July 15th, 21:15 pst – 10 miles West of Catalina

The race-start was very confusing in light winds. Lots of boats with a full Catalina Eddy going. We started in 7 knots coming from 140 deg with the line set square to the course to Hawaii which is 247, the port side of the line was so favored that the whole fleet pretty much started on port. We were the only double-handed boat starting with 20+ fully crewed racing machines. We decided to start safely late on port to leeward. Transpac is a long Ocean race, risking a collision at the start is silly. We had the start that we wanted on port to leeward of everyone. The wind quickly headed. There was a light and variable transition period to a lazy sea breeze. The wind reached 14 knots at Catalina then died. as we passed the Island. There were boats on all boards point in every direction with 5 miles of each other. Most boats seem to have opted for a northerly route, tacked several times. The wind is picking up a bit. Let’s see when we get to the strong North Westerlies. For now all is quiet as the night settles in.

So at Catalina we had a decision to make. I spent an hour crunching weather information, Richard and I debated. We saw most of the fleet go North. We decided to go South. So now we are sailing a heading of 210 degrees. It will take a few days to figure out who got it right. For now, we think that we got it right, by going left of the pack.