mb

275 Nautical Miles to Honolulu

Asymmetrical Kite, Staysail sailing the tradewinds

Lots of jibing in this squally race. Here is a quick one.

Squalls everywhere: A challenge yet an opportunity. We have lots of miles to make out.

This I can’t take a picture of. But it’s cool and rare. There is an essentially full moon that makes the whole Ocean glitter. Moving across our track, diagonally, with more or less the speed of the wind are squall clouds. And then… the rarest thing had us all in awe. Our rookie, Seth-the-Santa-Cruz-Surfer spots it first… A Moonbow!!!! (Rainbow of the night) You don’t see those often, you can’t see them on photographs. The bright light of the moon playing with the giant prism encapsulated in the raindrops of a huge squall. Low, gigantic, totally mysterious. If you haven’t seen one, you must. Somewhere, over the Moon-bow….

Paradise needed a sound-track, got my Jambox and Iz. What else do we need!

Nice waves, warmer, refreshing breeze, it’s starting to feel like Paradise.

Looking for more wind

Looking for more wind: everything seems a bit warmer and less windy. Squalls are already forming in the early afternoon.

Position is: 24 18 N, 139 38 W
TWD 050 @ 11, Swell 1 m from NW, Sky 75% cover, 1019mb

The Hawaiian Koa‘e

The Tropicbird, Hawaiian Koa‘e, just greeted us, 1000 miles off any land. This very elegant bird likes to come and hunt flying fish while staying in the air for weeks at a time. They’ll also dive for prey if they spot any. The genetic lineage of the Tropicbird is a bit of a mystery. A gorgeous site that had the whole team on watch in awe.

Philippe uses MotionX-GPS HD on the iPad and is sharing with you the following track:

Pegasus From the same mold , Fly Pegasus fly

We’re sailing to a tough handicap with a beautiful Santa Cruz 70 vintage design variation. So we need to be smart navigators. We are navigators. That’s what we do on the water, but that is very much our profession at Motionx-Fullpower. At MotionX we are leaders for In-Car navigation, Pedestrian navigation, Runner navigation and much more

That’s what we do. We are navigators building the best navigation tools.

We like to say that the vision for MotionX-Fullpower, our company, is to be the Navigators of the 21st century. To us it’s more inspiring than be the leaders for “display advertising” or some market-inflated “Formula” tied to a commercialism-hyped bubble. We craft what we have passion for. Real technology innovation .

Now on Transpac, we are sailing South while most of the fleet is still to the North. Let’s see how this all works out in a couple of days. We will sail more distance to go faster! If you play chess, it’s the equivalent of a gambit. Sacrifice some short term gains to invest in the long term future.

This race allows for some interesting tactical moves. We just made one. A bit of luck and it may all work out.

Fly Pegasus Fly!

The Key Tool

When we navigate we all have our preferences. After 13 Trans-Pacific races, 3 double-handed ones and records/victories in all the classics the tool that I would not go without for this race is a super accurate barometer. We at MotionX can’t wait for the first CE devices to have pressure sensors. There is so much we can do!

On Transpac, we’ve now developed the use of the Vaisala barometer. It’s so accurate that we absolutely sail by it. In this picture you can see that we’re running at 1021+, which would have been acceptable if the high had been like the forecasters had said: 1036+. Bu now that all the models show a slightly weaker high, we’re back at a sub-1020 target, which means South. This Vaisala unit sits right in front of our eyes. Analysis courtesy of MotionX predictive signal-processing. Enjoy. There is more to navigation than downloading weather charts and running routers. Thanks Goodness!

Philippe uses MotionX-GPS HD on the iPad and is sharing with you the following track:

Position is: 27 25 N, 131 37 W
TWD 035 @ 15, Swell 1 m from NW, Sky 100% cover, 1020mb

Philippe uses MotionX-GPS HD on the iPad and is sharing with you the following track:

Philippe uses MotionX-GPS HD on the iPad and is sharing with you the following track:

Erik did this short interview during last night’s ride away from the California Bligh.

Pressure Drop – Q and A time With Pegasus’s Philippe Kahn

We passed Catalina and just changed from the #1 jib to the #3. Doing 10 knots at 225 true. The course to Honolulu is 255 true. We are to the right of the fleet. We expect a right shift. Life is good.

Getting ready to start the Transpac 2011

Transpac 2011

Sailing Team:
Philippe Kahn
Mark “Crusty” Christensen
Bruce Mahoney
Curtis Florence
Darren Jones
David Giles
Hayden Goodrick
Jeff Madrigali
Mark Golsh
Seth Larkin
Zan Drejes

Boat Project Management:
Zan Drejes, Bruce Mahoney, David Giles

Onshore Pegasus Racing team:
Zan Drejes, David Gilles, Bruce Mahoney, Mark Golsh, Jana Madrigali, Seth Larkin, Cameron MacDonald, Rich McCarthy, Jade Allen, Tyler Greedy, Kathye Cattera

Online Presence:
Caleb Dolister, Peter Spaulding, Arthur Kinsolving, Joe Dolister

Sailor’s Food:
Bonnie Willis