The Finish Line

The story of Journey's End from the Skipper, Steve Brown:

Well, we have pulled out all the stops, put on the party hats and fired up the noise makers. It’s three in the morning and have under a hundred miles to go. The wind gods don’t seem to hear our celebration. No matter. We’re so fired up no one can sleep. I just got off my three hour watch with Gordon. He and I shared steering duties through a light squall. Russ is planted at the nav station, where he’s deciding how close to Kalapapa light we want to be. It’s been a bit brighter with the rising moon for the last week, but this darkness is now alive with the loom of Maui and Molokai’s piercing light houses. It’s been Land Ho! since early afternoon, and now in the darkness we are figuring our approach and subsequent final jibe to DHLH, that’s the new abbreviation on our navigation screen, now that Kalapapa Light is abeam. Diamond Head Light House is Journey’s End.

Earlier this afternoon Gordon hosted happy hour with a special bottle of Scotch he had been saving for the last night. During the festivities toasting each other, Linus stole the finest proposal, by holding his glass high and toasting all of our shipmates that wanted so very much to be with us at this moment, and that we think of them, and wish them with us for the final night of the next TransPac. Tonight it is us; tomorrow we will be with our loved ones, our race finished. These prospects make sleeping impossible. As the light house disappears behind us we all take bets on who will come the closest to guessing our finish time, Gordon’s 10:00 AM guess is looking to come the closest. Sunrise has Oahu slowly rising over the horizon as the details of Makapu are the first to take shape. We are here!

Sandy beach is now just abeam with the Koko Head blocking our view of the finish, I am still at the helm, everyone is on deck, we’re in our offshore positions, Steve Horst is on the bow, Russ is in the pit, Linus is at the mast, and Scott and Gordon are in the cockpit. Linus does a final check for the jibe, and asks me to make the call when the boat’s ready, just as we have done together for the last two weeks. As we rotate through the final jibe of the race, Diamond Head comes into view; the lump in everyone’s throats has the boat silent.

Racing directly to us is a small sportfisher, she’s really making waves. When they arrive to greet us, it’s the film crew, where they immediately start filming our finish. By this time we are smoking along in a pretty good sea way, the skipper of the film boat is an expert and has them about ten feet off our bow and the crew is holding water proof camera gear on sticks just on the waters surface, it’s wild we feel like celebrities it’s lights cameras action as we rock and roll our way to the Buoy. Just as the excitement of their arrival dies down we can see a huge navy launch approaching, she’s the one we have been waiting for. All of the wives and girl friends have been up early preparing for this moment, the excitement is intoxicating, they come abeam of us screaming and waving there’s not a dry eye on deck. In a few moments we get the announcement over the radio: “ BrownSugar, this is Diamond Head Light, You have finished the TransPac.”

As we continue sailing in the heavy wind I tell the guys in the cockpit to take a mental snapshot of Waikiki and the skyline. A few moments later we drop the sails and put the motor in gear for the first time in over 16 days.

Our escort vessel with its precious passengers has pulled ahead to show us the way thru the channel to be greeted by the Voice of TransPac, ALOOOOOHA BROWN SUGAR booms out. Many of our friends who have already finished are on the second deck of the club, waving and screaming, it’s just a beautiful sight. The escort vessels lead us past the club where our own arrival party is waiting for us, Jennifer’s parents Ken and Jean with their wonderful friends Barbara Gamer and Dennis Adams have prepared an incredible arrival party complete with Barbara’s Hula club who perform for us. After a couple of MaiTais we all realize no one has slept in twenty four hours and our legs are no longer willing. We are done.

Thank you all for the Love and support.
Brownie

Oh, the parties!!!

Well, it's been a few days since we've posted any entries in this blog. Hopefully, our faithful bloggers know that Brown Sugar arrived safely as planned. They had a spectacular arrival into Honolulu and were heartily cheered into Ala Wai Marina by the crowd assembled at Hawaii Yacht Club--a true heroes' welcome.

Then the parties started.

When BS arrived in Honolulu, a mere 16 days after they started, they were still in the first half of the arriving boats. That left them with the responsibility of greeting their comrades who were still out there fighting the good fight. In addition, the first of the yacht club parties was the evening of their arrival, leaving BS's crew time to clean up and nap for an hour or so. They've been real troopers through the parties...clearly displaying the fortitude and determination that got them through this race with their aloha spirit in tact. They seem like they really had fun!

Tonight we'll attend the Awards Dinner and proudly proclaim that " We're number six, We're number six". Until next time...

The crew will be posting some closing comments soon, watch during the coming week for their final Transpac 2007 wrap-up.

Click here to send to send your Congrats to the crew of Brown Sugar on the Official Transpac Website. Mahalo.

just 50 miles more...

They called from their cell phones at 0345 and were 50 miles from the finish. Moving along fairly slowly at about 9 knots. It may get a little faster, but their best guess is arriving about 0900. Some BS fans will be out at the finish on the escort boat to greet them, then the parties start! First it'll be their welcoming party on the F Dock as soon as they get off the boat. Then they'll have time to rest today before Hawaii Yacht Club's party this evening followed by a party each day until most of the crew heads home.

Oh yeah. In between, they'll be working on getting the boat partially dismantled for its ride back on a ship.

P.S. Did you hear they caught Dorado (mahi mahi) last night? It turns out it was actually THREE Dorado, two of them at once!

100 miles to go!!!

The BS Hono camp received the 100 mile call at about 2130 tonight. A little confusing since they were predicting arrival at noon tomorrow. We're guessing there was a minor mathematical error...the boys should be here at the crack of dawn or shortly after...probably 7AMish... Somehow they're still finding the strength, will, and time to e-mail!

Rec'd 7/24 at 2012 HT
Yup the boys are excited about finishing, we have all made our predictions of when. There is some confusion: are we talking California time or Hawaii local? Its getting pretty rough out here.

I made hot water on the BBQ this morning. The coffee clatch had tried the same thing a couple of mornings ago using the percolator. That unsuccessful attempt was during our daily morning rain squall. It's a pathetic man soaked to the bone, tending water that won't boil.

My approach was to put the tea pot inside the BBQ and tie the lid closed. Happily I removed my boiling kettle only to find the little red knob that lifts the whistle was now a bubbling red blob. No matter, we got hot water. I took my baked kettle below to do battle with a half dozen caffeine head cases. What you learn about making hot drinks aboard is the kettle lives on the gimbaled stove, the cups are filled on the drain board. Trying to pour hot liquid into something on the gimbaled stove is impossible. I promptly loaded the mugs with one cup bags, and poured. Boat lurches, and three of them go down. I now have spilled the majority of the hot coffee into all the clean dishes, and we have no more paper towels. Sheesh! Now I just found out we're down to the last Oreo.

Miss you all
Brownie

BS Fans can post their Congrats on TP Website

Brown Sugar's estimated arrival time was just moved up to 8:30 Wednesday morning and it could continue to move up earlier. They could still have some of the gnarliest weather of the trip ahead in the Molikai Channel, but they're almost home!

Anyone who wishes to post a note congratulating the Brown Sugar crew can do so on the Transpac Website after they arrive on Wednesday. Click here for the link or go to Daily Standings on the Transpac Website and look for the name "Brown Sugar" under the Arrival Date of 7/25.

The start of a perfect ending...

Rec'd 7/24 at 1348 HT

Our last dinner will be an especially memorable one this evening. Fresh mahi-mahi. With only150 miles to go to DH, can consume the rest of our food supplies. We still have some fresh carrots, and pre-cooked rice. Linus prides himself as quite the sushi chef.

All is well.
Team BS

Thank you Derek & Dennis!!!!

Special Thanks go to Derek and Dennis, our newest members of Team Brown Sugar's Support Crew. We had some computer challenges after moving camp to Honolulu...they got us up and running again so we can keep the blog current. Thank you guys!!!! Go BS!!!!

Approaching the Islands--Woo-hoo!!!!!!

Rec'd 7/24 at 0930 HT
Good morning!
Radio transmission quality was very poor this morning. Few if any were able to contact either Diamond head or Alaska Eagle. A lot of relaying and missing info. Hopefully transmission quality improves so we can get our competition positions.

We covered 174 miles yesterday- good performance considering the wind speed and direction. With just over 200 miles to go, we should finish sometime before noon tomorrow. If the winds are favorable, we can make it as early as dawn. We are actually looking forward to seeing the islands as we approach. They are a beautiful site-would hate to pass them as ships in the night--However this is a race!!

More updates to follow
Team BS

Our second update today, also received at 0930 HT
We have just jibed heading for Kalapapa light house on Molokai (150 nm away). Winds are light right now, but look promising ahead with some cloud coverage- which will be a welcome relief. We will jibe near the lighthouse and be on our final approach to Oahu. We passed Ca-girl and are in 6 th --again.
More to follow
Team BS

A note to the BS Support Crew...

Rec'd 7/23 at 7:37 PDT
A note to the BS Hawaii Support Crew regarding arrival preparations:
We are moving along at a moderate pace (maybe 175 mile day.. it is about 8:00 pst and we have just over 300 miles to go. That puts us in wed afternoon=== Hopefully sooner! Enjoy yourselves with the science experiment--Mai Tai perfection.. I will send an update in the morning..

We are all excited about finishing--especially in the daylight..Beware of over analyzing your result ---A condition also known as--- analysis paralysis--In case this does happen ; take some Advil and slowly melt under the sun

Aloha
Team BS

Life at Sea...Driving

Of the topics we have discussed one that was missed was driving. What is it like to drive a 12,000 lb 37 foot surf board downwind? First we should outline some technical details. Two forces move boats wind and engines of course we use wind, as well there are two methods of directing that force a steering wheel or a tiller, each of which move a rudder. The easiest most common sense system is to use a wheel. That’s because for the most part we all drive a car (even a toy car) and its works the same as a boat - turn left go left. The second method is the tiller a more traditional method which for some seems counterintuitive to use, to go left you push right. If your trying to get your mind around that concept it is actually exactly like a steering wheel. Just drive to work tomorrow with one hand on the bottom (6 o’clock position) of the wheel you will find that the right hand turn you need to make will require you move that low hand left….simple. A true significant difference in between the two systems is that with a wheel there is often times some form of mechanical advantage built into the system either with cables, chain, hydraulics, pneumatics etc. This can often time leave the driver potentially disassociated with the rudder action which can be overcome with time and practice. On the other hand the tiller is attached directly to the rudder. What the rudder feels the helmsman feels, a very direct and immediate action and reaction feeling and response.

Learning to drive a racing sailboat is on to itself a skill as honed and necessary as all of the other positions on board. From the outside it seems to appear that the helmsman is not working as hard as the bowman or mast man or the trimmers and grinders, but the subtle actions taken by the helmsman are directly related to the efforts of the trimming crew and tactician, it is they that ensures the crews efforts reap the most out of speed and distance. So imagine you are in a larger following sea; looking outside right now it is a consistent 6 – 8 feet of ocean swell, the wind is almost directly behind us varying from 15 to 20 knots and shifting about 20 degrees left to right, the boat speed is ranging from 8 – 10+ kts. in response to the varying wind pressure, shifting angle and falling off or over the swell or actually catching a wave and surfing down the swell. Our navigator has set a course with a very narrow range of shift meaning that as the helmsman you spend your time chasing the wanted bearing back and forth on the compass. Responding to the wind shift, swell activity and speed changes caused by wind and surfing. A three hour watch with two persons requires the full concentration of the helmsman; it seems this is why we have happy hour, so that stories can be told without losing control. Thank goodness for six hours of sleep. And than of course you get the old salts on the tiller that make it look simple, subtle shifts of the tiller as if they know where the boat wants to go before it goes there, off that wave with the wind shift and the change in speed. As an analogy, take a 2 foot piece of line not too stiff but not too soft and with one eye closed PUSH it across the kitchen floor around a table leg and out the door. Of course if you try this at home ensure that the neighbors aren’t watching.

“WE” Brian Samuel Allott

A Wild Morning

rec'd at 0830 on 7/23
We had a wild morning playing in squalls. Winds would range from 4-25 knots and shift from 40-110 degree magnetic. At o'dark :30 while screaming along at 10 knots right toward the barn I was hit with a 25 knot gust that assisted me in a round-up. Followed shortly after by a near round down. I figured that if the round up had not thrown everyone on the port side to the starboard- well I'll try throwing them back.. it worked! Soon everyone was on deck sorting out the mayhem. It is a good thing we had up the 1 oz kite. Not many sails would have survived the abuse. Unfortunately, we were under-performers and are back in 7th...365 miles to go and running out of runway to make significant gains. We will continue to press hard.

I have just finished my 12th and final diet coke (each was allowed a 12 pack). Scott spent 40minutes trying to make cowboy coffee on the grill- very difficult especially during a squall-the rain was cooling things quicker than the fire could heat things up.. caffeine withdrawals persist. We still should finish on Wed. Linus and Steve repaired the 1/2 oz spinnaker last night and we will see how the make shift repair works. 12-bolts and few feet of spectra line and a stainless steel ring were used to re-create a head. Apparantly-20 kt max is truly the max! This kite is our work horse in anything less then 20 and needs to last another 365 mile. We will fly it only during the day and pay close attention to storm cells. Plenty of food items to eat. Eating mostly energy bars chips and munchy type stuff. Looking forward to finishing....

Team BS

Chili on the Grill

Winds are a bit lighter today an average. Yesterday we averaged 8knots and so far today we are at 7 knots. Five spinnaker changes so far since breakfast. Last night(3AM) we had our first round-up. A squall came through and brought 25+ knots of breeze and the guy shackle failed. The fire drill proceeded to get our 1/2 back on the boat in one piece. In the process we added one more 18" tear near the first. I can't believe we have sailed most of this race with this sail. Brand new in April: it has been a great sail for the light air Ensenada and now Transpac. Sure glad this was added to our selection. After 5 sail changes I am convinced that this sail was just what we needed to make gains in this light breeze.

500 miles to go and hoping we are out sailing our friends in front. Chili on the grill served with ice cold beer. The only thing better would be to pick off one more boat by 0600.

Cheers
Russ

Back in 6th and moving up in the fleet...

We did pick off ca girl again. BS is 6th. We did make our 200 mile day and matched Peregrines mileage We gained on all the other competitors. Brilliant and Inspired Environment is still in striking distance. If we have a repeat today of our performance we have a chance for 4th. A podium position would require some unlikely scenarios but we are looking for any advantages we can take.

Parties at the dock will start soon-- Pyewacket is going to arrive around 10:30 HT. Watch out for the flying Mai tai!!

Team Brown Sugar

Waiting for the boys...

The rest of the Brown Sugar Support Team (Go Brown Sugar!!!!) will arrive in beautiful Honolulu this evening. Those of us that are here already are doing the best to bide our time while we dutifully await the arrival of our guys. (Seen here patiently waiting on the beach at Duke's.)

What a difference!

Brown Sugar's estimated arrival in Honolulu is Wednesday around noon. Click here to check out the ETA's for all of the boats at Transpac's website.

Sat 7-21 900 pst
Oh what a difference a day makes!Yesterday afternoon we were cruising along with the half ounce spinnaker up in 8-14 knots of breeze. We sailed into small squall line and hoped the 20+ breeze would spare our sail. At the first lull we peeled to the 3/4 oz.ASo. As luck would have it we just got the 1/2 down before the breeze freshened back into the 20+ Inspection of the 1/2 found that there was a 8 inch rip that we repaired.We have been in solid 20 knot trade winds all night and are trucking along nicely. If this holds out, we should arrive on Wed.afternoon. We have around 750 miles to go and should be able to cover 200 miles a day.

Position reports at 09:00 still rank BS as 7th. The fleet ahead of us are still making good mileage as well. We appear to do a little better than most of our competition when it is blowing 20+. The E37 can surf swell and plane allowing us to jump from 9 knots upto 11-14 knots for short burst.

CNG ran out this morning. looks like we will cook everything either on the grill or the deck-(hot enough to fry on egg on when it full sun.) We still have some leftover beef stew and chicken penne and lots of chili that typically would be cooked on the stove.We sighted some birds this morning- this is typically a good sign there are fish around. So far the only fish are flying fish.One actually landed on the boat one night.

Fighting on!!
Team BS

Choices

You may have wondered just how we find our way. Well it is due for the most part to the single efforts of Russ Turk our navigator. With the aid of some marvelous state of the art technologies he is able to plot a true Hawaii course. This includes redundant GPS navigation systems, Signet marine wind instrumentation which measures among other things speed, angle, apparent wind angle, heading, etc. Utilizing these on board tools with a lap top computer and satellite phone he is able to down load current and predicted weather, which all ends up plotted on mapping software. Now its not all just science and spread sheets. Once he has gathered all of the information including the status of the fleet and specifically our division around us he must than determine the best course to follow. You see its not “just go west young men” it is after all a race. So with all the information at hand he will make his best determination as to which course to sail taking into account, the shortest distance to travel, the best weather (potential for wind) and the positions of our competitors. With this course in hand he will offer it up to Steve and crew who are all given the opportunity to concur, discuss or add input. With the choice of best course to follow in hand the on duty crew is than responsible to ensure proper sail trim, sail choice and for actually sailing as close to that suggested line as possible as fast as possible. Than, of course, changes are made to our current path given the immediate conditions around us.

In recent years the Trans Pac organizers, apparently wishing to maintain some nautical roots began requiring that each participant fix their relative positions down the race course using sun shots via a Sextant. Yet again this responsibility fell too Russ. A man for all seasons he utilizes a mix of old and new technologies. Now in the case of our sturdy little vessel we have yet another fully redundant method of navigating. This totally human oriented manual system is used as a back up giving team Brown Sugar a fully integrated totally redundant navigation system. For this process we call on the seamanship skills of Linus. After years of blue water sailing he has acquired a marvelous sense of dead reckoning combined with some ancient mariner ju ju. For instance he was able to confirm that we had in fact crossed over the half way line simply by recalling that 2 sleeps ago we had the half way party. To confirm our path down course with every watch when he comes on he is immediately aware that in the a.m. the sun is rising behind us and in the p.m. it is setting just off our starboard bow, and at those times he is heard to say “Hey there it is or Wow there it goes again”. As for weather again today he made the observation that there were apparent “wind generating cloud cells all around us” and “there were sheep on both sides of us” this is in reference to whitecaps, we think. As well using a skill past on to him in some far past voyage he was able, using simple items found on board, in this case, a paper towel roll and plotting dividers, construct a sextant like tool and support Russ’s efforts in taking sun shots.

“We” Brian Samuel Allott

Brown Sugar Fans: Where are YOUR photos?

We've gotten a few great photos that will be immortalized in Brown Sugar's race chronology, but we need more!!!! Please be as creative as you can (or not) & send some fun photos! Here are a few we've received already: Send yours to teambrownsugar@gmail.com !

11 Days Down...4 to go?

With any luck (ok...maybe a lot of luck), BS will be arriving at the Ala Wai Harbor in Honolulu around 11Pm on Tuesday!!!! That would mean some intense sailing for the rest of the race. They would average 200 miles a day on their faithful 37 foot Express. Will it be enough to trophy? They have some tough competition out there, but if any crew can do it it's our Brown Sugar. Here are the Standings for today:

Rec'd 1155 on 7/20 We keep trying to crunch up the deficit. Sorry to report we are still in 7th place. It looks like a parade with the exception of Psyche and CA Girl who have opted for the port pole. This is costing them in efficiency to the finish line. Based on the weather models this appears to be a big gamble- if it works in their favor it really does not matter to us since they are already ahead of us. However, if this flyer does not pay it will help our positioning in the class. The rest of us are now playing follow the leader.

The weather looks like the same light stuff(12-15) knots until Wednesday- when we should hit The islands. Our two big decisions remaining are when to jibe to the island and how to target our approach. Crunching number and still hoping we can pull off a 4th. All systems working well! Spirits are a little down after posting our best day run of 185 miles. Everyone else pretty much sailed to the same level-very well! Hoping we are special!! A lot of good sailors out there and mistakes cannot be made or made-up for later.

Still pushing

Russ

The Party!!!!

Rec'd 7/19 at 2100.

The celebration lasted a few hours-decorations champagne, snacks,some stories , steaks, ice cream, presents, costumes, stories , modeling with clay(Linus has a talent!), a movie, a few more stories.....This may have impacted our performance. We dropped a position (Ca girl) by a few miles. Noses back to the grind stone today. We should post our best day yet.

Thanks goes to Linus and Scooter(Lisa too!) for their preparation for the halfway celebration. A special thanks to our Web Masterist- you truly are appreciated!

Team Brown Sugar

The festivities:

The half way celebration, it would seem is a long standing tradition in the Trans Pac society. Our crew onboard our sturdy little vessel is not to be left out or apparently out done. It would seem that “Transpacians” have practiced this for some time. We can say this as we are in the midst of some impressive pedigrees. In fact there is a combined amongst our crew 29 Trans Pac evolutions. As well it would seem some very salty dogs. As an example of one such level of experience there is an infamous line once heard from one of our trusted brethren that went something like; “Behold seaman Atwood there is no need to use such language.” To which he replied “sure that may be ok for you Noah but you’re not sharing a rack with a Tibetan Yak, you know they spit, bite and are *#^” stinky.”

Sorry I digressed.

It would seem than that as part of the actual planning process certain members of the crew begin to work on the party’s theme, menu and decorations – Yes I said decorations, in fact there are costumes. Now it is not clear that every Transpacian out here is going to this length, we can only trust in our pedigreed members not to lead us astray. Yes dear we are worried? Of course just when this party will be held is a tightly kept secret held by the navigator, who only divulges it on the actual day as it seems even with all the technology available it is nearly impossible to predict. As well there is also the discussion of is it half time or distance? In fact on the day that it seems we may cross that invisible line it is not a sure thing. All one can do is hope that Mother Nature will come through with at least one of the two things expected of her – wind. Of course if she delivered us a fish we could have sushi with our party as well.

Rather than spend a lot of time explaining it we would rather have you look at some pics.

It was a blast!!!!
“WE” Brian Samuel Allott.

Relentless is off the map, but doing great now

As you may recall, our friends on Relentless (50/52 Div) took the northern route when they started last Thursday. You won't see them on the tracking map or in the standings. So it seems they have the element of surpsrise on their side. The transponders are not working and their radio went out also. They do still have their SatPhone and are sending out e-mails. Here's the latest from early this AM.

We are really moving now. The chute is up and we are in the trade winds coming in from the North side of the course. According to our weather info, we have a little more breeze on this side than the guys on the South. We are scrambling to pick off a few boats. It's finally going well after yet another morning of no wind and rain. Everyone was starting to get a little dark and then the breeze filled in and I think its here to stay. Morale is back up and the helm is the hot spot. Everyone is taking a turn during the day, and Byron and I are doing the night driving.Its a shame we weren't doing this since Saturday. We would have been finished by Friday night. The boat is so fast and smooth. As I type this e-mail, we are doing ten knots in comfort.

Waiting for Roll Call

Sent 7/19 at 6:07AM
All is well the wind is promising for making mileage to the finish line. At 0600 we will find out how we are doing compared to the heat. We had the accelerator working but had difficulties keeping it on in the night. No moon, shifty winds varying from 10-20. At 10 we fight with a quartering sea and struggle in the 7 knot range; but, at 20 knots of breeze the boat builds apparent breeze and screams along at 10-12 knots surfing down the face of the swells.

more info after roll call

Team Brown Sugar

Too busy to entertain the BS Nation

Guess they're busy racing again and don't have much time to write to us. Or maybe they're just feasting on Filet Mignon and can't be bothered. Anyway, with no tracking information until noon tomorrow when the 0600 report gets posted there's really not much to print here.

NOAA's forecast this morning:
.WARNINGS.
> > ...TROPICAL STORM WARNING...
> .24 HR FORECAST...TROPICAL DEPRESSION COSME 15.7N 141.8W. MAXIMUM
> SUSTAINED WINDS 30 KT GUSTS 40 KT. SEAS TO 12 FT WITHIN 45 NM OF
> CENTER.
> .48 HR FORECAST...TROPICAL DEPRESSION COSME 16.7N 147.6W. MAXIMUM
> SUSTAINED WINDS 30 KT GUSTS 40 KT. SEAS TO 12 FT WITHIN 45 NM OF
> CENTER. SEE WTPZ21 KNHC FOR MORE INFORMATION.> > > > >

7/18 at 2100
Their feedback when asked if they expected this weather system to help the BS cause:
It has helped us today-however, I think it will help all the leaders as well. Hopefully, we will benefit more. Tomorrow we find out!

Since it is heading to Hawaii it may be a bit ugly fri-sat. We hoped to get more help from it if we were a 150-200 mile ahead of our current position. . . with any luck we will stay in front of the vacuum created in its wake. I will do weather in a few minutes and have a better feel for the week ahead of us. Like most of this race lots of challenges if you navi-guess wrong!

Life at Sea...Dinner Prep

Here we are at day nine having put yet another marvelous happy hour behind us last night and looking forward to more (hopefully not too many). As well today we ate another excellent breakfast and just completed yet another sail change overcoming a small technical issue and once again ensuring the reputation of the blind folded bowman. While we are speaking of food we thought we might enlighten you about our meal status. Much time was spent in the planning of daily menus and choice of entrees. Each crew person was asked to supply two supper meals. Doing the math this meant that Mother Nature was being asked to also supply a couple as well. While the crew meals have and continue to be a hit, Mother Nature is failing us in both wind and fish. Into these culinary plans were built lunches and breakfasts for each day. As well a separate culinary contingency plan was set to ensure that if the trip were to take more days than 2005, due to mechanical or technical issues we would continue to eat well. Who would have thought we’d be eating that from that menu sheet.

The next step beyond planning and storing is preparation. This does not come without its challenges. Equipped with the necessary tools, a hinged stove and oven as well as a rail mounted barbeque AKA radar reflector, one large non stick fry pan, a sauce pan for boiling, a bad knife and a large plastic spoon. The hinged stove is meant to keep the top of the stove level while our sturdy little vessel pitches around. Being hinged should not be mistaken with the term “gimbaled”. If you look you will find that the term gimbaled is actually taken from the Latin phrase translated to mean “you may not spill our beer” as the action of the gimbaled takes into consideration all angles of heel rather than just two. The long and short of it is, food, hot or cold does fly, slide scurry and slip away enhancing the clean up process. Using a dull knife it seems does have its benefits. The most potential injury in our galley is a burnt knee. Fear not we are eating well, we just ensure that all shower times are coordinated away from meal times and will certainly never be related to happy hour.

“We” Brian Samuel Allott

They're moving up!!!

moved up another notch in the fleet. They're currently #6! If they pick off just one boat a day, they should have no trouble being numero uno by the finish!

Go Go Go!!!!

Rec'd at 1300
BS (6th) has picked off another competitor -Ca Girl.We are now in our grove where we can work on slowly nibbling away at the remaining boats in our class. We are riding the tail pressure from tropical storm Cosme. This has created 6 foot swell pushing us to the finish. Team Techies (Turk & Horst) now hold the record for miles clicked off to the Barn-28 miles in three hours. Winds held in the 15-20 knot range allowing some surfing. The tropical depression brings both breeze and precipitation. We welcome these little cells of 18-20 knots to get the boat moving.

Today we will celebrate the halfway point. Which will actually occurred at 1140 miles to go at this writing we about 90 miles away. I assume Bryan Samuel Allott will document the festivities as only he can. Champagne is chilling and the Filet Mignon thawing.

From a much happier BS'er, Russ

Crew of '05...

Whatever happened to Dusty Durant? You know, the youngest member of Brown Sugar's 2005 All Star Crew. At just 16 years old back then, his intense focus when both driving and sleeping was the envy of the more seasoned crew.

He couldn't make this year's Transpac on Relentless, his Dad's boat, because Dusty is out skippering his own boat. He's representing LBYC in this year's Governor's Cup (international jr. match racing) , running 7/16 - 21. Check out the BYC website to see his progress.

Go Dusty!!!!

Life at Sea...Happy Hour

We are back for more tales from the sturdy little ship known as Brown Sugar. We have given you a quick look into a small variety of festivities on board. Scientific research, magnificently performed circus feats while blind folded and recently a brief discussion on animal husbandry or the care and cleaning of a ships camel. We thought we might continue down this path and enlighten you all on the processes used to ensure high morale and attitudes. This will lead us to discuss the traditional “happy hour”. While not a daily routine it is one that always includes proper prior planning. The timing is always late in the day a couple of hours prior to dinner. It may not be a daily occurrence for a variety of reasons, for instance there may not be a lot to be happy about today, or the assembled crew does not appear to be sad so than we just pass on it until tomorrow. That does not mean we do not plan for tomorrow – oh by no means. Details right down to which cracker and cheese will be served and what libation will be apportioned.

Regardless, the happy hour is one that all look forward to in fact those (which is the majority of the crew) who are sleeping sense the approach of the happy hour rise to partake. As noted above there may not even be a happy hour and that group of off watchers don’t even budge as if by some nautical sixth sense they know not to rise. Many things go into the making of a successful happy hour. First the apparent need for one, all or some seem sad. This we are glad to say is not the case on our little vessel as our illustrious leader has somehow gathered in this eclectic group some of the happier individual sailors around. Second, it presents a moment to just talk about the day behind and the days ahead and third, as when you gather as many avid and competitive sailors it is an opportunity to share a jaunty sea tail. A tail filled with winning and losing. Of these we believe that the most important is the third, because regardless of where our team is in standings, or whether or not the wind is blowing it is the jaunty sea tail that takes center stage at happy hour in the cock pit of Brown Sugar.

“WE” Brian Samuel Allott

Afternoon Report on Day 8...almost halfway there!

Sent 7/17 at 1626

Tower sailed down to our line this morning and is sailing in front of us and walking away. Yesterday evening, Rancho Deluxe passed us making more southing than us. We saw their lights a better part of the night. This is a good omen. They are 1st and 2nd in their class. We picked one boat off today- trying to make that a daily practice.

Team BS

Division 6 Positions and Standings for July 17.

July 17, 0600. Brown Sugar is finally sailing in favorable conditions and it's showing in their standings. They've moved up one notch to #7 for Div 6, but the big news is they've averaged 7.5 knots for the last 24 hours! With 1424 miles to go, they should be partying at the halfway point sometime TOMORROW!!! (Don't worry, the last half of the race should go much faster.)

This chart shows what's been happening in Div 6 for the last three days. Looks like they've all decided that south is the place to be.

Whale Story published! We're famous!

Click here to see our story on the official Transpac website.

No word from the boat yet today...data published for Div 6 is still from yesterday at 0600!!!! Anxiously waiting....

Comments on this Blog...What happens to them, anyway?

You might wonder what the point is of writing a comment here. Comments can be entertaining and can make this Blog more fun for us all during this painfully long race. Besides, it makes the boys happy to hear from their public, so we do forward them as soon as they're received.

Please send digital photos of you cheering the crew on! Here's one for starters: This week's XS Racing Girls at Sunday's TP start. !!!!!!Go Brown Sugar!!!!!

E-mail photos to teambrownsugar@gmail.com.

Another rough day...

Another rough day on the Pacific. Waffles and hot coffee for breakfast. Sandwiches and chips for lunch. Happy hour will be red wine and cheese. Grilled brats and Salad for dinner. Cookies for dessert.

Plenty of good grub remains. Not fishing anymore- no signs of fish for awhile. We are looking forward to the halfway party-on Wednesday. Details to follow.

Team Brown Sugar

Life at Sea...more from Brian Samuel Allott

This is our second article and it should be explained that we have been contracted as the literary agent for the sturdy little vessel “Brown Sugar”. We are considered amongst other things a true and combined figment of the crew's somewhat augmented imagination. Combining the life experiences of what can only be described as a truly eclectic group. This being said you will note that we refer to ourselves as “WE”. It seems only fair and prudent that we do so considering the fact that we are scribing (and editing some of what the crew is thinking).

All that being said we were asked earlier to describe our feelings with reference to certain activities, functions, food, or just in general regular happenings during our voyage. This particular topic was already related to via our blog by our illustrious leader and credit was awarded to a particular crew member. The topic was shower day and the human male form. First how and the heck do 6 guys keep clean? The process is actually quite simple. First you tie a black bucket on to a long string. You may remember a reference to this same tool being used in a crew research project. Next you take a cleaning product known to suds in salt water. Than while naked on deck you draw a bucket of water up from the ocean and pour it over your body. One should note here that shower day was delayed while waiting for the ocean to warm and for the small little stingy things floating about to go away. Once doused with water you attempt to scrub and clean most all of your body with one hand while holding on with the other. A few more bucket full’s ensures a complete soap rinse. This is done in the relative privacy of the aft corner leeward seat. Next comes the fresh water rinse. This is conducted forward amidships next to the leeward shrouds. This process is enhanced by the use of a solar powered shower bag rigged from a spare halyard and secured to the shrouds.

Here in lies the root of our conversations vis-a-vis the human male form. While working in the cockpit driving, a direct view of the shrouds and the showerer is pretty much mandatory, increasing the potential of mis-course tracking and round ups by probably ten fold, all due to the poor helmsman’s attempt to not stare directly at “IT”. At this point it was noted that while we all (men that is) respect our female counter parts, at the end of shower day we have to ask “What in Gods name were you thinking when you said leave the lights on!” We have decided than that the male form is somewhat akin to that of a camel, not a zoo camel but one that is living free on the range. Oh and by the way ladies thanks for the lights being on and for just being you. We do offer one solution you might be able to guess what it is if we refer to the Blindfolded Bowman?

“WE” Brian Samuel Allott

News just in...

12:20 PM
Working south for more wind. Light air is hurting everyone to the north. This move hurt us in the daily position report now in 8th.We are seeing more pressure- a good thing. A tropical depression is working its way up toward the course and moving along to Hawaii. This will bring more pressure on the south latitudes. At the speed it is currently moving, some boats may be able to ride the pressure bubble all the way there. I suspect we will just be chasing behind.

Team BS

July 16. Where are they????

The transponder tracking system is not working at all today and wasn't working correctly yesterday. E-mails have been less frequent...hoping that means they're too busy sailing fast to bother with e-mail! No Daily Standings posted yet (11:15AM)...but when they are it will be on the Transpac website.

Life at Sea

The Watch: 3 hours on, 6 hours off... with two 2 hour naps.

Today's Start: The Big Boats.

The final start of the 2007 Transpac race started out in zero to 4 knots of wind at 1 pm and finally filled in to 10 knots around 4 pm. The two standouts for the race to the west end of Catalina were Pyewacket and Rosebud as they managed to inch their way to the head of the fleet. Click here to see XS Racing's full story on today's start.

Thanks to Roger Beil for this shot of the start

July 15. Not much information.

No Tracking info for Div 6 today. The software seems to be confused, BUT there is data for the 50/52 fleet who is now just ahead of Div 6. They're still moving along nicely, so we'll have to assume that Brown Sugar is doing the same.

Sent at 2Pm today. (info is based on the 0600 report)
BS positions remains 7th. Everyone is jockeying for position in the slot and guessing which way the wind will blow to Hawaii. Still satisfied that we can still earn a better position than where we currently stand with 1701 miles to go as of 06:00 this morning. We believe we saw California Girl off in the distance crossing our path about 02:00. Tracking the class closely.

The weather is mostly cloudy, making us more comfortable. In full sun we bake. All is well aboard- we have developed a good watch system 3 hrs on 6 off and typically get 2 two hour naps. ..

Fighting on
Team BS

On the lighter side...
From an e-mail signed "Brian Samuel Allott" (do we have an author on board?)
our stellar bowman “Steve the Music Man H”, from the out on the end of the pole, while performing a peel of the ½ oz. ASO to the ½ oz. SYM. In a flawless and classic circus fashion he donned a blind fold - the assembled crowd went wild - magnificent. We can not wait until the “Blind Folded Bowman” performs yet another peeling feat.

July 14 (still). Rambling from Team BS

A solemn day aboard BS. The only sighting today were two wayward fishing floats and two sea birds;. both within a hour of one another. Other than that it was mostly sunny day. Blazing most of the time. We are still trolling for fish. Not very likely now that we are 500 mile off-shore. Typically we would see a couple of ships- we must be out of the regular shipping channel.

Did a quick inventory of food supplies and figure we can handle ten more days without losing much weight. We could all stand to lose a few!!! The best guess at this point is finishing on Wednesday. We packed light ( not like last time when we had enough food to go to Tahiti). All systems are working well- adequate fuel to charge the batteries, make water, and refrigeration. CNG may run out- coffee hounds are in withdrawals. We brought very limited happy hour supplies- today we had a shot of the Makers Mark for a toast to the wind gods.

With any luck- we should be improving in or standings.Barometers finally dropping and clouds forming- all good signs we will have some more wind.

The favorite equipment on the boat is the bean bag chairs and water maker and refrigeration. Not sure how well equipped the lead boats are! Perhaps they are more driven!! Not that we are not driven --just a bit more comfortable. The Chef has outdone himself-Eggs and sausage for breakfast- Spam taco (was supposed to be fresh fish taco) and Chicken terriyaki salad for dinner. Not too shabby for roughing it!

A happy team BS

Here's a funny story: As the wind faded at sunset we decide it was time to switch from the 3/4 oz runner to the !/2 oz kite. Steve Horst got rousted from his nap to do the peel ( for the non sailors this requires Steve to go to the end of the spinnaker pole to attach the new sail where the currently flying sail is attached). As he's standing on the bow of the boat reaching in his pocket for the fid to release the shackle, he grabs his blindfold (used for daytime napping). Linus yells out " I know you're good- but please -you don't have to use the blindfold!"

About those whales...

Now that you all have seen the photos of the whales, I would like to comment. First: the reality of getting that close to something that big. Fear, and more Fear. They would see us and come over for a look. Having two animals swimming less than a meter away, eyeing you every time they breach for air was unnerving. At one point we had two to starboard and one to port, each spout was covering us with bad breath spray, like cat breath only bigger. One curious whale came within inches of the bow, having to tail slap the water to get out of the way.

I kept thinking, just one back scratch on our rudder and our hula skirts are out the window. Yup. Scared of whales. No doubt about it.

Brownie

July 14. News from the boat.

Rec'd at 2:20 PM.
Things are looking much better. We knew the lighter boats would get more southing done than we would, we could have done a better job of covering the southern leaders, but feel we have entered this long parallel part of the course a bit high but in their water.

The toughest part of getting here is over, last night we struggled with speeds under three knots, even throwing a jibe in for a short time, luckily it was at three in the morning, so not even we could see how ugly that was. The wind has held, the running spinnaker is up, and the compass numbers are not nauseating. We had a great morning meal followed by boat baths.

Today's quote of the day comes from my watch partner Gordon Boivin,While I'm pouring a bucket of salt water over my head. "Brownie, what do women see in us? Camels are better looking."

It's a long way to Honolulu, the part of the race track where we will do better is a couple more days away. Pray for some rough water. Was that a zoo camel or domestic?

Brownie


Rec'd at 11AM.
We paid our penance yesterday and are in wind today. This cost us in daily position from 3rd to 7th. We are back in the hunt and will be optimizing on closing the gap.

Brilliant (1st)and Peregrine(2nd) had an excellent run and will be difficult to catch (not impossible). With 11 knots of breeze we can get in our stride. With a 75 mile deficit and 9 days to go that is only 8 miles a day or 0.3 knots faster.

Team Brown Sugar fighting hard!!!

July 14_What Lies Ahead...

The weather is still looking light. If you believe the forecast, the boats that went South now have the advantage. Ooooohhh the suspense!

Check out http://www.passageweather.com/ for animated weather charts of the race!

Greetings from 1015 Millibars

Awwwww. poor guys. Received 5PM, 7/13.
If ever the phrase you can't get there from here rings true. Our skirting of the high has been more a cannon ball in the deep end. We are approaching the lower corner of the great High. Once we get down low enough the wind will fill from farther behind. And we will begin the middle portion of the race (aka, the slot car zone). We will unhappily take our slot well above the boats that did a better job of getting south prior to this.

We did have a pretty good night last night, in the high the wind has been better at night, and light and variable during the day. It's shaping up for a record setting TransPac, and not in a good way. Presently we are trying to sail south at any cost, the wind has started to come aft, it's light but managable, if we sail vmg, i.e. as fast as possible, we will end up sailing higher and deeper into the High. So we are sailing low and somewhat slow. The weather models are looking like we may have over ten knots of wind by Sunday. Russ as always is optomistic, reminding me we still have two thousand miles to go, we are neck and neck with the leaders to the south, we just wish we had sailed deeper earlyer.

Things are looking up Russ just found the Ginger cookies.

Brownie (e-mail via SatPhone)

July 13. Fresh Breeze.

8AM from the crew: Well we had a good sail and have maintained 3rd in our class . Brilliant is1st and Peregrine is 2nd. Boats to the south are a serious threat for us. There still over 1900miles to go. Relentless is 1st in class and 1st in fleet. We will down load the wx and evaluate our options. So far we are still hopeful since there is still a lot of miles to go. We are still worried about the Hobie33- (reminiscent of 2005) Team BS
1AM.

As of the 1AM tracking data, Div VI is a much happier fleet than they were yesterday. At this report they were all on headings of about 220 (directly southwest) with boat speeds between 6.5 and 8.5 kts. Much better to be moving fast! ALSO just in: The Whale Photos. BS was having challenges e-mailing photos, but our brilliant boys have worked it out! Looks like they encountered whales and porpoises on 7/10!

July 12...the evening report.

The winds is finally working with us. This afternoon the wind filled in allowing us to put up a kite. We are making nice progress to the south. With any luck, we are hoping to cover the fleet to the south.

We ate well again today, Denver scrambled eggs and sausages for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and Jane's lasagna was crown jewel for the day. Not sure i will fit in the new swim suit- unless this adventure outlast our supplies(a possibility with all this light air)Ha Ha

Sky is clear, and the night sky is filled with stars. No moon yet. But it will be a spectacular rise in the wee hours. Eagerly awaiting 0600 roll call.

Sailing fast
Team BS

Transpac 1979...A different story (we hope)

Some of our Bloggers have likened this TP to the 1979 Race when Fastest Elapsed Time (The Barn Door) was achieved by Drifter, Harry Moloschco, with a time of 11:18:01:04 . Of course, boats ARE faster these days...

Do you have stories about the 1979 Race? We'd love to hear them--just comment below on this Post. Click here for the complete history of the Transpac Race.

July 12. A Great Start Today!

XSRacing's account of today's start: Sunny skies, 12 to 18 knots of wind, smooth seas and clean blue water...what else could you ask for? The second wave of starters started at 1 pm today in perfect conditions. Except for a couple of boats all boats were laying the west end of Catalina without tacking unlike the first start on July 9th. The leaders made the west end by 3:30 making this a very good start indeed!

Here's hoping this fleet can bring some of that breeze out Brown Sugar's way. Go Brown Sugar!

July 12.

The second start is at 1:00 PM Today. Divs. IV, V, and the 50/52s (including our friends on Relentless). The weather is looking light for them also. This could be a looooooong race.

From Brown Sugar this morning:
Still 3rd in class and 4th in fleet. Only real change in position was Inspired Envi- they dropped position after diving south. we crossed paths last night. We will wait and see if south pays.
Team Brown Sugar (e-mail via SatPhone)

Rick Brizendine and Bill Durant had so much fun on Brown Sugar in Transpac 2005, they went out and bought their own Transpac boat! Relentless is a Santa Cruz 52 racing in the 50/52 Division against some tough competition. Go Relentless!!!!

July 11 early PM. Light goin'

Hello all, our initial strategy of taking the high road to San Nickolas island, did not make the great gains we had hoped for. Initially sailing high will have you looking good for roll call. With the unstable conditions we believe it too risky and have opted to cover the fleet while they have gone south. we did have some prompting from the Navy. via a P-3 orion buzzing us for a couple of hours, until we figured maybe they wanted to talk to us, and fired up the radio. Sure enough they became very officious demanding us to start our motor and extract our selves from their live fire exercise. after explaining to them, the motor thing was not an option and we were part of a much larger deal the had us talk to the big Cheese, he had us tack and sail due south for five miles.At the time it was a bit worrisome. But the hours of ignoring the buzzing put us in position to sail south, they just nudged us into tacking.So far it's feeling like a really long Ensanada race. We have not seen any thing over 8 knots with most of the day under 3 and 4Bionic Turk is up to his normal self taking care of us. And doing too much. We are settling into a nice routine and have delegated duties to the crew.
Love you all Brownie (e-mail via SatPhone)

July 11. Morning Report.

Shown on the left are the 7/11 4AM positions. The note below is based on their 8AM check-in.

Position reports have us in 3 for class and 4th for divisionFIS is still not working for the race. Verbally over SSB. Inspired Envi(4th) is right in front of us but owes us time- very close!X dream(1st) stayed north and made westing on the fleet for a better position for the day. It may pay off but we are betting south is more fertile. FAR FAR (2nd) looks like they had a good day and are positioning themselves well.Still looks like light variable winds til Friday (ughh!)We are moving at 4-6 knots s/sw -hoping to just keep the boat moving in the right direction

Team Brown Sugar (e-mail via SatPhone)

July 10. Making a move to the south.

As of 10PM Tues., July 10, we see the boys parting ways with X-Dream--BS heading south while X-Dream turned even more north. Many in the fleet continue their dive south.

July 10. A Whale of a Story.

Finally this evening we have some pressure and can drive the boat over 5 knots. Hoping the rest of the fleet was sharing our pain. only one vessel in sight all day. We have been pacing one another (or just staring at one another from a mile apart)

Team Brown Sugar (e-mail via Sat Phone)

July 10. Daily Standings. We're #1...Woo-hoo!!!!

It's still VERY EARLY in the race, but it sure is fun to see Brown Sugar in the lead for Division 6 and the fleet. The chart above is taken from the Daily Standings Report. A link can be found on the Transpac Homepage.

July 10 Positions.

It turns out these positions were sent out with no delay at 7:07AM. Position data throughout the day will be a 6 hour delay before publishing, but maybe the morning report data will be real time? Each dot on the tracking website tells when the data was actually taken.

Shown here is a mix of the leaders in the Aloha A and Div 6 starts. As you can see , Brown Sugar is one of the northernmost boats (as they expected in their morning e-mail). Let's hope it pays off! Shanti and X-Dream were staying north with BS. Ariadne and Windswept are the two diving WAY south.

For up to date reports, you can go to the FIS Tracking link on the homepage of http://www.transpacificyc.org/ .

July 10. Waiting for the first position reports...

Good morning! Looking forward to the 6AM position reports, hopefully they will download when i send this update. We are probably the most northern boat. We have chosen to extend west in hopes of better breeze to take us south. Weather is misty and what breeze there is is light. A couple of big boats on the horizon. Hope we are correct with the wind predictions. Weather data is not very stable. Sailing fast despite the light air.

Team Brown Sugar (e-mail via SatPhone)

Beyond the West End...

7/9/07 6:30 PM

Nice sail to the West End of Catalina where winds were 8-12kts. Inspired Environments was 15-20 minutes ahead of BS. BS was the sixth boat around behind 4 Aloha (Ariadne, ,Between the sheets, Ho’okolohe and Windswept.?).

Winds died as we passed Catalina 3-5 knots from the west. It is starting to look like a “good day in Dana point”. Things will be interesting in the morning. Weather looks bleak near term!

Aloha
Team Brown Sugar (e-mail via Satellite phone)

The West End

Yayyy!!! They passed the West End of Catalina at about 4:30 today. Here's their first e-mail report: Just passed the west end of catalina at 4:30 . Much happier than 2005. We are the 6th boat around and second in our division. Just behind the Ben 40.7. Winds are getting ligher now less than 10 and as low as 5. Will report back later.

What a relief!!! In 2005, Brown Sugar was floating around approaching the West End at 11 PM.

The Start!!!! Monday, 7/9 at 1:00 PM

A lot more breeze than was expected for a beautiful start. Brown Sugar is looking great!!! and Skipper Steve looks very happy. Some Brown Sugar Fans were honored to view the Start from the beautiful Columbia 53, Gypsy. Thanks to Steve Washburn for that treat and for his account of the start:

Until 1230 the wind was about 8 kts at 160 - 180. In the ensuing 5 minutes the westerly filled in at but 240 at 8 - 9 knots.The start was uneventful with the fleet behaving and with the exception of 3 boats (Caulkins 50, Ariadne and one of the Cal 40's) everyone set out on starboard tack towards the west end of Catalina Island. Brown Sugar broke out free along with the Bene 40 in the same class to lead the fleet early.

The Official Transpac 2007 Send-off Party

The night before Brown Sugar's start was the first of many wonderful parties. The Spirit of Aloha was everywhere.

Go Brown Sugar!!!!

Preparing for the race...

From the Skipper, Steve Brown:
Final preparations today, food and a place to put it. Getting underway will be a welcome relief, after all the ups and downs this year. The party fundraiser was a huge success, helping raise enough to cover 100% of the shipping cost. Thank you all. I have so many stories of kindness and support that would fill a book.

HINT - How to Post your Comment

If you don't have or want a Google or Blogger account, simply post your comment as "Anonymous" and sign your name at the bottom of your text so we know who it's from. Below each post is the word "comments", click on that word, write your comment in the box, pick Anonymous, and hit publish.

4 Days pre-Start...Now we have ratings. Or do we?

This was posted today on TPYC's website, but then it was gone. So, it seems these MIGHT BE the official ratings for Division VI:
Division 6 (Starts July 9)
DH-X Dream (X-119), Steen Moller, Point Richmond, Calif. (207.574)
Inspired Environments (Beneteau First 40.7), Timothy Ballard, Sausalito, Calif. (219.509)
Peregrine (Hobie 33), Simon Garland, San Diego (221.055)
DH-Brilliant (J/100), Tim Fuller, Murrieta, Calif. (221.862)
Brown Sugar (Express 37), Steve Brown, Santa Ana, Calif. (231.181)
California Girl (Cal 40), Don and Betty Lessley, Novato, Calif. (264.944)
Far Far (Cal 40), Don Grind, Placerville, Calif. (267.327)
Psyche (Cal 40), Steve Calhoun, Palos Verdes Estates, Calif. (269.161)
Shanti (Olson 911S), Jon Eberly, Greenbrae, Calif. (290.795)

6 Days 'til the Start

6 Days 'til the Start and still no ratings. BUT we do have the Division Breaks. Can Brown Sugar bring home First Place this time? Please POST your opinion here!