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A wide range of prizes, trophies and honors for Pac Cup Participants

So, we know that our racers are pursuing the big Maguffin, the Pacific Cup, but that’s neither the beginning nor the end of the story.  Most Pac Cup vets will tell you that the cup awarded for “Best Overall Corrected Time” is kind of a random shot – you have to have started on a “Lucky” day with great weather.

This year’s “Lucky” day was Monday.  Everyone else got slowed down by light air.  So, pretty sure that whoever wins the cup will have started on Monday. Anyone else grabbing that honor will have done very well indeed

When we crunched the numbers on the 0800 positions, we found quite a few shifts in postition from the (early) morning report:  Loose Cannon, double-handed by Andy Goodman and Julia Paxton, has pulled nicely in front of Alternate Reality to claim First in DH1, First in PHRF, First Express 27, and SECOND in the Pacific Cup, ousting Green Buffalo from that perch. As forecast, Prospector has moved into pole position of Pac Cup eligible boats.

Foamy has climbed more to the front of the DH2 division, leading Zipper by almost three hours. 

Interestingly, the tracker shows double-handed boats leading

Prospector moves to the top of the overall leader board, northerly boats in the first wave have a very slow day, Express 27's remain tight, Pyewacket crushing in the big boat fleet, Farr 44 Companera retires for San Diego and much of the first fleet is now past halfway.

We came, we saw, we shook our heads.  While the fleets are in wild pursuit of enough breeze to zip them to Kaneohe, most boats are finding other things.

Halfway parties are starting to break out on the boats. This tradition of longer ocean crossings ranges from a break in the "no alcohol rule" to full-on costume parties, with Jim Gregory and Rob Moore perhaps setting the standard back around aught-8.

Some boats are finding wind, and are sprinting out ahead of their competition.  More on that in the morning briefings.

Several boats are reporting large amounts of visible trash. Race veterans have

The northerly-positioned leaders in the first wave begin to slow in light air, the Express 27's are constantly shuffling positions, and the big boats from the Friday start begin charging up through the fleet, both on the water and on the leaderboard. Almost every award in this 20th edition of the Pacific Cup is still fully up for grabs. Thrilling racing all over the course.