It’s been a couple of weeks since the finish of the Single Handed Transpac and with the boat loaded onto a ship for it’s journey back to California things are starting to return to normal. Of course this experience of a lifetime will linger much longer…

It is July 14th and I just stepped foot on the island of Kaua’i. My son Luca, almost two years old, is only 10 feet away and is looking at me like he doesn’t know who I am. Suddenly, a huge smile lights up his face and with open arms, he runs towards me. Before I knew it, I was crying with emotion. This is a moment that I will never forget, one of those where it seems like a little video camera was set up on my forehead. It is not a fancy video camera, this is not a wide angle and all I see and remember is Luca in the frame running towards me and embracing me with all his baby power and love. My wife Alisha is slowly approaching. It almost seems like she knows that something magical is happening and she doesn’t want to be in the way. I reach out for her as well as I am holding Luca and for minutes, time stops and I realize how lucky I am to share my life with these two individuals who were so worried for the past 14 days, and what an eventful 14 days it was! (more…)

After completing the Single Handed Transpac many boats spend a few days on the island before heading back out to sea and making the far less pleasant sail back to California. The advantage of having a small trailerable boat is that you can skip that part of the adventure, pack the boat on it’s trailer, put it on a ship and fly home in a matter of hours!!

Jerome has finished the Single Handed Transpac!! He crossed the finish line on July 14th at 11:10 PDT with an elapsed time of just under 14 days. In the unofficial preliminary results Team Open Sailing finished 9th overall, and 4th in the Fast & Fun division!

“Thank you so much to all of you for your support, good vibes and kind words before, during and after this race!!! If I was solo racing to Hawaii, I could have never done it without the help of many of you, hence the name of the boat “Team Open Sailing”! I will be back to LA soon and can’t wait to share some more stories of the crossing!”

I haven’t talked to Jerome yet today so no news other than he only has 400 miles to go. He took a flyer to the south yesterday and I haven’t found out why. So far it hasn’t paid off and he lost some places in the standings. There’s still plenty of time to make it back especially as he should be sailing in almost perfect conditions for the boat.

677 miles to go… the weather is certainly going to be interesting towards the finish… the racers are definitely going to experience a change in the wind & waves (both direction and intensity) caused by hurricane Emilia to the south!! There is also Tropical Storm Daniel. The models are showing too much wind although we can expect to it be more southerly than usual. However, both storms have been pumping out quite a lot of waves which are already close to reaching the fleet. Of course the Pogo was built for these conditions and catching waves is one of Jerome’s speciality after years of practice on the planing hull boats. With a bit of luck he might be able to catch a wave and ride it all the way to the top of his division.

It’s starting to get fast… Jerome’s current record for distance covered in 24 hours stands at 186 miles, and his highest average speed for any 2 hour period (how often the tracker updates) is 12.84 knots!!

Here’s the latest from Jerome – (more…)

With no inboard motor and only two 105A batteries the Pogo 2 needs a way to generate power when on long ocean races such as the Single Handed Transpac. While solar power is great (and free) there are limits to the size and weight of the solar arrays you can install on a 21 foot boat not to mention they don’t give a very high output if the weather is overcast or if it is night. To make sure we have enough power on the Pogo 2 to we use an EFOY fuel cell. (more…)

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The first boat across the line in the Single Handed Transpac is the Open 50, “Truth”. @Jerome Sammarcelli still has 800 miles to go on the Pogo 2 which is less than half the size of Truth! He is currently 7th overall and 2nd in his division!

2012 Singlehanded Transpac Start from Pierson Jacquelin on Vimeo.

Jerome had a rough night last night with very little wind. He ended up taking the main down and just sailing with the jib. This morning he realized the mast head spinnaker had gotten lost up the mast. With the boat on autopilot and only the jib up to keep the boat balanced and sailing slowly in 10 knots of breeze Jerome is going to climb the mast to retrieve the halyard… a risky maneuver on any boat at sea but even more dangerous when you’re on your own… stay tuned…

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