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Captain's Blog
Sea Date June, 30, 2009
Day 2 at sea
Position at 0600 Lat. 32'11N Long. 119'39W
Wind speed 10k
Sea hight 5 foot swell

Well yesterday was the start. It was off of Point Fermion at 1300. There was about 17 boats on the line, it was an uneventful start. It was more in our favor to take the start on starboard tack right on the committee boat, and that is just what we did. with in the first hour of the race we did, i think, 4 head sail changes, not that we have 4 head sails on board. anyways the wind would get up to 17knots then down to 8. Once we got closer to Catalina it was a consistent 10k. We sailed through the night with the number 2 up, as it still is now.
Bad news is something happened to the computer that runs the weather program, and well Chase tells me that it is unlikely to work at all. Something to do with the flash drive not working or the USB port is broken. And we cant run the program on the computer that im on now because this computer is not set up for it. Whatever, this is why i am not a big fan of computers. The good news is that we are still able to sail mail and we can receive weather files that way. so we are not totally out of luck. Chase is still going to try to work on it.
Other then that, my mom made some really good roast beef sandwiches yesterday for lunch, it was good. For dinner we all just snacked on cup a soup. Last night Mike and i were on watch and he says to me i think there is something swimming next to the boat. sure enough a school of dolphins were cruising around with us. it was pretty neat.
That is all for now, LA

Mike would like to add that he caught his first fish, it's about 1 1/2 inches long, he is currently drying it on deck for lunch.

Hey Julie, i got your comment, the people that could use a badge are:
Derrick Ontivrous and Kevin O'leary, Thank you so much!!! you and Ben are doing a killer job!!

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Aloha all sorry it has been so long for me to blog. we have been very busy with banquets and party's and what not. things are going very well and Addiction is as ready as ever. our start is tomorrow at 1300, and we are going to sail fast and hard all the way home. while underway we will be receiving your comments, but please note:

* do not mention anything about the weather
* do not give us any of your thoughts on what course we should take
* do not tell me how bad my spelling is, as it will only get worse from this point on, and yes i know i cant spell.

that will do it, expect a long and detailed blog tomorrow since there will be nothing else to do but wright. See you at the finish party at the WYC. for those of you that don't attend do to some lame excuse, know that the crew of Addiction will be forced to sever all ties and friendships. LA

Meet the Press

Yesterday was a great day. Mom, Richard and I left the house pretty early and went to Starbucks, then off to Addiction. When we got there, I opened the hatch and see Mike comfortably asleep in a bunk and Chase asleep sitting on a bean bag, wearing his foul weather boots. I thought that was kind of funny, he said that the bunk was really uncomfortable, that the refrigerator was making noise and it was freezing cold. We all pretty much told him that once we get underway there will be so much other noise that he wont be able to hear the refrigerator, and so on.
While we were still dock side Mike set up to go up the mast and Richard and I hulled the brand new Sobstad light wind head sail up ( we have yet to see any light wind ), we needed to mark where we should put the spreader patches. Once we got it hoisted it was obvious there were already patches. So we all just stepped back and enjoyed the brand new sail smell, then we took it down and stowed it away.Then Mike and Chase packed a few spinnakers.

We left the dock at about 0915, the wind was still light, about 13 knots. we motored over to Queen Mary, put up the main then bared off and set our new Sobstad .75 spinnaker. Richard was at the helm for that set, I was sheet, Chase was pit, Mom on pole, Mike on the fore deck. It was so much fun!! Once we got past a the oil islands Mike spiked that shoot, then we set our brand new Sobstad 1.5, we did one jibe, doused, and headed in to Alamitos Bay to fuel up.
The man at the fueling station gave us a bunch of bottled water as a good luck gift. I cant say that i have ever really thought of water as being lucky, but now that you think of it, i feel pretty lucky to have a little extra fresh water. Richard and I worked on fueling the boat, and yes for some reason it was a two person job. As with most boats,the fuel gage on Addiction is a bit ify. So using an odd mathematical formula of it's a 20 gallon tank, so,almost on empty plus 3 gallons back in Hawaii minus one Friday night race, and a 45 minute motor to the Phoenician and a 45 minute run up the coast in Long Beach, plus 5 gallons at the slip in Marina Harbor, minus running dock side for an hour, equals a void of about 13 gallons, give or take. Richard managed to squeeze in a whole 3 1/2 gallons. Nothing was kinking the line, and the breather was breathing, and i really don't think it is possible that my math could be off, so i will have to crack open the inspection porthole today.

Moving on, we set sail out of the channel and headed back up the coast. The wind was a steady 18 knots but for some reason it seems like a hell of a lot more wind. I figured its because of how cold the wind is. Anyways, we had to hurry back to the dock in ordered for us to meet Lynn Fitzpatrick on time. Lynn is the press officer for Transpac. I guess Kristin Royalty did a great job on the press release because we had 3 reporters and Lynn come out for a sail with us, as well as a number of press photographer's in a chase boat. The reporters on Addiction ( pictured ) were, on the left Ron Kilgore, very cool guy, he works for KNX10.70 CBS news radio, he and i did a live radio interview while i was at the helm doing a kite run, I must say that was really hard. Next was Rick Rosen, I think he was with Lynn as the Transpac photographer, then Jeff Gritchen he works for the Press-Telegram and i think the O.C. news paper, or the local news paper. Anyways we all had so much fun!! The one downer of the sail was when the press guys phones started going off with the news that Michael Jackson had died.

Oh and the bonus, Lynn gave me the Transpac program for 2009. Wow it looks good! Addiction is at the top of the competitors list, I think it because we have such a bad ass crew and a hot shit boat. Also the Phoenician ran a killer add wishing the crew of Addiction luck. It's to cool. For those of you that have yet to hear The Phoenician is opening up a marine shop, so you could haul out, at what i think is the best yard in Hawaii, and have all the marine supply you need just a few steps away. Thank you Fred and John. Also the photo of the crew of Cirrus excepting our trophy's for the Aloha B win.

Mom and I were super happy to see our friend and mainland Cirrus crew member Chris Doutre on the Transpac boat Silent Running. He is crewing as the navigator. He is sailing with some shabby digs, A/C, espresso machine, flat screen TV, and a convection oven. Good luck guys. Also a Japanese friend of mine from Tachyon 3 came down to Addiction to say hi, we have a huge language barrier, but the Tachyon 3 crew is one of my favorite crews. Good luck to them too.  

OK i got to go LA

OK, things are starting to wined down. I am happy bout that. As you can see Chase published two blogs through sail mail. I have to tell you, and I'm sure i will sound like an idiot, but i don't know what a sunspot is, i will find out and be that much more enlightened. I cant tell you just how happy i am that the computers are working out this well. I know my good friend Bill Meyers is stoked too.

Richard put some hydraulic fluid in to the system. The whole set up on Addiction is really strange, the fill spot is like an inch from the bulkhead, so there is no way to just poor the fluid in. Richard was going to set up some elaborate hose and funnel system, but then we thought it would be easier to use a medical syringe minus the needle. What do you know, that worked out just fine, a little slow, but no clean up. Also Chase reinstalled the stereo he dismantled back in Hawaii. We thought it was broken but it just turned out that the ground had become ungrounded, so now we have music. My mom came down to the boat with some of our canned food, our cup-a-noddle, box milk, and breakfast food. For those that don't know, cup-a-noddle is a staple when doing any open ocean crossing. My mom is doing a really good job getting all the goodies for the trip, she has also found us some good deals, so that's a bonus!

Other then that we have had a lot of visitors come by the boat lately asking odd question, such as how much excess weight in food do we have on board, what type of weather program do we have, how many reefs are in the main and how many mains do we have on board, how many spinnakers do we have and what are the sizes, and it goes on. See now first off i think why does this random person want to know these things? Why do they care? And should i care about these questions regarding other boats. And well the answer is i don't need to know that sort of crap about other peoples boats. And that goes the same with Addiction. So when random people, that i have no idea who they are ask these thing, i have started to say, well I'm pretty sure we have around 4 mains on board, and well i think i may have forgot a few spinnaker's back in Hawaii so its passable there could only be 2 spinnakers below. They usually look at me like I'm crazy and walk away.

Our Mahalo pupu party was a great time!! My mom organized a killer get together. We hand lots of food, wine and fun! Rick Ross from Marina Riggers and his lady friend came down, as well as Debbie our host, she brought some delicious Salmon she smoked herself, and a lovely bottle of almond infused champagne, we are going to save that one for the half way party. Duncan showed up with some fresh berry's, he brought his friend Zack Zorne (sp?). Zack is the man you need to talk to if you are on this side doing the race and you want to ship some gear back to Hawaii, he has a container. Space is available on a first come bases. If you would like to get a hold of him i think you can call the Marine Shipyard. Two of my friends from the Shoreline Yacht Club, Richard and Jim came over to wish us luck, as well as our slip neighbors Berry and Sharl. My Uncle AL stopped by too. Along with a few other well wishers the evening was a hit. Thank you to all that came, sucks to be those that didn't.

Stay tuned for the next blog as we are going for a sail to test out the new kites and also taking out some press people. LA

Here is one of my attempts at sending a picture.

Knock on wood this works (in less than a week)

Sunspots and Radiowaves

Hey everybody, Chase here. Since we have successfully tested our ability to send blog updates through email, I decided it was time to proceed to sending blog updates from our SailMail account. Yesterday we tested our ability to transmit pictures through email and I was pretty happy to see how little time it took us. Sadly, the spots of the sun have decided not to work in our favor today. I find myself able to connect, send, and receive, but it's taking considerably more time. Knock on wood, we will be LOADED with sun spots on our trip and just maybe we will be able to send you guys photos a little bigger than your thumb. For now, I say mahalo to everyone for their help and support.
~Chase

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Yesterday was great. Richard and I ran some errands then went down to the boat. Our fifth and final crew mate Chase arrived. He is the crew mate that makes the computers run. He got to work with sail mail. We sent and received a few messages, and let me tell you that was a huge relief!!! For those of you that don't know, I'm not the biggest fan of computers. In fact I'm floored with how well I'm doing with this whole blogging thing. Anyways, once we, or should i say Chase, accomplished that, we moved on to retrieving our GRIB files, and that went off with out a hitch. The weather was right there in front of us. I love it!!! I figured that since everything was going so well, why not push our luck and send a picture. What do you know it worked. That picture up there was sent through the SSB. I think that is really cool!!  

My mom came down to the boat latter in the day to drop off some more dry stores, paper towels, toilet paper, baby wipes, that sort of thing. So things are coming together quite while.

I would like to take this time now to invite anyone that is in southern California to join the crew of Addiction this evening around 1830 for a small pupu party. We would like to get a chance to thank all those that have helped us along the way. Addiction is docked in the Shoreline Village, aka the fish bowl, in slip 5025. If we know you don't bring anything but your self, if we don't know you and you just want to hang out with us, bring some beer or what ever you my drink. Alright see you then. LA

Alright, today was a good day, Richard and I got a lot done. We started the day off with a tour of the New Port West Marines. After 2 goes we got 3/4 of the stuff we needed for the day. Once we got to the marina, after a 20 minute conversation with the unofficial harbor master English John, we got right to work on board.
While Richard ran a new fore guy i installed some new cockpit pouches. See when we are course racing in Hawaii, all of our cockpit lines kinda just get thrown in to the cabin, but since we will be in the open ocean, and living down below, we kinda need to be able to close the hatch quickly and well i just need it to be a little more organized. So now all the lines can be neatly coiled and place in the pouches, out of the way and foul free. Its a good thing.
Then Richard webbed the lifelines, with bungee, from the first stanchion on the foredeck to the bow pulpit. I did the same, only on the deck and added little plastic hooks, in order to fix a sail to the deck if we had to. It looks much better and works much better now.
At some point Victor, the guy from Captain Glass, yep that's his name, not Vinnie, came by to sand and gel coat the ding spots he and his son started to fix on Friday. I am just so impressed with what a good job he has done. Other then the color you cant even tell there was a problem. He is not finished yet. I'm sure the finished product will be better then new. He should do the whole boat.
During this time Thore the refrigeration man came down to the boat to recharge the freon. Now when i think of a man with a name like Thore, i think 6'5" like 300 lb. big guy with an accent. And that is just what he was, but no accent. I thought i was going to have to remove the stairs so he could get in to work on the ice box. I learned a lot from Thore. He informed me that Addictions refrigeration system was a Nor Cold, or something to that effect, and that they don't have freon recharging ports. The idea is that once you run out of freon you replace the whole unit. I think that is really funny!! I could not get over it. I was then informed that the units last about ten years, so i guess it makes a little more sense. But still, come on. Thore went on to say that if i remove the wood facade encasing the unit he could do a little tapping and welding and recharge the system no problem. Surprisingly enough it was effortless to remove the wood paneling. Thore squeezed in, worked his magic, and was out of there in about an hour. He let me know that there is a small leak somewhere, but not any where he could find, and that was a good thing to him for some reason, i guess that meant it was really small. He told me that in about 2 years it will need a recharge, but by that time we should just buy a new unit. I must tell you, that 2 extra years, its money in the bank, i really feel like i got one over on those Nor Cold people. Side Note: I have been under the impression that Freon had been phased out. I should have asked Thore. Oh well.
After a quick lunch Richard and i reinstalled the engine kill plunger. It had been taken out back in Hawaii in order for some work to be done down below, in the quarter bunk. I guess the parts were missed place or some crap, so this whole time we have been manually killing the motor from down below on the engine, its not a big deal, just more work then it needs to be. Now its all better.
My mom spent the day getting the dry stores and things of that nature. She came by latter in the day to drop off that stuff and our sat. phone.
On our way home to Chateau Relaxeau we stopped at Big 5 sporting goods to look for some 5 gallon water jugs. Mom and I have been to literally every Lows, Home Depot.,West Marine, Walmart, Kmart, Boat US, and Sports Authority between Fashion Island and Pine Ave. as far inland as Signal Hill with no luck. So it was a really kicker to find them at the Big 5 walking distance from the boat. One more thing checked off the list!
To wrap it up, I have to tell you all about the unreal dinner Aunt Peggy had ready for us to devour when we got home. She mad a pork tender loin seasoned with fresh rosemary, steamed broccoli, corn, rice, and a fresh green salad. The pork was melt in your mouth. I don't know how i am going to acclimate to MRE's after all this amazing food.
Lastly, I just got off the phone with Julie Downes, Addiction's finish party planer. Julie, Ben Merritt, and the Waikiki Yacht Club are pulling out all the stops for this party, as Ben says its going to be LARGE! I cant wait. Also if anyone happens to meet Julie and she is clapping wildly, its OK, she really is just high fiveing herself for doing such an amazing job.
LA

Over The Weekend

Sorry I have missed a few days of blogging, i will get everyone up to date.

Friday

Lets see, Friday was a good day. Mike Rush got into town and came down to the boat, he got to work right away cleaning the head, thank you Mike, he also fixed the leak at the Y valve connected to the head. It was a minor leak but it was getting on my nerves. Then he saddled up on to the boom to run the check stays. Once that was finished he prepped the forward hatch for the grip tape.

At about mid day a few of my moms cousins, and my cousins, and my grandma, and my uncle Gary came down to the boat to have a look around. It was my cousin Olivia and here children's first time on a boat, so we took a ton of pictures, then headed over to the Yard House for lunch. I have to say that I'm glad to be sailing home as it will give me a chance to lose some of these lbs. i have put on since being here.

Earlier in the week i had contacted a man named Steve that owns a company called Captain Glass, they do fiberglass repair. He came down to the boat to check out the damage and gave me a great estimate. He came back latter with his two employees Vince (i think that's his name) and his son Louise (both pictured). They got to work digging out the fractured fiberglass and laying some new stuff down, as to set over the weekend. Let me tell you these guys are artist! So far they are doing an amazing job. If you are ever in Long Beach and you need some repairers of this nature done give Captain Glass a call. I am stoked!

Toward the end of the day my Transpac host Debbie (pictured) came by to say hi and drop off my skippers package. It was not the first time i had meet Debbie. In 2007 while delivering Cirrus up from Hawaii we ran out of flue right out side of Angles Gate, with out a lick of wind in sight and just a few days left till our start, we called Warren Wolf to see if we could get a tow. With in a half an hour Debbie pulls up in her boat and tows us all the way to our slip. It is great to get to spend some time with her again, she is a super cool woman. Thank you for all of your help.

Saturday

Okay, let me think. Ah yes, Richard came in at the crack of dawn. Mom and i got up really early, rushed down to the boat, i hulled up the battle flag, then went to Starbucks for a tea. Richard caught a shuttle from LAX to the Haytt in Long Beach. He called from the lobby to tell us just how tickled he was to be able to see his boat from that far away. We picked him up, drove down to the boat so he could have a look around. I shit you not, the first words out of his mouth were, Wow she looks dirty. First of all, anybody that has sailed on Addiction knows that not once has that boat been rinsed off after a sail, or a single stanchion been polished, and the head is lucky to get a quick wipe down once a month. Not to mention when we took possession of Addiction after being shipped from Hawaii, it literally looked like it had been sitting down wind from an oil fire for a month. The black soot and grime was impressive. So I had to just chock it up to jet lag, I'm sure that when he said dirty he really meant, super spectacular!

We fussed around for a bit, then tried to sink the boat. What happened was we decided to flush to water tank. The tank got full, and the bilge did too. We ran the bilge pump while looking for the breather, but could not find it anywhere. Then we thought we must have cracked the tank, but that wasn't the case. After awhile i found the breather, witch by the way is not near the tank, is in the oddest place, and empties right in to the bilge. So now i am better informed, its not a problem, it is what it is. All and all the tank is flushed and the bilge pumps work great!

We decided to take a brake from trashing the boat. Richard and I tried to find Club Transpac, we even used a map, but with no luck. I guess it has not been set up yet. We ran around town buying crap for the boat. We called it a day pretty early and headed back to Chateau Relaxeau. Chef Grandma had prepared a lovely welcome meal for Richard, we dinned on BBQ ribs, backed bean and her famous home made potato salad. It was tasty.

Sunday HAPPY FATHERS DAY

Today was a very enjoyable day. We slept in all the way till 8. Mom and i took Richard to breakfast at place called R&D, kind of like Richard & Donna, in Fashion Island. It was nice. After that we headed out to the boat. We have been driving down PCH daily, passing by a bathing suit shop called Beach Bunny, we had some time so i stopped in. Now in my mind a place called Beach Bunny seems like a heaven on earth, a Utopia, right there on Pacific Coast Highway. Not so much. There wasn't one suit in there that didn't have lace or chains on it. I don't even know if you could call it a swim suit, these suits seemed more like outdoor lingerie. Now i have owned some pretty out there swim suits, even some that i would never get wet, but not even i could get behind that swimwear. Maybe I'm getting old.

OK getting back to fathers day. We got to the boat and got it together to go out for a sail. I guess a few other people had the same idea, we had to wait for like ten minutes for it to be clear to back out of the slip, the channel was as busy as the 405. We set sail in about 20 knots of wind. That seems like a lot of wind for out here. Other then all the tankers on moorings, the green water, and the occasional seal it felt like we were home in Hawaii. There was ever type of boat on the water today, from Hobbie cats to the tall ship Lynx. Addiction sailed great, the rig and the tune seemed well, and all the lines were ran correctly. Once all the crew is in we will take her out for good ol' shake down.

After we got back into the harbor, and yes the boat got rinsed, mom and i took Richard to one of our favorite restaurants in CA. Its a place called Gorges. We went to the one on 2nd street, but there is also one on Pine Ave. Gorges severs authentic Greek food. We had a wonderful meal. Its a must try when in the Long Beach area, i would recommend the the flaming cheese appetiser.

You cant eat on 2nd street without taking a walk and doing a little window shopping. I don't know were my parents went but due to my very unsatisfying bathing suit experience earlier in the day I found myself elated at the sight of a bathing suit shop. I walked in and i was surrounded by VIX, Salinas and even CIA Maritim. It was total over load, you will be schooked to learn that i did not buy a thing. I told myself that once the boat is total ready to go, and if i still have any money left the weekend before the race, i would buy one, maybe two suits. It feels good just to know i have some place to go.

Moving on, i think that brings us up to speed. We have a busy week ahead so i promise not to miss a day of blogging and i will stick to the topic of Transpac and sailing. No more bathing suit talk. Also, i am glad to see some test comments, thank you to those for the instructions.

LA

Lets see, yesterday was a very unproductive day. Mom and i ran around town buying crap for the boat, we got a screw we need, ( come to think of it, i lost it ) some more of that 4U stuff, and on and on. Once we got down to the area the boat is in there was a ton of traffic, so we got held up in that. We got to the boat and i realized that i needed to fax a rental agreement to the sat phone company, back on the road again, we stooped at Kinkos, then our 90th trip to West Marine, and a stop at Starbucks to jump on the Internet to purchase our Long Beach banquet tickets, the dead line for that is Friday. Then back to the boat, but what do you know, the traffic is hideous! i guess the every single member of the Watchtower group from around the entire world decided to have a little convention at the Long Beach convention center. It really threw a wrench in my day. Once we finally got to the boat my uncle Gary and Grandma were waiting to take us to at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Super Mex. So we loaded up into the car, at this point i was getting irritated with not getting any work done and being in the fricking car. We all had a very nice lunch. While the rest of the family went off and did there own thing, i headed back to the boat to polish the bow and push pulpit and the stanchions. English John turned me on to this stuff called, i think, Davis FSR, fiberglass stain remover. Now i have always been a big fan of Ospho, but his stuff is like Ospho in a gel form with a little extra spice. I like it a lot, and i think Addiction likes it too. Well I have to get going with my day. LA

Oh, could some one out there that knows how to post a comment, please post a comment explaining to people how to post a comment. Thank you.

Inspection!!!

Alright lets see, yesterday was a good day very productive! Mom and i went down to the boat, i worked on re-installing the SSB antenna, and putting the radar reflector on the back stay while mom installed a hanging system in the forepeak for our lines and foul weather gear. Some time around 1300 i called Roby, (pictured) he is the head TP inspector, i asked him if he could come down to the boat on Friday to do our inspection, he said he had to look at his calender and he would call me back. The thing is, we have all of our inspection stuff on board, but a lot of it has to be in place for the race, and we were only half way there.

A few hours latter my phone rings, its Roby, he was at the post office then he was going to come down to Addiction in 20 minutes. Wow okay, so mom and i rushed around to put the life raft in place, move a few things around to get a look at the through hulls, and a few other things. When Roby arrived i felt pretty much ready. He and i sat down below and went through the inspection list, after i singed my life away he asked me to raise my right hand, he asked me to repeat after him, I Lindsey Anne Austin swear to have as much possible fun before during and after Transpac and to consume as many Mai Ti's upon arrival in Hawaii. Yes i love you Roby!! With that Addiction was cleared to sail in Transpac.

Once Roby left mom and i scrubbed down the decks with this cleaner called 4U. Let me tell you that stuff is like a magic wand, or like a time machine that took us back to 1984 when Addiction was brand new. It is a great product, it's known in only 15 states to cause cancer, and just damages the marine life within a 15 yard radios of the boat. I'm totally joking, but that is just how strong this stuff is. But really the bottle says its biodegradable and non-hazardous. If u want to pick some up give the Captains Locker a call 562-598-6611, they will ship it.

We put our brand new Sobstad spinnakers on board, i am very excited to see those up. we also ran our Sobstad battle flag up the head stay to get a look at it, and i am super stoked!!! It looks killer. We are not flying it all the time right now, but next week it will be a permanent fixture.

Lets wrap it up, I have meet my first unfriendly pair of people since i have been here. While walking down the dock with my mom we had to pass by a TP boat, which i won't mention the name, so i figured i would introduce ourselves, I told them our names and put my hand out and they did and said absolutely nothing. You my think maybe that don't speck english, or perhaps they're deaf, no that is not the case. I'm more inclined to think they are two grown men lacking in social graces, but I'm sure they will come around.

Okay i cant look at this computer any more. LA

Yesterday was a good day, mom and i got the boat in a little better order, it almost looks live able. We siliconed the mast, arranged the food and cloth bins, and i got the electrical for the mast lights all hooked up. The windx is giving me a hard time so i will have to go up the mast today and look at that. 

After that long day of work, we arrived back at the Chateau Relaxeau, ( that's french for the house of relaxation) also known as my uncle Al and Ant Peggy's house in Big Canyon. Ant Peggy made a killer dinner of prosciutto and cheese stuffed chicken with a green chili sauce, accompanied by homemade mashed potato, steamed broccoli, and a green salad with avocado. It was unreal!!! We made a pig of ourselves, there were no left overs. I might just scratch this whole TP thing and become the pool girl at the Chateau Relaxeau and never leave. Thank you guys!!

Alright I'm just wasting my day now, i will write more latter. 

Oh Christin, i got your blog comment, thank you for putting the blog on the HYRA site, that cool. I will ask around about a spot for your friend.  

Addiction In The Water!!!!!

Early Monday morning, with the help of Rick the rigger his employ Row, my uncle Gary, mom, Howard and a few other people in the yard we were able to put Addiction in the water. It all went smoothly, and she didn't sink, that's a plus! After everyone came back from lunch we got our act together to step the mast. When we pulled the mast back at the Phoenician i noticed that there were no coins in the step, and i have always been told that is bad luck, so before westeeped it this time around, i put a silver quarter that Mike Rush gave the boat and a Kennedy head half dollar from the year the boat was built. So i think were covered.

Once all that was in order we drooped the mast and tuned the rig. After that i went up the mast to attach an antenna and a flag halyard, then we ran the lines on the deck and we were done. Before we left the yard I got the estimate to see how much it would cost the yard to fix the 3 dings on the beams, I guess i don't know much about the cost of boat repair because i wasshocked to see that it would be $3084.25. I talked to my Load a Boat guy, and i was informed that Pasha will only pay up to $1000. He wants me to wait to get back to Hawaii so he can have his friend fix it. That's not going to happen.

Mom, uncle Gary and i left the Marine shipyard at 1645 headed to Rainbow Marine. It took us about an hour to get there, and let me tell you it was COLD and windy. We pulled in to the channel in front of the Tole Mour, that was neat.

Addiction has a really nice slip, thank you Rick Sanders and English John. Our neighbor Berry was kind enough to split his power cord for us, so now we are all powered up.

Mom and I are kinda bummed that do to all the delays with the shipping, we missed anopportunity to crew on Vicki in the Hoga race. Thank you very much to Chris Welsh for the invite, good luck racing Ragtime, in what is probably her 80th Transpac. See you in Hawaii. Also thank you to Jeff on Hot Ticket for the invite to do the Thursday night beer can races, I might make it this week. Aloha to Becky.

Mom has been on the phone with our party planner Julie Downes, she is doing a killer job, I am really looking forward to the booze luge and some drunken hula hoop contest, and whacking the shit out a pinata.

Oh i almost forgot, the cat i am holding in that picture belongs to Rick, ( that is Rick in the picture). It is by far the biggest cat i have ever seen in my life, he tells me it only weighs 19 lbs but I'm calling a good 30 lbs. Its a Manx so it only has a stub of a tail. Alright that's all for now.

There it is the ding, like i said, there are two more like it. oh well shit happens. That's my mom working on the rigging. Today was another day of getting things a little more organized on the boat. Mom and I did some engine maintenance, put some of the safety equipment out one the deck, and then ran some errands to west marine and home depot.  We got our dinners for the trip in the mail, MRE's, that stands for meals ready to eat, its like freeze dried food, but some people think its better, really its food in a bag that can keep for up to 15 years, so you can imagine what that might be like. Tomorrow is a big day hopefully we can get the dings fixed, the boat in the water, mast steeped, and move into our new slip at the, oh i forgot the name of the marina, but I know how to get there.

Other then that, i hung out with the truck driver Howard, he is really funny. I don't think i have ever meet such a good ol' boy from Texas. I found out that he likes to listen to Rush Limbaugh on talk radio, he really isn't to keen on having Obama for president, because, amongst other things, he was born in Africa and is a Muslim. He thinks Eve Mendez is one of the most beautiful women alive, and he doesn't understand why she wont return his phone calls. He knows all Filipino women wield knives, and he is a history fanatic.

 I think he likes mom and I because he lent me his favorite 2 movies, only on the contingency that i fetch'em on back to him by tomorrow. So i should probably hurry home to watch Smokey and the Bandit and Convoy. I wish he could come out to Hawaii for the finish party, he is a riot!!! 

Alright that's all for now.     

Addiction Made It!

well Addiction pulled into the shipyard at about 9 o'clock this morning, and boy what a relief that was. I checked out the " ding " and it really is just that, a ding, in three places on the rail, on both beams. It could have been much worse. The yard is going to fix it. The shipping company, Pasha is paying for it . I had a picture of the ding, but now i cant find it. I will post it tomorrow.

Other then that, the driver Howard is a really neat, nice guy. That's him, and his truck the Intimidatory. (that's the trucks name.) We were able to unload the mast today, and mom and I got it all rigged up and ready to step on Monday. Thank you to Duncan and Rick for helping to unload the mast. I am tired now and will write more latter. oh and thanks to all for the comments.

Small Ding



I don't know if anyone out there was taking bets on whither or not Addiction would arrive today, so for those of you that are optimist, pay up. I got a phone call from the truck driver at around 1 o'clock this afternoon, good news, the brakes are fixed, bad news, do to wide load restrictions and a curfew he is unable to leave till early in the morning of the 13th. ( It makes me wounder. If he knew of these restrictions, then why did he tell me to meet him in the yard the day before at 3 o'clock, even though he would be unable to drive down the road at that time? hmm.)

Well that all seems fine and well right? The yard is not usually open on Saturday, but like i said in my previous blog they have been very kind and offered to have a few guys come in and put the boat in the water over the weekend. Seeing as how reliable my Load a Boat people are I figured might as well wait till Monday morning.

Once I got all that squared away with the yard I gave my Load a Boat guy a call to let him know that the boat, the trailer, and the driver would have to stay the weekend in the parking lot at the shipyard ( I am told that that is not to unusual). At this point in the day it almost seems like thing are starting to fall in to place. I start to wrap up my phone call with the Load a Boat guy, and then he tells me, I don't want you to be surprised when you see the boat, but there is a ding on her beam......... I ask him what exactly is a ding?, like a gaping hole in the boat or a nick in the gel coat? He never really gave me a good answer on that one. He tells me that it came off of the shipping boat just fine, so at some point it was moved in the port and got bumped into something. At this point i am a bit confused, because now he has mentioned both beams. So I ask a few more questions, and he assures me that the shipping company has never damaged a boat before. Well to be honest, I could give a shit about all the boats that came before Addiction. Then I guess he had forgot that he had told me that Addiction came off the ship fine, and he goes on to tell me that he thinks what happened was that it was loaded to closely to other cargo on the ship, and when the ship swayed, thats how both beams got "dinged".

I think we can all draw our own conclusion as to the validity of what i have been told so far, and as to why I have yet to see the boat. Let's all just hope this time his word is true, and it really is just a ding.

Where Is Addiction?

Alright, my mom and I arrived here in Long Beach on the 8th. I phoned my Load a Boat guy to make sure we were still on schedule to have Addiction delivered to the Marina boat yard first thing on the 10th, he said that they were having some delays with other boats, that a truck was held up in Arizona, but that he might have another driver available to drop off my boat on the 10th.

I didn't hear back from him till mid day, the day of delivery, while waiting in the yard. Turns out there was some jam up in LA and the driver wasn't going to make it till first thing in the morning. Hey OK, that's life, hurry up and wait, fine.

So the morning of the 11th I find myself waiting at the shipyard at 7:30am....... Some peoples first thing in the morning and my first thing in the morning are two different things. Ten o'clock rolls around, my phone rings, yes, I think its the driver wanting directions, NO, its my Load a Boat guy. It turns out the driver got to the LA yard after closing yesterday, so they were going to off load that boat right then, then the driver was going to shoot down to San Diego, pick up Addiction, and be at my yard at around 3pm. (A half hour after closing).

Lucky for me everyone at the Marina shipyard are the nicest people, and have been very helpful with everything. I have also met a few people from around the harbor that followed the 2007 Transpac and are more then willing to lend a hand. Duncan Harrison, Rick Ross and I made a plan to meet at around 3 to start unpacking the mast and getting a few thing done around the boat that we could.

What do you know, my mom and I once again find ourselves sitting at the yard at 6 o'clock staring at an empty space were Addiction should be resting.

You cant sit in a shipyard and stair at nothing all night, so we left and went back to New Port were we are staying. We got showered, changed, meet up with some family and friends, and went out for a nice dinner.

9 o'clock strikes and my phone rings, it's the truck driver, ( first time I have ever spoken to him) he's in San Diego, he is with Addiction............BUT, apparently the brakes on the trailer have gone out, don't work, can't be driven, some shit, I don't know, and he has to wait for a mechanic to come look at them first thing in the morning (we know how that goes). He said if it all works out he could be at my shipyard by noon Friday.

For all I know, at this point Addiction could be parked in front of a Denny's in Mississippi with the trailer on blocks. Who knows? We'll all just have to wait and see.

                                                                                                                     The Blessing

So you can't start a voyage on a Friday and you can't blindly hand your boat over to a trucker to be shipped 2500 miles with out a blessing. Thank you to Chaplin Bill Crockett for blessing the crew, boat, and trailer. We know where you live if things go wrong. No really with all the ti leafs, Buddha statue, Catholic saint, Indian goddess, plus a lucky rabbits foot, and the blessing, I think we should be covered. Safe Sailing

Phoenician

Boat Yard

So we spent 2 week at the Phoenician boat yard, getting Addiction ready to load up on to a trailer, and ship out to San Diego. There was a lot of work to be done, pull the mast, messenger the lines, sand and spray the bottom, paint the stern, clean, wax, polish the hull....... the list goes on. With the help of John Gomersall and all the guys in the yard we were able to stay ahead of schedule and almost stress free. I really have to say, after G.P. sprayed the bottom, and we burnished her, it came out like butter. It was an added relief to know that I didn't have to think about ordering my spare parts because Remi was on top of it. Oh don't forget, coming soon the Phoenician boat yard will be opening a marine store.

Big MAHALO to all the guys in the yard!!!!!

Lindsey A. Austin

Captain 

* Born and raised in Hawaii. Grew up on an 80 foot steel hull schooner. 

* Extensive sailing through the Hawaiian Islands, Christmas, Fanning, Washington, Palmyra, Tarawa Atolls. Baker, Howlland and Jarvis Islands. Kingmen and Winslow Reef. 

* 8 years of Jr. sailing at the Waikiki Yacht Club.

* 2003 I received a 100 ton masters license including tow and sail endorsements.

*Yacht deliveries between the central/ south pacific and the west coast.

* Captain of the 2007 Transpac yacht Cirrus. Aloha B division winner. Becoming the youngest skipper to win any division in a 103 years of Transpac history. 

* Not a mother of anything, but a proud little sister of tug boat captain Phillip Austin.