Our primary goals in doing this delivery were to gain some offshore experience while learning from a more experienced skipper. This trip accomplished both of those goals for us, and we are so grateful we had the opportunity to sail onboard Coyote with Steve.


Coyote was a great boat for the trip, stable, sturdy, and very weatherly. In fact our route (sort of under the high) would not have been possible in a boat that didn't go to weather like a freight train. We could easily knock off 6-8kts at 30 degrees or so to the apparent wind, this opened up huge options in routing. It was a great experience to spend some time at sea in a more modern design than Pisces (even though Coyote is from '85, it's a very very different type of boat) and develop a real comparison point for our own thinking about boats.

Steve was a great skipper, and Julia and I both learned quite a bit from him on this (his 4th) trip. We hand-steered probably 80% of the time, and even had several very nice long spinnaker runs (including a memorable one under the Golden Gate to end our trip).


We were very lucky in our weather conditions, as they were quite moderate given the potential this trip has. Further, we had steady winds almost the entire time, while boats even one day ahead of us had to motor for days on end. We called it our own 'private Coyote wind' and it served us very well.


Finally, we were also quite happy to find that all of the coastal cruising we have done left us very well prepared for our first offshore passage. We found that the conditions were well within our comfort zone, and that we were capable of contributing to the running of the boat in a variety of useful ways beyond just standing watch. It was gratifying to see how far our skills and confidence have developed in the past several years, and to see those skills put to use alongside other more experienced sailors.


In the end the trip took 16 days to the hour. During that time we sailed 2300 NM, in order to cover a 2070 NM great-circle distance. We motored for probably about 28 hours total, with the longest single stretch being around 18 hours. We were close-hauled for the majority of the time, but we also had some nice spinnaker reaching conditions as we left the East side of the high. We had squalls almost the entire trip, practically until we were within VHF range of the California coast. We didn't see much sea life, and we didn't see all that much trash. We did see many rainbows, and one moonbow. In the end, we are so glad we chose to do this trip, as it has energized both of us for future offshore sailing, and in particular future offshore racing!


I would highly recommend doing a similar trip to any aspiring cruiser, as you can learn so much from the accomplished group of sailors involved in races like the Pac Cup. Many of these sailors have sailed their entire life, and covered tens of thousands of offshore miles in all conditions.

We've uploaded all our photos to a gallery at: http://svpisces.smugmug.com/Sailing/Pacific-Cup-Delivery-2010/
This gallery may expand over the next month or so as we gather additional photos from the rest of the crew.

Here's a list of some things that I felt worked particularly well onboard Coyote:

Expedition/NavMonPC:
Coyote had an interesting system of integrated electronics, and while this is something we decided not to bother with on Pisces, it was quite handy (and pretty fun). The two most interesting pieces of this were Expedition and NavMonPC.

Expedition is a pro grade routing software that uses your boat's polars (theoretical speeds at a variety of wind angles and strength) to optimize your route given the weather forecast (via GRIB files). Expedition called our slightly unusual route right off the bat, and it proved to work very well for Coyote.

NavMonPC is a free piece of software written by Paul Elliott from the boat Valis. When integrated with the boat's wind instruments and GPS it keeps a log of wind speed direction, boat speed, and other important data points. With a big crew, it was very helpful to be able to take a look at the history for the last watch and get a real sense of what the wind and boat had been doing, rather than just relying on the 'it's getting sorta more windy I guess' you might get from the watch going off. And, it'll also serve as an AIS display. Very cool.

Bunk Fans:
When we asked the crew from the race what the most valuable piece of personal gear they had was, it was unanimous that personal clip on fans were the MVP. Coyote didn't have the best ventilation (especially going to windward where we needed to button everything up tight), and for the first several days sleeping would have been almost impossible without bunk fans.

Numbering System:
Everyone on the boat had a number (1-5) and a corresponding cubby, complete with water bottle, travel mug, and spork. Having your own kit meant that there was no doubt who had not cleaned their stuff or had left it laying around. Julia also appreciated the de-personalization aspect, and suggested we have longer 'prison-style' numbers, such as: 51798.

Paper Products:
Every meal onboard was served on paper plates/bowls, using paper towels. All of which were discarded over the side (only when appropriately far offshore). While I wouldn't necessarily take this approach with a small crew, with 5 people onboard this was critical to keeping dishes down to a minimum.

Frozen Food:
While Julia ended up cooking almost the whole time (a story for another time), Steve & Connie had a good plan that they used for the trip over. They pre-cooked all their meals, and froze them ahead of time. The galley freezer was then loaded, and they loaded two additional coolers with food & dry ice in the sail locker. Using this technique, items from the coolers were still frozen after over a week, at which point they could be transferred into the galley.

Big Thermos:
In the galley there was a big, catering-style, thermos. The type you self-serve coffee out of at a less-than-fancy coffee shop. If a kettle of water was put in the thermos in the evening, it was still hot in the morning. This allowed people to dispense hot water easily without using the oven everytime. Good for individual cups of coffee, tea, oatmeal, hot chocolate, etc.

Designated 'Wet' Zone:
The v-berth on coyote was covered in a tarp, with line strung for clothes hangers. This was the designated wet-zone, and all foul weather gear and lifejackets were stored here. Crucial in keeping the salt water out of bunks, etc. The only improvement I would make would be to have a zone near the companionway where lifejackets and tethers could be kept. We didn't have any fire-drills, but if we did I think having the lifejackets on the way to the deck would help ensure that no one would come running up without their safety gear.

Anti-bacterial wipes:
As a substitute for a shower, they are actually pretty good. Connie & Steve did some testing beforehand and found a brand without much scent. Once or twice a day coming off watch you could use these to clean up, get salt off, and keep the smells to a minimum. Very helpful.

Overlapping Watches:
The way the watch schedule was structured meant that you came on and relieved one person, and joined someone else whose watch was half over. An hour and a half (or so) later that person left, and a new person joined you. This meant that someone was always relatively fresh, and someone always knew what had been going on with the boat for the last hour or two. Also, it meant that you could look forward to the new person coming on watch as a change of company:)



After some celebratory beers on the dock at the Richmond Yacht Club, we are now in the San Francisco Bay Area, doing a quick visit with friends and family, and in a few days we are headed back to Seattle to rejoin Pisces and get our land-life up and running with school and work.