Here we go again. Now it’s time for the second part of the Route Of Gold race. The course goes from Panama to San Fransisco. More than 3000 Nm. Maybee ten days…
080322-20.10 UTC The fleet has just leave the start outside Panama. The wind is light from north east and the boats are gybing everywhere… I have Jepsom 0.8 Nm from me on my starbord side and Laiska 1.7 Nm up on the port side. There is now 60 Nm to Punta Malia. Then we turn more at northwest along the Panama coast and the Costa Rica. Good luck all competitors!
080323-01.55 UTC Wiz, Bamse and mac are the tree first to round at Punta Malia. Farmor, Jepsom and Tango is side by side round 30th place. Bad calculation from my side, so I have to done some more gybes. But Laiska is after us in 61th place. Time to sleep again!
080323-17.00 UTC Now we have been out for 24 hours. The wind just turns round like a carousel, it’s crazy. 46° in one hour! And the next 24 hours would be like this. Not much sleep tonight I think. The leader at the moment is the swedish boat Lattjolajbanladan. In the second place we found another swede, Bamse and Wetstuff is number three. Farmor have sailed well and is now at 6th place. Jepsom is in 8th and Tango in 14th place. The latest winner, Laiska is haunting in 18th place, just ahead of santaclause. Now we are sailing along the Costa Rica coast. The sun shines and it is nearly 30°C. Maybe it is time for a bath…
080324-06.30 UTC Another night with less sleep. But I sleep little bit to muchnow in the early morning. Jepsom make the wind shift great and is now in a ”big” lead. Over one NM ahead of the rest of the fleet. Good sailing Jepsom! First haunter behind Jepsom is the polish yacht Mac. Tonights looser is Clash2. Clash was in 4th place at 18.30 UTC and is now at 14th. Tango is in 7th and Farmor is 13th. Some other results: 4th, Lattjolajbanladan, 6th Wiz, 9th Laiska. The weather for the day looks good. But in the evening a new wind carousel is coming…
080324-18.10 UTC The wind is only 1 m/s. In the nearest hours the wind will turn nearly 180° from NE to SW. And then the wind will turn back to NE again… The fleet is now spread over a big area. More than 20 Nm between the easterly and westerly boats. Three of the boats with routing software (I think) have very diffrent courses. Who is right? Interesting! Jepsom is still in the lead.
Here we have the front of the fleet with Laiska in NE and Wiz in SW.
080325-12.20 UTC The night was not fun. I was really tired. Light crazy winds… But now the wind is back, 10 m/s and we have a speed of nearly 25 knots. Nice! Jepsom is still in the lead and the most of the fleet is now heading more westerly. Some boats have taken a more SW route like the swedish SWE54 and the dutch J122. Jeepster is new on the second place and Banan is number three. Tango is just behind on 4th. Later this day, in the evening (Eur. time) the wind will decrease again.
080325-20.00 UTC Just now, things happens. 11 boats has gybe south. Laiska was the first. There is areas with light winds near the coast and there is stronger winds some miles out from the coast. We will see in the future if it is right or not. These multihuls don’t like light winds…In Sweden it is evening just now, on the Pacific Ocean it is middle of the day, the sun shines from a blue sky, and there is colored spinnakers everywhere. Tango just passing behind MarkShark and mac. Maybe mac is sponsored by Apple? Watch out for the pirates 
080326-11.15 UTC Welcome to an new day of virtual sailing. Tango is now down on 161 place. I know that this place is better in some hours, but the chanse to win is small. But why give up. It is 2300 Nm left to San Fransisco and much can still happen even if Laiska and his routing software says that ”rest of the race is pretty straightforward”. We should have sailed south earlier like SWE54, but my brain didn’t worked well the night between monday and thuesday… It is nice to see some new boats in the top, Dagge, akje and Charity_Racing is at the moment top three. And woodi is just in front of me, the man from Örebro in Sweden. Woodi has never been sailing IRL.
080327-05.00 UTC We have a new leader, again. This time it is a swede from Lake Mälaren, ervius. He has a good advatage with 9 Nm in front of Enigme. The northern pack with the former leader Dagge has not much wind now, and is down at places round 40. In the south SWE54 is going well and is now in place 6. Behind SWE54 the two American boats hunting, Mooki2 and CaptJack1942. Tango is now in 111th place. Jepsom, who take a chance with a big turn south is just now at place 260. But he is not alone down there, but I don’t think this is the right way. Soon the wind turns against. Ricos0 has just invited all the competitors to ea regatta party after finish San Fransisco. I hope you have a big place Ricos0
080327-20.30 UTC Up in the north the wind is nearly zero. The former leader Dagge is down on place 102 after a day on water like a mirror. Down in south it is a little bit more wind, 4-5 m/s, and SWE54 is going well, but it is Tobe in the lead in front of ervius. Down in south even the dutch J122 is going well. Tango is in place 26 after a good sailing day on the Pacific Ocean. Farmor is 33 and my brother Jepsom is 216th. That was all from Tango this day.
080328-05.15 UTC Not much to write home about today. The boats in the south sailing faster than the north pack boats. ervius has began to lose speed and distance and is now in 5th place. Tobe still leading with more southerly SWE54 in 2nd place. Tango is now in 16th place. But the margins are small, and the places can change quckly with course changes. The more sotherly boats, J122, clash2, Wiz and Pererik has at the moment little bit more breeze, it looks good for them. We have now 1770 Nm left to ”Frisco”, more than half way left…
080328-19.15 UTC Friday evening in Sweden! Soon we have been out on the Pacific Ocean one week. I don’t know how many hours I’ve been in front of my computer, calculating, reading weather reports and talking with other sailors about strategy….and I just found the boat plainSailing at place 12, and what? He has sailed right thru in 1500 Nm without any course change…and hi is in front of me! So why are we gybeing, tacking, changing course…I think I’m going to my bed
080329-16.40 UTC Now it is one week out here on the blue Pacific Ocean. Just now it does not happends so much. TWA nearly 90° and I think we all wainting for the first boat to turn north. Captjack1942 has change the course some degrees. From my position on Tango I can see Laiska very near We have been side by side for some hours now. Now I can’t write any more today. I must listen on the swedish radio. It is hockey time. My favorite team Leksand plays a big battle aginst Mora in the play-off to the first division. I let my crew sail the boat without me for some hours.
080330-15.40 UTC Good Morning USA! It is a nice morning here outside the US westcoast, but I think it’s comming rain soon. Like yesterday Laiska is near on the starbord side. I have my own strategy but of course I have an eye on Laiska. If we looking forward we have a new weather situation with a front and lighter winds. Intresting. There it can happend things, specially with boats without routing software. SWE54 is still the leader, now with 16 Nm before mookie2. We have today also sailed another race, a short race, only 25 Nm. It’s tough to be skipper on to races at the same time Before the short race I was a little bit thoughful, but it works very well. I was quite good sailing with both beat and downwind. The winner of this Kallavesj Online Race was Wiz. I don’t know who Wiz is, but he sails well. No 2 was swedish Kexet and Tangosailing was 3rd. (Thx Farmor who helped me with the last minutes of the race.) Tomas followed in 4th place and Laiska in 5th. Farmor came in the 8th and Jepsom 15th. I heard that Jepsom had som problem just before finish. Now I must go back to helm… See Yah!
080331-17.30 UTC Nearly 300 viewers on my blog yesterday. Feels good! The wind has decreased a lot but the eastern boats has still 5 m/s. Her we have only 3 m/s. Today we have Laiska on our port side and some miles behind us I can se Lattjolajbanladan, and in front of us Janne coming up from the west. Nice to have some boats in sight here on the calm Pacific Ocean. Sorry that I can’t tell you about my tactics and strategy, you know why In the front SWE54 have more than 15 Nm lead before the US boat mooki2. It looks good for SWE54 and I think they have good control at the boats behind.On the leaderboard Tango is number 21 and Farmor number 15. Jepsom is 73rd.
Watch out for the whales!
080401-15.30 UTC April Fools’ Day! Watch out! Everything I write to day can be a joke We are now sailing in good SW winds after the passage of the light winds. The easterly boats is left behind in very light winds. Laiska and Tango follow each other like shadows, and yes, I follow Laiska sometimes, but I think he follows me too.The leader, SWE54 has pulled away more and have now a nice lead with nearly 50 Nm ahead of mooki2. But now the wind will decrease again in the front af the fleet. Looks like Jepsom will catch some boats and climb in the leaderbord. He is now at 68th place, but watch out.Now it is time for something to eat, on the rail.
080402-16.15 UTC The leader SWE54 has now only 60 Nm to the finish in San Fransisco. But is he gonna win? The US boat mookie2 is now only 3,5 Nm behind the swede and the wind is decreasing. Behind them two other swedes, clash2 and swe204 have a battle about the bronze medal. Laiska is now in 8th position after a very good 24 hours. Yesterday I was side by side with Laiska but I gybed one hour to early and is now in 15th place. xthyra, plainSailing and woodi is within 10Nm ahead of me. Maybe some of them make a misstake… Farmor is in a safe 20th position. Nightmare is hunting behind but it is more than 20 Nm up to Farmor. Now I must go back to the navigation. See yah in Frisco.
080403-15.15 UTC At least the first boats arrived the finish outside San Fransisco. The last 45 Nm feelt like 100 Nm. The wind turned against and we sailed slowly in under the Golden Gate bridge. The swedish SWE54 passed the finish line at 23.11 UTC and 46 minutes later the US boat mookie2 crossed the line. Two hours later the swedish Clash2 arrived. He was very happy over his first podium place. wwwTANGOSAILINGnu sailed well at the end of the race and passed two poats just before finish and took the 13th place, just ahead of woodi. -My brain wasn’t awake said the always happy woodi after finish. Just now I stand here and wait for my father with Farmor. The wind is still very light. Farmor will take the 20th place. After Farmor there is very much distace between the boats. Between Farmor in 20th and seafly in 23rd it is nearly 145 Nm! Jepsom is one of many boats in a big group wich sail for the 23rd place. I don’t know anything about the next race at Sailonline.org But I promise, Tango will be there! And thanks, all competitors, blog readers and of course Sailonline.org
Not the best start, @ Punta Amalia some 7.2 nm behind the leaders… let’s see what I can make out of this…
Next cape, now 5.4 nm behind
I made even a worse start I hit green stuff and chose wrong side of the rumble line. But still a long way to go. And in part one a chose wrong delays when I was on 14 plc. ended up on 100 plc.
Hmmm, this is tuff, playing catch-up from behind.
Jepsom did a great job staying enough offshore last night!
But still only a couple of miles in the top ten, and the rest is not much further either…
Hey, wait for me pls!
WD so far Jepsom!
Well…
This was not what I had in my mind 24 hous ago. I really did miss-calculating alot and maybe I was to afraid to lost the lead…
But now it´s 2400nm left and I have NOT give up yet, that´s for sure!
So, have I learned something about this then…? hmm… yes I have! Do your own sailing, at least the first 3000nm! :):)
(Laiska, I didn´t stayed enough offshore…;) )
Fair winds to all of you!
//Jepsom
Well, I have to thank you guys for that you headed south and picked me up!
It’s always fun when things happends in the races.
GL everyone!
Hmph!
It ain’t working, not at all. Yesterday, when the boats finally started moving I was in meetings all day. AND for some peculiar reason didn’t follow the route Deckman gave, but compromized (of course SWE54 is following the ”morning route” and making me look like a fool). Now I am some 60 miles behind SWE54 and captjack1942 and, it seems the rest of the race is pretty straightforward… Calculations show that we have still more than a week to go, but it seems that for me the game is more or less over!
Hallo
Not follow you dowm to the south. I have another race plan.
Scampimicke
And we have the winner: SWE54 is leading with 20 nm to spare (to the second place). ETA is 2.4.2008 1100UTC – also we now have less than week to go. With luck I will finish in top 20. Now my placing is approx. 25th.
Your game plan scampi, seems that u have some 200 nm to go when I have finished;-) But in any case, its probably too late to dive south now…
Of course the weather can still change, and a lot. Seems however that the NOAA weather is more coherent with game (Weathertech) weather now when we are further away from the shore.
Tango –
Thanks for the great blog – really appreciate the english!!
Took a small hit yesterday and gybed down (from 17 to 98) but probably not far enough to help much in the long run.
And this is going to be a very long race – I’ve got a feeling it will come down to who can team up to keep their boats really racing rather than just sailing in the right direction (which is tough enough in those light air wicked wind shifts).
Looks like it’s definitely going to better out away from the coast – wish we had headed straight out instead of turning at the first mark. Oh well… I’m happy where I am .
Thanks again and special thanks to Santaclaus and Moongirl (team SRM).
Good luck to all!!!! and see you at SF finish – party at my place – everyone invited.
Ricos0
He, I had my boat on TWA128 for more than 24 hours, seemed like a good compromize. Now I am perhaps in the top 20 – not quite comfortable though with you, Tango!
The leaderboard is starting to look like the real thing, the northern pack has had it rough last night, and it seems to to get any better today. Fleet starts to look like a nice plough, or arrow with SWE54 leading. The only rogue boat is perhaps ervius, but we will probably see her fall back in line soon.
One more point on giving up, on a more philosophical side: in order to succeed, it is very important to be realistic with ones possibilities. Now, I made an error tuesday morning, it cost me 60 nm on SWE54, and it is not going to possible make it up, at least not by making more misstakes. I mean, if he stays on the best route, what can I do but follow?
Kalle has now the mobile client ready and available!
http://www.sailonline.org/m/
(he says it’s a resource hog, but I don’t know, whether it’s a problem for the mobile, or the server, any case, maybe we should be light on it for starters…)
Another peaceful 24h, this time on CC277.5
And everything is running smoothly. I am almost beginning to think about a top 10 finish… but it’s too early, and would need a lot of errors from those at the front.
But those errors perhaps wouldn’t need to be that big, we have now 5 ½ days to go (ETA 2008-04-02 UTC 1725). Best to keep concentrating to my own sailing
I present now a preliminary ”true” top 20 ranking, based on routed ETA’s:
1) SWE54
2) mookie2
3) pererik
4) captjack1942
5) watermaster
6) wiz
7) swe204
8) J122
9) clash2
10)plainSailing
11)seafly
12)xthyra
13)cruzist
14)Janne
15)mac
16)mediterrados
17)Tobe
18)Laiska
19)Tangosailingpunktnu
20)woodi
This is based on optimal routes ETA from current position, so much can change. Some placings are VERY even!
Laiska! I think you take the edge of this game with your software-routing and rankinglists. And why present a preliminary rankinglist 1600nm before goal? And why even sail when we now the results with in 1600nm left of the game? The effect of this, is that everybody follow you or where ever you go and people give up early because of that they ”know” that they don´t have a chance. Besides…how fun is it to be a champion when using software agains abacus and pure brains?
Let´s have a nice weekend and fair winds to all of you!! Friday-cheers!!
//Jepsom
Ps. I will finish top20, so you may review the list…
Ds.
Well said Jepsom!
And there is no way I will let Tango and Laiska pass me!
Laiska by the way, did you know from the beginning that you would be 18th at finish or isnt that software-routing that optional in the end?
/woodi
Jepsom,
100% with you.
Pure Brains sailing Club
Dear Jepsom & rest of the ”Brains” team,
perhaps u would like to back off a bit?
Maybe it’s not my ”black market” rankings list service that’s bothering u? After all, a preliminary (DTF) rankings list is included also in the game. And one certainly does not need much brain to understand that anyone beeing something 200 miles behind the leader, with both sailing roughly same direction and the leader being between follower and the finish, the ”followers” are certainly not going to have it easy. I’m sorry if I destroyed your motivation by destroying your false hopes… And, if u noticed, I did not include the ETA’s ie. time differences in the rankings, only mentioned that some placings are very even… for instance, things between me, Tango & woodi could easily turn around with a slight weather change, even if each of us sailed a ”perfect” course from our respective positions.
Like I mentioned earlier, one of basic rules of sailing (or life in general) is that u can not compensate earlier misstakes by making more misstakes. And I know how easy it is to get drawn to that ”ond cirkel” in sailing.
Software-routing is certainly a powerful tool. But using it with freely available grib-weather is allowed according to RRS, so nagging about someone using it is, eh, me thinks, plain stupid. Especially from someone who says that ”biodynamic routing” is more fun. If that’s true, it should be me who should be jealous at you, and not vice versa?
And besides, I’m not playing this game just for the fun, or the satisfaction of beating all you ”brain sailors”. I have a mission. I want go get to know when to trust this software, and when not, what misstakes you should beware of, what tricks you can do. These races have provided lots of material, thanks to all the good fights I have made, thanks to you all.
BTW, I would love to have a fight against you IRL. Not because I think I would win, but because I just love sail racing, any boat, any wind, any opposition. Perhaps we will meet in GR 2008?
I hope I will sail GR this year. But just now I don’t have something to sail with. Does anyone have a boat for me and my crew? 34 to 40 ft. Just mail me on niklas@tangosailing.nu
Another restful race night with proper amount of sleep, but now I see things happening: J122 is following his Expedition route and is cutting in, Cruzist is following, captjack1942 made an even sharper turn, perhaps on dc. seafly moved north, but was almost run over by us, and changed her mind. plainSailing has also woken up, and made an slight turn. The moment when to turn towards mark will of course be crucial, but Jepsom does not want me to tell what I think of these moves
Speaking of north, SWE54 will soon be the northernmost boat
On popular demand, I now present an updated routed ranking list (some changes have occurred):
1) SWE54
2) mookie2
3) watermaster
4) swe204
5) pererik
6) wiz
7) J122
8).captjack1942
9) clash2
10)Janne
11)cruzist
12)plainSailing
13)xthyra
14)mediterrados
15)mac
16)Laiska
17)Tangosailingpunktnu
18)woodi
19)Tobe
20)seafly
Just don’t take this too seriously!
Hi all i think it is good that some of you use router because then we all can learn if we are making the rigth braindecision . This game is nice tool to lern from. Place 123 and still happy and lerning.
Laiska, please send me my optimal course, as I don’t have it. I have no software and am 20 miles from J122 who is using expedition. One thing you are forgetting in your rankings. We are probably going to have to go through one more transition, and it will be a light air scramble to the other side. Is the software that detailed?
Another sleepful night. Like a friend once said after a couple of days in 4 hour on / 4 hours off -schedule, never have had this much sleep;-)
And Cruzist, yes, the routing takes account to the predicted transitions. That’s the whole point of routing. Where do I send yours?
Hi all!
I´m most honoured to be at Laiskas list twice. I am already satisfied with this race so far – out of two reasons.
A. the first night out of Panama Gulf – coming 8th to the first corner.
B. being amongst the first to go south after pererik and Laiska, going from 8th to 148th and back to top 10.
So now it´s that ”wall” of no wind coming down on us that worries me. I try to go a little more north, but going to work again next week followup the passage of light air sailing won´t be easy.
And, no, I use no software, had my first GPS on my boat last summer.
At last; like Tony Christie asked in the song ”…is this the way to (Amarillo) San Fransisco?…”
C U!
Raven has cleverly reverse-enginered the game DTF results board system (see: http://www.raven.nu/DTG.gif, it’s the ”boat C” -method).
So, if you turn more towards the next mark, your rankings will decrease (= u go up on the list), even if your position in the fleet does not really change. Also, when we are all pointing in same direction CC, those closer to rhumb line have an advantage, at the moment almost directly comparable to the distance from rhumb.
Great work with the blog Tango, as said in the chat it is a nice read up on a very challenging race. It will be verry intersting how the next part of the race works out.
Keep up the great work.
Great blog Tango,
Cruzist, next 24 hours I get TWA of low 70, give me your mail adress and I’ ll run one for your position and send you the breakdown….
And just for arguments sake I do it for the same reason as laiska even today discovered some really interesting features of the software. Looking forward to the next couple of days…..
It’s about time to present todays forecast of the final results:
1) SWE54
2) mookie2
3) swe204
4) watermaster
5) J122
6) clash2
7) plainSailing
8).cruzist
9) Janne
10)pererik
11)mediterrados
12)mac
13)Laiska
14)Tangosailingpunktnu
15)woodi
16)captjack1942
17)wiz
18)Lattjolajbanladan
19)seafly
20)Tomas
The list looks now quite a bit diffirent, with both extremities seemingly falling back a bit.
Still, the ”groove” looks pretty wide from my poin tof view, maybe 100 nm, and the real action is perhaps waiting monday night – tuesday morning…
Also, it’s intresting to note, that different softwares give perhaps a little bit different routes. J122 is using Expedition, I understand SWE54 is on ”old MaxSea” and I’m using Deckman
So you did race in Finland Tango? And well done too! Congrats.
To J122 and Laiska; So what do you reckon I should do from where I am now? I’m hesitating on going a little further out to gain a bit of speed. I see you are actually coming closer to me laiska whereas J122 is not.
Also it would be interesting to now what happened to the routing after the first rounding in this race. I started out rather bad because I didn’t want to stay up all night. Rounded around 40-50 after playing safe on delays. Then I saw the southern route as a clear alternative from that point and took it – much to avoid going the same way as all others. That way I did not have to watch the boat so closely since it simply didn’t show as clearly if I lost or gained on a slightly late delay or night of sleep. And then it turned out to be the best route!!!!! How come the software didn’t show? There wasn’t any weather shift was there?
As you see I am clearly a ”brain sailor” trying to ”feel my way” but also curious and competitive enough to want proper help
Oh! Forgot e-mail address: per-erik@regelverket.nu
Pererik, my software predicts that it is not worth it to go offshore any more… the rest u may figure out yourself, after all, I do still have a small change to catch u!
Per-Erik,
Sent Expedition routing by mail.
BTW my oldest 2 sons are named Per and Erik !
BR
swe204
Thanks for the offer Laiska but i was just joking. Like has been said, the ”groove” is a little wide, & I am between J122 and you, so seems OK. Maybe the routing software companies will sponsor teams. Team deckman, with free laptops and software, yes?
So we are in to the action zone again. This does not look good. Seems that SWE54 will be through this sh*it first, and soon pulling away from us again… Eastern side looks better now. Pererik pulled a nice move to the center yesterday, captjack1942 was less successful, first up, then down, and now firmly soem 25 nm behind me. The weateher is too messed up for any ”routed rankings” today. Nice that I still have Tango glued to my side, so that I do not need to feel lonely.
Puuh!
Actually, I have to be at least relieved.
The calm-wind-action-zone is now passed, and although woodi emerged through a little better than me. cruzist jibed perhaps a bit early, and now we are almost even. The easterners: mac fell a little behind, and mediterrados + Janne feel almost in reach (only some 20 nm away ;-). The real winner was however SWE54 (who else) who got through first, and pulled another 20 nm. He is now in lighter winds, so maybe it’s time now for some catching up.
Behind us the calm had more devastating effects: seafly, lefromageII et al were yesterday night actually ahead of me in the leaderboard, and at first it looked like their eastward position would give them an advantage. But, instead, they hit the calm bulls-eye and dropped maybe 100 nm. The fleet is now almost cut in half behind the top 20-25.
No Tango, I’m not following you. I am LEADING you.
Seems u are now some 1.8 nm behind
I have now claimed back some 50 nm on SWE54 in about 30 hours. At this rate, I would only need some 20 hours more to reach the 1st position ;-).
So, the only problem is that this race is too short.
Just recieved the latest weather. This looks most intresting. We are into a very exiting night. Even SWE54’s win is not perhaps secure!
WD everyone!
Impressive sailing from SWE54. How many days in the lead?
Fun experience with such a long race, even if it was a little bit to long imo. Its tough to motivate family why I have to spend so much time infront of the computer. But as I said, very fun and entertaining race!
Cheers!
SWE54 take the lead at friday , so six days in the lead. That is okey
At last…
Crossed the line 05:22 UTC this morning and it feels so great! For me the race starts well and after about 24 hours I was in the very front. But then this ”divings”… I lost down to #306 for a while and took a big chance diving deep south, but it was to deep…
I crossed the finish line as #23:rd and I´m real happy with that. Last 48 hours was really fun and exciting.
AND, I almost keept my promise to Laiska….”redo your list – I will make it to top 20″…almost…
Thx all fore this race and I hope to see you all i the English channel…
Yes Jepsom, almost.
You only missed the 20th spot by some 14 hours / 140 nm? Better luck next time, I’m sure u will get another win sooner than u think.
But, these long races are easier with software. In races like Kallavesj, they give u no advantage. Likewise, St.Malo will be decided on how u judge when to start.