Over the Last Night:

Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He's also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He'll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50. He and Richard Clarke set the race record for a double handed team in 2008 with a time of 7 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds, besting all boats in overall time for that year.
[Previous Pegasus Sailing posts on Gizmodo, Pegasus]

July 12, 6:17 AM PST
Update: We expect/hope to be fully recovered by Noon. Then we'll jibe for a lay-line to the tip of Molokai and have our final jibe there. Trying to minimize jibes. Big relief.

July 12, 7:15 AM PST
Engine fix and Katayama-San' lucky sextant returns

July 12, 8:00 AM PST,
MotionX-GPS guiding Pegasus from L.A. to Honolulu

July 12, 8:45 AM PST
Sunrise and Breakfast Burritos

July 12, 10:30 AM PST
Good Morning, Crusty Takes Over for the Day

July 12, 1:00 PM PST
ETA: From what we can tell, with our electrical back, around 9 am PST ( 6 am HST) is a good guess for our finish, just inside 8 days, something like 7 day, 20 hours and something. Sunrise in the Molokai channel.

There is still a lot of sailing to be done. That's a reasonable guess.

July 12, 5:30 PM PST
Sunshades and generator back running, calling the layline to Kalapapa.

July 12, 7:00 PM PST
Molokai channel

Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He's also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He'll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50. He and Richard Clarke set the race record for a double handed team in 2008 with a time of 7 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds, besting all boats in overall time for that year.
[Previous Pegasus Sailing posts on Gizmodo, Pegasus]

July 11, 9:42 PM PST





July 11, 10:15 PM PST

Just enough power to send emails. We have not regained anything yet. Lost some more. Dark and squalls with no electrical - Bad. Safe but bad.


July 11, 10:28 PM PST
All down - Down to flashlighs, mechanical compass and add-on batteries for iPhone GPS [They've got MotionX GPS apps] and hand held iridium. Trying to fix.

July 11, 11:10 PM PST
MotionX-GPS Waypoint: Night falling, batteries not charging

[An entry logged from MotionX-GPS app on the iPhone, which sends out emails (the device is connected using the remaining power on the boat, Wi-Fi and an iridium backup sat phone.)- BL]

Hello,

Philippe uses MotionX-GPS on the iPhone 3G and is sharing with you the following waypoint:

Pitch black night, pure feel sailing in 20+ knots. Crusty working fixing batteries now.

Name: Night falling, batteries not charging

Date: Jul 11, 2009 11:10 pm

Location:

Latitude: 23º 16' 58" N

Longitude: 151º 48' 20" W

Altitude: 0 ft

Click on this link to display the waypoint in Google Maps. This link will be valid until Aug 10, 2009 11:25 PM PDT.

If you are viewing this message on your iPhone or iPod touch, use this link to view the waypoint in the Maps application.

[So they're looking at finishing the race and getting through the nights with no gps and no autopilot. Just celestial navigation using the sextant (which the navy no longer even teaches sailors in annapolis). Philippe is a bit of a math genius, so using a flashlight and the sextant and some paper, he can get it done. And they've got spare charge packs for the iPhone (and its GPS) and the flashlights. But that's about it.-BL]
From earlier in the day, at 5pm PST, a post about navigating with and without electronics:

Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He's also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He'll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50. He and Richard Clarke set the race record for a double handed team in 2008 with a time of 7 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds, besting all boats in overall time for that year.
[Previous Pegasus Sailing posts on Gizmodo, Pegasus]

Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He's also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He'll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50. He and Richard Clarke set the race record for a double handed team in 2008 with a time of 7 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds, besting all boats in overall time for that year.
[Previous Pegasus Sailing posts on Gizmodo, Pegasus]

We're not.

I love squalls in Honolulu: refreshing, cleansing and replenishing for island precious water.

On Pegasus 50, we move fast at more than half of the squall's speed. My personal interpretation of North East Pacific Squalls is that they are caused by evaporation with subsequent cooling of the rising air and travel with the tradewinds. During their build-up phase, they mostly "suck" air into them as they are highly active building convective systems. The upper limit comes when the ultra moist air reaches adiabatic balance. Therefore, if you are in front of such a building squall, you loose a lot of wind velocity and get a nasty right shift, but if you have one behind you, she "sucks air" that heads you if you are on starboard jibe with a great boost in velocity. The longer you ride that squall the better. Mark caught a short video of one that he was riding to a max speed of 28 knots of wind and 22 knots of boat speed this afternoon . Check it out, passing right behind Pegasus 50. Mark is steering and filming.




Course 270° T, Speed 14 Knots, Lat 25° 54' N, Lon 139° 36' W

July 9, 7:00 PM PST
Tradewind sailing with building squalls, pointing right to Diamond Head




Course 270° T, Speed 14 Knots, Lat 25° 52' N, Lon 139° 40' W

July 10, 2:30 AM PST
Insomniac sailor with a Transpac purpose!

Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He's also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He'll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50. He and Richard Clarke set the race record for a double handed team in 2008 with a time of 7 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds, besting all boats in overall time for that year.
[Previous Pegasus Sailing posts on Gizmodo, Pegasus]

Course 265° T, Speed 13.5 Knots, Lat 26° 03' N, Lon 135° 00' W


July 9, 2:15 AM PST
Windy tonight. On edge and don't trust the pilot on 20+ and big waves. No horizon. Been steering for 3 hours. Crusty is sound asleep. I can't believe that he trusts me!





July 9, 7:00 AM PST
Trade Winds Sailing at its Best!





Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He's also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He'll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50. He and Richard Clarke set the race record for a double handed team in 2008 with a time of 7 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds, besting all boats in overall time for that year.
[Previous Pegasus Sailing posts on Gizmodo, Pegasus]

Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He's also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He'll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50. He and Richard Clarke set the race record for a double handed team in 2008 with a time of 7 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds, besting all boats in overall time for that year.
[Previous Pegasus Sailing posts on Gizmodo, Pegasus]

We like our heading with a lot of West and a bit of South in it, averaging about 255 true. Tactically and strategically we're able to achieve our goals.

However, we never take anything for granted and keep on crunching a lot of weather information. We've been consistently reading 1019 on the barometer, which means that we are sailing down the 1019 isobar. We feel very comfortable with that.

At this morning's schedule, we saw that a lot of boats were heading North. That would mean a rapidly rising barometer and ultimately a "spin into the high." So we like what we are doing. All the automated routing programs seem to point to a Northerly track. We're contrarians and disagree. We'll know soon enough. *

We're settling into that routine where Crusty watches the days and I watch the nights. It's almost like our day to day schedules! Except that we're riding the wind fast to Paradise!

Course 243° T, Speed 15 Knots, Lat 26° 25' N, Lon 133° 12' W

*Further explanation from Arthur Kinsolving:

Essentially it's about gauging what the weather is going to do and where to go for the best wind. High pressure systems are fair weather and light winds (i.e. slow sailing). Low pressure systems are stronger winds (potentially stormy). So sailors watch the barometer carefully as indication to how the weather is changing around them and to give them clues on where to go. So it's a game of how far are you willing to deviate from the shortest straight line path between L.A. and Hawaii to get stronger wind.

Isobars are like contour lines on a topographic map except they indicate regions of equal atmospheric pressure instead of altitude like they do on a topographic map. So when you look at a weather map and see lots of isobars stacked up very close together, it means that there will be lots of wind there due to the big pressure gradient. So sailors watch the barometer as an indication of how the weather is changing and to give clues on where to go.

Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He's also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He'll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50. He and Richard Clarke set the race record for a double handed team in 2008 with a time of 7 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds, besting all boats in overall time for that year.
[Previous Pegasus Sailing posts on Gizmodo, Pegasus]

The ancient Hawaians were voyaging and navigating thousand of nautical miles in the Pacific ocean while the West was lost in endless gyrations. We are clearly entering the realm of the tradewinds. The natural path to Hawaii and it's rich seafarer's culture. The ancient Hawaians were voyaging and navigating thousand of nautical miles in the Pacific ocean while the West was lost in endless gyrations. As we approach the gateway to Polynesia, we must show respect.

Respectfully asking Kane and his brother Kaneloa to grant us safe passage into the tradewind to Honolulu and the house by the Wailupe Streams. All of our technology and our strength can take us there. But without the supernatural we are nothing. As Ulysses found out painfully.

2 AM Update:
These clouds puff or suck. They all look the same at night. With this overcast sky, there are clouds that play with our minds. Especially as I stand watch alone at night, one hand on the helm, the rest of my senses fully in listening mode. As we are sailing downwind on starboard the clouds that matter are on our right back quarter. Like yesterday, the clouds are tricky. Not that I can change the outcome much.. Speed or becalmed. I noticed that I can start to feel some cold air from the puffers. That makes sense: they suck colder upper atmospheric air and "puff it out in front of them". The suckers seem to do the opposite and becalm a large area around them.

All is well aboard the mighty Pegasus. Challenging sailing conditions. That's what we enjoy.

Course 260° T, Speed 11 Knots, Lat 27° 08' N, Lon 129° 48' W

Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He's also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He'll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50. He and Richard Clarke set the race record for a double handed team in 2008 with a time of 7 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds, besting all boats in overall time for that year.
[Previous Pegasus Sailing posts on Gizmodo, Pegasus]

Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He's also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He'll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50. He and Richard Clarke set the race record for a double handed team in 2008 with a time of 7 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds, besting all boats in overall time for that year.
[Previous Pegasus Sailing posts on Gizmodo, Pegasus]

July 7, 3:00 PM PSTTactically and strategically, we feel that we are far enough south, sitting on the 1018 isobar, hunting for that elusive 1020 and sticking to it.

When we eventually find it, and when the shift is right, we'll start jybing and surfing our way to Honolulu.

After the full night's shift I finally got 4 hours of sleep this morning. Crusty is happy sailing the boat at day-time. He's hopping around and getting real busy with lots of odds and ends jobs. I can hear his "paws" on the cabintop while I am trying to fall asleep.

Today I thought about the video camera on my 3GS and used it on the bow to put up a little ambiance video. I called it "Making Tracks". It's short and shows how it feels to sail this boat in moderate winds. She's fast and wet. [Lots of splashing comes over the rail, which is very low compared to larger boats.-BL]

The sky is one hundred percent overcast. No sunrise, sunset, stars or moon. It's essentially a huge extension of the California coastal fog. For now we see it as sun-protection. We're happy! Pegasus is making tracks towards the barn.

Course 250° M, Speed 13 Knots, Lat 27° 38' N, Lon 127° 32' W

Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He's also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He'll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50. He and Richard Clarke set the race record for a double handed team in 2008 with a time of 7 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds, besting all boats in overall time for that year.
[Previous Pegasus Sailing posts on Gizmodo, Pegasus]

That means large oscillations and significant wind speed changes. These conditions don't wear you out physically, but they do mentally. In fact it's all about patience. At 11 PM we decided that I'd stand watch until sunrise as I tend to be the Night Owl and Crusty would pick-up during day time. In the dark.

The full moon is out, but there is 100% cloud cover, The wind is oscillating between NW and NE. It's tough to take pictures in the dark!

On watch on deck with WiFi live, we have perfectly watertight Otter cases for our two iPhone 3GS. One for each. With the new magnetic compass and iPod integration it's awesome.

Take a look at this screen:
- The Compass points in the direction that we are travelling. (225°)
- The Blue arrow points to the finish line. (251°)
- VMG of 12.6 kts (Velocity Made Good) is the rate at which Pegasus is moving towards the finish line.

According to our app [Motion X GPS-BL]. With Pegasus maintaining this VMG we will finish in 171 hours from now or just over 7 days.

Course 220° T, Speed 11.5 Knots, Lat 28° 28' N, Lon 125° 27' W

Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He's also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He'll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50. He and Richard Clarke set the race record for a double handed team in 2008 with a time of 7 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds, besting all boats in overall time for that year.
[Previous Pegasus Sailing posts on Gizmodo, Pegasus]

Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He's also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He'll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50. He and Richard Clarke set the race record for a double handed team in 2008 with a time of 7 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds, besting all boats in overall time for that year.
[Previous Pegasus Sailing posts on Gizmodo, Pegasus]

Therefore, we think before we act, and we triple check everything. The one who's steering watches for the one who's on the fore-deck.



I took that picture with an iPhone tracking our progress on our GPS app, while steering, as Mark was hoisting the Code 3 sail.

We spent hours talking about the weather charts as well as our own observations from the boat. Mark and I agree that we should dive deep south to find some compressions with more wind. The weather forecast doesn't agree with us. It rarely doe, but we don't agree with the weather forecast and we have good reasons for that. Consider the following: we carry a highly accurate Vaisala Barometer. This barometer employs 3 different high-end pressure sensors, has the algorithmics built-in to always pick the two best sensors and average them. This is a high precision instrument and we named her Kulani. Well Kulani is telling us that we are on the 1018 isobar and all the forecasts and weather charts are telling us that we are on the 1015 isobar. It's kind of like the weatherman telling you that it is raining, but the sun is shining out of your window. So, we'll follow our own science and sense our way down that 1018 isobar.

We now have a lot of sail area up: full main, staysail and large, strong Cuben-Fiber code 3 tight luff headsail. We're going fast into the night. We're three hours from Sunset and getting ready to sail through one more wet and dark night. [After which, the wind should be at their backs more, and the sailing will be faster and easier and less splashy - BL] Turning the corner of this ridging high pressure system fast is what we want to do.

Fly Pegasus Fly through the night!
, Course 227° T, Speed 14.7 Knots, Lat 29° 42' N, Lon 123° 23' W

Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He's also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He'll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50. He and Richard Clarke set the race record for a double handed team in 2008 with a time of 7 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds, besting all boats in overall time for that year.
[Previous Pegasus Sailing posts on Gizmodo, Pegasus]

From Wikipedia:

In the 1975 movie Jaws, the character Matt Hooper, played by Richard Dreyfuss, claims that he has "crewed two Transpacs" as a means of establishing his seamanship credentials with Quint.

From the Transpac Race site:

The race was inspired by King Kalakaua, the revered Hawaiian leader of the late 19th century who believed that such an event would strengthen the islands' economic and cultural ties to the mainland. But it didn't happen until Clarence MacFarlane, a Honolulu racing sailor, invited several contemporaries in San Francisco and Los Angeles to race to the Hawaiian Islands. The race was scheduled to start in the early summer of 1906, but when MacFarlane sailed his 48-foot schooner into San Francisco Bay he realized there would have to be a change of plans. The city lay in ruins following the great earthquake 27 days earlier.

But MacFarlane wasn't easily discouraged. He simply changed the starting point to Los Angeles, and except for one nostalgic return to San Francisco for the start in 1939, the race has started in Southern California ever since. The starting line is now off the bluffs of Point Fermin in San Pedro at the southern edge of the City of Los Angeles. The finish is off the Diamond Head lighthouse just east of Honolulu, establishing a distance of 2,225 nautical miles.

The 2009 race will be the 45th Transpac. It has been sailed by 1,700 boats from 17 countries, including 124 foreign competitors. The race is run biennially in odd-numbered years, alternating with the Newport-to-Bermuda race that also started in 1906.

Boats in the first race took about 12 days to finish; the modern record is about 6 days and change, for a single hull, and 5 days and change for a multihull.

Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He's also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He'll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50. He and Richard Clarke set the race record for a double handed team in 2008 with a time of 7 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds, besting all boats in overall time for that year.
[Previous Pegasus Sailing posts on Gizmodo, Pegasus]

Our shore team hustled and made miracles happen. They had just 50 minutes because 10 minutes before the start they have to be off the boat with Crusty and I the only souls on the mighty Pegasus. By the time they hopped into our escort boat, we had half of our hydraulic systems back up. That's enough to take us to Honolulu safely. Thank goodness for redundant systems, and thanks to Gilesie and Zan for a miracle fix.

Now it is just the two of us sailing on our way to Honolulu. We're upwind because we must leave the top of Catalina to port. This is the only mark of the course. Next stop, the Diamond Head lighthouse.

We had a good start, just where and when we wanted: At the boat end 10 seconds after the gun. We are now happily sailling upwind, half way to Catalina. Crusty (Mark) is steering.
Course 234° T, Speed 8.2 Knots, Lat 33° 33' N, Lon 118° 27' W

July 5, 7:00 PM PST, 2009, Catalina Islands




We are getting ready for a wild and wet night. Now the wind is gusting to 25 knots and the seas have grown to 9 feet. Check out this picture taken from the nav station.
Course 220° T, Speed 10.5 Knots, Lat 33° 05' N, Lon 119° 05' W

July 6, 8:00 AM PST, 2009




Mark and I split the night. I stood watch until 2 am, Mark took over until sunrise. We are both wet, cold, battered by waves, yet happy as can be: We sailed fast and smart.

At one in the morning we put up the big Genoa (the big sail up front with about 120% of the usual area), cracked the sheets and stood on 14 to 16 knots. Fast into the night. We saw lights from racers ahead of us, then on our beam (side), then behind us, Then no more.

I saved a life last night. I was hit on the chest by a giant flying fish. I looked at it flapping in the dark amidst the fluorescent krill brought on by the large waves submerging the boat periodically. So, I made a dive for the fish on my way, hit the auto-pilot switch, grabbed the fish, felt a violent right turn, and I got washed to leeward (away from the wind) by a wave. Bloodied nose, bruised knee. The autopilot didn't engage. But I saved the fish. I wasn't going to eat it. It was a male so no Tobiko, anyhow. Now this fish has quite a story to tell his fellows. Mark slept down bellow through all of this.

Pushing hard for the record after a wild, wet and exhausting night.

Course 219° T, Speed 14 Knots, Lat 31° 18' N, Lon 121° 27' W

Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He's also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He'll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50. He and Richard Clarke set the race record for a double handed team in 2008 with a time of 7 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds, besting all boats in overall time for that year.
[Previous Pegasus Sailing posts on Gizmodo, Pegasus]

They're sailing the Transpac, a classic race a little over 2000 miles from the coast of California to Hawaii.
Over the last century, sailors have been using tech and smarts to reduce the travel time from 12 days to 6. Philippe and his teammate Mark Christensen set the double handed record for a single hulled ship last year; this year, they'll be blogging live from the boat on Gizmodo.

Here's what we've posted so far. The race is underway, so updates will be coming shortly.
The Intro:
• Pegasus Open 50, The Official Transpac Raceboat of Gizmodo
The Logs:
• The Pegasus Open 50 Sailing Log: Weather
• The Pegasus Open 50 Sailboat Log: Lucky Sextant and Heading for the Starting Line
The Boat Tour
• Part 1: The Hull and Foresails
• Part 2: The Carbon Fiber Mast, Rigging and Sails
• Part 3: Turning, Emergency Hatches, Ballast and the Hydraulic Keel

Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He's also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He'll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50. He and Richard Clarke set the race record for a double handed team in 2008 with a time of 7 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds, besting all boats in overall time for that year.
[Previous Pegasus Sailing posts on Gizmodo, Pegasus]

Apologies again for the shakey cam. Didn't have a wide enough angle on board that day, nor the mic range to make it work.

Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He's also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He'll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50. He and Richard Clarke set the race record for a double handed team in 2008 with a time of 7 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds, besting all boats in overall time for that year.
[Previous Pegasus Sailing posts on Gizmodo, Pegasus]

July 4th, 2009
Yet one of the most important pieces of equipment on-board is my trusted 1979 Tamaya Sextant. For tradition's sake (a good thing), the Transpac race organizers wants each boat to submit four completely reduced sight at the finish line. In other words, at least 4 times during the race you have determine your position on the ocean solely by reference to the Stars, Planets, Moon and Sun. An endangered art. A beautiful skill to have. However one that takes time a lot of practice to learn. Because there are only two of us on board, that's my job.

Mark Rudiger taught me the basics of celestial navigation during the many passages that he and I sailed together. Navigation is a skill passed on, navigator to navigator. Especially celestial navigation. Mark and I sailed and won two Transpacs together in 2001 and 2003. Mark, this record attempt is for you.

The principles of celestial navigation are pretty simple: Given three distinct celestial objects in the sky, at any given time if you measure their elevation over the horizon, there is only once place on the planet where you could be. For example at 10 PM tonight as you watched fireworks, if you saw Saturn 19° 32', Arcturus 62° 55 and Vega 57° 54' above the horizon, you would be close to Long Beach, exactly at latitude 33°2' North and longitude 118°26' West. All you need is an instrument to make those very accurate measurements together with the tools to "reduce those measurements" to your exact estimated position.

I have a "lucky Sextant". She was made in Tokyo in 1979 and I got her from Captain, Katayama, a retiring successful Japanese merchant Captain. Katayama's last command was the mighty Takara hailing from Yokohama. Katayama told me of many "lucky" voyages across the Pacific, mostly between Yokohama and San Francisco, taking Japanese cars and electronics to America and returning with American farm products together with Harley Davidson motorcycles (his favorite) and American Pop culture icons. When Captain Katayama retired, he wanted to make sure that his "lucky sextant" would be in good hands and shown proper respect. (All sailors are superstitious. I am). So Katayama placed an advert on eBay. I answered and we connected. I have several sextants. This is the one that I want to take with me across the Pacific Ocean: Katayama's 1979 lucky sextant.

July 5th, 2009
The start is at 1PM PST. We leave the dock at 10:30 AM so that we get there in ample time. Our last moment decisions will be which sails to take or not to take. The rule goes: "If we don't take them, we'll need them, if we take them we will not need them". That's mainly for the the very light air sails. They are typically large sails that we have to carry all the way to Honolulu, like useless furniture if we don't use them. However, there is an exorcism quality to this decision. For now, the first 48 hours are forecasted to be wet and wild. Here's Kanaloa welcoming us to the great Pacific Ocean. That's good luck!

Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He's also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He'll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50. He and Mark Christensen set the race record for a double handed team in 2008 with a time of 7 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds, besting all boats in overall time for that year.
[Previous Pegasus Sailing posts on Gizmodo, Pegasus]

Apologies for the shakey camera. The Flip Mino's short mic range, the wind, the size of the boat and the narrowness of the lens made things hard, but I didn't make them any better.

Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He's also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He'll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50. He and Richard Clarke set the race record for a double handed team in 2008 with a time of 7 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds, besting all boats in overall time for that year.
[Previous Pegasus Sailing posts on Gizmodo, Pegasus]