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Although it may be Sunday, it’s no day of rest for the intrepid crews in the 21st edition of the Pacific Cup. While conditions have ‘normalized’ a bit since the early days, the five dozen boats racing to Hawaii still have their hands full in more ways than one.

Very much now in a downwind race to Hawaii, the fleet should be sailing with spinnakers up and due to the rather unique conditions of this year’s race, multiple boats have already begun to gybe over to a port pole earlier than is typical in a Hawaii race. Whether these end up being short-lived hitches to the south or long-term moves

The sixth day of the 2022 Pacific Cup arrives with the entire fleet now at sea, and the weather conditions continuing to normalize. As of this writing, the fleet remains dispersed, though almost all of the boats - north, south and everyone in between - are in modest pressure and beginning to make tracks to Hawaii.

Friday afternoon saw the final start of the 2022 Pacific Cup as the Alaska Airlines F Division got underway in picture-perfect conditions including breeze in the teens and brilliant sunny skies. After light air and dense fog during some of the earlier starts, the racers, spectators

The fifth day of the 2022 Pacific Cup arrives with the latest sixteen starters out on the race course and the earlier starters now sailing in three distinct groups all with very different weather.

As originally forecast, the Thursday starters have enjoyed the best weather of any start day for both exiting San Francisco Bay and for making their way offshore without any pit stops. Leading the charge away from the Golden Gate is Michael Schoendorf’s Riptide 41 Blue, which streaked across the Gulf of the Farallons at more than 10 knots, though has now slowed slightly. In the early starters

The fourth day of the 2022 Pacific Cup sees two waves of starters that have merged into one. The entire fleet is navigating a very complex weather pattern defining the early stages of this race.

The fleet has now split into three main groups; the southerly fleet, the equally sized middle fleet, and a handful of boats that have hung it out closer to rhumb line up north. The northerly boats are likely attempting to thread the needle and sail through the light wind zone ahead of them, presumably to sail the fewest miles possible. On the contrary, the southern-most boats are gambling on sailing

Our fleet adds cheery information with their daily check-ins.  Here's a representative summary that nicely captures the tone of the fleet.

Twelve Winded Sky: Another frustrating night with winds around 2 knots and swirling. lots of slatting. Unable to carry the kite due to lightness of winds.
For better or worse, we've chosen a southern route. we are having plenty of discussions about if that was the right move or not. either way we are committed now it seems. hoping we sail into better winds tonight and get a bit futher south before turning towards Kaneohe

Eskorin~: are dolphins snoring? At