Thelonious Sails for Mainland
- Thread starter Christian Williams
- Start date
brianb00
O - 34
Christian return ?
I was in Nawiliwili with Christian, and left a day later for SF. I got in 0100 this AM. It was a rough return almost all the way as the high nearly disappeared with Lowell and Marie tracking across the Eastern Pacific. 2000 miles upwind and a rough run into SF in the last 3 days. Any word on Christian's current status ? All OK ? hurricane Marie made the weather planning pretty involved.
Brian
I was in Nawiliwili with Christian, and left a day later for SF. I got in 0100 this AM. It was a rough return almost all the way as the high nearly disappeared with Lowell and Marie tracking across the Eastern Pacific. 2000 miles upwind and a rough run into SF in the last 3 days. Any word on Christian's current status ? All OK ? hurricane Marie made the weather planning pretty involved.
Brian
From the tracking record, he has gained enough latitude to be almost west of southern Oregon, having gone north to get around the high.
Progress!
Loren
Rick R.
Contributing Partner
Brian,
if you go to the first page/post of this thread, Christian has a link there for his tracker. Looks like he's doing well and getting closer!
Rick
brianb00
O - 34
Thanks Rick,
We had a few meals together and owe him for some help with video guidance. He had no SSB so we couldn't include him in our little return net.
Brian
Looking good Christian! I'm sure a lot of us are checking in everyday to see where Christian is and if he has posted anything, pretty damn cool. Bumping the link;
http://olmsteadwilliams.com/christian.html
http://olmsteadwilliams.com/christian.html
windjunkee
Member III
Aereagnie is a C&C 43. Cecile is the current commodore of our Southern California Pacific Singlehand Sailors group and did Guadalupe Island at the same time we did the race on VOR, as well as Pacific Cup in the Doublehand Division. She is good people.
Jim McCone
Voice of Reason, E-32 Hull #134
Redondo Beach, CA
Jim McCone
Voice of Reason, E-32 Hull #134
Redondo Beach, CA
Jeff Asbury
Principal Partner
Outstanding Christian! Welcome home indeed to you and Thelonious! :clap:
I'm flattered at the interest from so many veteran sailors. Got a good night's sleep, only woke up once puzzled because there was no movement of the boat at all. Becalmed?
Here's the final pin entry at http://olmsteadwilliams.com/christian.html
Noon Position Sept. 9--Arrival
Slid into the slip at California Yacht Club at 0532 hours under a harvest moon. I took a shower, hurriedly prepared the boat for guests, and then Project Manager Tracy Olmstead Williams arrived with eight bottles of Prosecco and, by 11 o’clock, all my favorite people in the world for an unanticipated dock party . I suppose I’ve slept four hours in two days, but it seems quite wrong that they’ve now sent me home to bed. There are no night reefs to put in, no Grib file to study, no tally of mileage or notes about gear to mend. No day to check off. No sat phone email to laboriously file. No glance at the barometer, bilge, vane or sky. At 0532 HRS life returned with a lurch to what it was, a lucky American life with unlimited horizons. But already I’m thinking of that other, more literal horizon, now a half-remembered dream. Twenty days out and 28 for the return, 6,000 miles, two months, two hurricanes dodged, a summer alone but never alone, because where you go, I have learned, you carry everyone you have ever known. Thanks for your messages and encouragements, I always felt the boat was full of all of us, and that we did glorious things together. The “Thelonious” sat phone email expires soon, please revert to my land-bound address.
More about the trip, the boat, and what I did wrong and right after I settle back in.
Regards,
Christian
Here's the final pin entry at http://olmsteadwilliams.com/christian.html
Noon Position Sept. 9--Arrival
Slid into the slip at California Yacht Club at 0532 hours under a harvest moon. I took a shower, hurriedly prepared the boat for guests, and then Project Manager Tracy Olmstead Williams arrived with eight bottles of Prosecco and, by 11 o’clock, all my favorite people in the world for an unanticipated dock party . I suppose I’ve slept four hours in two days, but it seems quite wrong that they’ve now sent me home to bed. There are no night reefs to put in, no Grib file to study, no tally of mileage or notes about gear to mend. No day to check off. No sat phone email to laboriously file. No glance at the barometer, bilge, vane or sky. At 0532 HRS life returned with a lurch to what it was, a lucky American life with unlimited horizons. But already I’m thinking of that other, more literal horizon, now a half-remembered dream. Twenty days out and 28 for the return, 6,000 miles, two months, two hurricanes dodged, a summer alone but never alone, because where you go, I have learned, you carry everyone you have ever known. Thanks for your messages and encouragements, I always felt the boat was full of all of us, and that we did glorious things together. The “Thelonious” sat phone email expires soon, please revert to my land-bound address.
More about the trip, the boat, and what I did wrong and right after I settle back in.
Regards,
Christian
brianb00
O - 34
Great Voyage Theolonious
Home ! Charming to have shared a few meals in Kauai with you, sv Crazy Love, and Capt. John. When you wake up, if interested, I will post s/v Frolic's return trip video, a story of a lot of low pressure systems. That high pressure was certainly hard to find ! We steered north to SF to avoid the waves off So. Cal.
Can't wait to see the video you are splicing together.
Regards,
Brian Boschma
s/v Red Sky and return crew on s/v Frolic (Steve Hodges Capt.)
Home ! Charming to have shared a few meals in Kauai with you, sv Crazy Love, and Capt. John. When you wake up, if interested, I will post s/v Frolic's return trip video, a story of a lot of low pressure systems. That high pressure was certainly hard to find ! We steered north to SF to avoid the waves off So. Cal.
Can't wait to see the video you are splicing together.
Regards,
Brian Boschma
s/v Red Sky and return crew on s/v Frolic (Steve Hodges Capt.)
I'm certain we would all love to see the video of Frolic's return--please, the link, maestro.
For the record, Brian was the race director of the 2014 Singlehanded Transpac, which prevented him from sailing his own boat. He sailed back on Steve Hodges' Frolic, an Islander 36. Steve was the race winner this year. We were held captive at Nawiliwili by hurricanes that had not read their own rule book, and gave all of us a new appreciation of, uh, weather forecasting and what happens when you tell god your plans.
However, Brian and Steve and the other fellows I chanced to spend time with are actually not inhabitants of the same planet most of us are.
They race singlehanded. It is not all that unusual for them to find their mast touching the water during a knockdown or broach. I think Steve went through two or three spinnakers in this summer's race. By 'through" I mean they exploded.
I reefed down every night so as not to disturb my beauty sleep. Even so, I rarely became much more beautiful during the night, when squalls overtake you from behind, sometimes to 35 knots.
I was showing Brian some GoPro footage of that, my double reef and scrap of jib.
"I'd be flying a spinnaker," he commented quietly.
For the record, Brian was the race director of the 2014 Singlehanded Transpac, which prevented him from sailing his own boat. He sailed back on Steve Hodges' Frolic, an Islander 36. Steve was the race winner this year. We were held captive at Nawiliwili by hurricanes that had not read their own rule book, and gave all of us a new appreciation of, uh, weather forecasting and what happens when you tell god your plans.
However, Brian and Steve and the other fellows I chanced to spend time with are actually not inhabitants of the same planet most of us are.
They race singlehanded. It is not all that unusual for them to find their mast touching the water during a knockdown or broach. I think Steve went through two or three spinnakers in this summer's race. By 'through" I mean they exploded.
I reefed down every night so as not to disturb my beauty sleep. Even so, I rarely became much more beautiful during the night, when squalls overtake you from behind, sometimes to 35 knots.
I was showing Brian some GoPro footage of that, my double reef and scrap of jib.
"I'd be flying a spinnaker," he commented quietly.
Tom Metzger
Sustaining Partner
Welcome home. Well done.
Rocinante33
Contributing Partner
Cheers to you, Thelonious!!! 
brianb00
O - 34
Video of Frolic's return from Kauai, Aug 2014
Hello Christian,
Here is the voyage for Frolic as captured on the GoPro you gave me lessons on. Note, Frolic is not a Ericson, but it was made nearby, and I happen to own an Ericson built Olson, so that maybe counts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPf-bo7ZlsQ&list=UU85HCAreLiiJvgPwvDqdWLQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPf-bo7ZlsQ&list=UU85HCAreLiiJvgPwvDqdWLQ
Brian - Frolic delivery crew and sv Red Sky owner.
Hello Christian,
Here is the voyage for Frolic as captured on the GoPro you gave me lessons on. Note, Frolic is not a Ericson, but it was made nearby, and I happen to own an Ericson built Olson, so that maybe counts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPf-bo7ZlsQ&list=UU85HCAreLiiJvgPwvDqdWLQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPf-bo7ZlsQ&list=UU85HCAreLiiJvgPwvDqdWLQ
Brian - Frolic delivery crew and sv Red Sky owner.
Rick R.
Contributing Partner
Wonderful video Brian! Thanks for sharing!