7/30/3008
Well lots of great things happened in the last few days. First we finally finished. We are safely here in Kanehoe, Hawaii after a 12 day 10 hour sail from San Francisco. The last day was fantastic brisk sailing as the trades were blowing strong! We arrived in Kaneohe at 12:34 pm. We did find the finish line but it was difficult to see. We had a pretty bib swell as we arrived and a squall had just formed so we had our hands full. The crew did a great job of getting the boat stopped and we fired up the engine for
the first time in two weeks and took Oceanaire into the harbor. We were greeted at the finish line by Dr Ayoub and Palow Kalaw, two of our sponsors who braved a very rough ocean and jumped on the finish boat to meet us at the line. As Oceanaire arrived at the harbor we were greeted by cheers and support from the club volunteers and the families and friends of the crew. There were banners, applause, screaming and an overwhelming spirit of Aloha! I want to thank everyone for all of your support. I
have spoken to so many friends and family that have been following us via satellite tracking. I will check the blog today for the first time and look forward to reading all of your comments and words of encouragement. Lissa and I truly appreciate them. We have gotten the minor repairs completed on the boat and I will be prepping the delivery crew on Thursday morning for the return trip. You can
follow the boat home on the same site but she will appear as NO~KO~OI~. We took almost 2000 photos of the trip and the experience and four hours of video. We will be putting together a small video that you may request, gratis at yachtcharters@rcip.com. See you all soon.
Thanks, Love, Garret and Lissa, Oceanaire~

July 26, 2008
Oceanaire is at 24.18Nx151.38W. We should arrive at midday on Monday, July 28th - as close as I can guess. All those planning to meet Oceanaire should check with the race deck at Kaneohe Yacht club for an update on our position. They will certainly offer their best guess on our arrival time. Paolo, if your still planning on being there, which we hope you are, Michael Marazada is the communication officer and race chair. Introduce yourself and he will arrange for you to ride out on the committee boat to meet us. Many photos please! Also Candace and Norman please do the same and find Sammy and get him there if you can. The Pac Cup is aware of our efforts and sponsors that will attend and have committed their support to get you guys to the finish line. We are currently 378 miles from the finish! What an experience this has been. I am sure it won’t really sink in until after we arrive. We continue to catch fish. Five to date pulled on board three released and many got off. The weather? Well what can I say. We have been blessed with great wind all the way really. The weather fax gets a lot of credit for putting us in the right places. The crew is doing great! We have gotten into routines now and everyone is pretty mellow and anxious, as well, to see their families. The boom vang bolts came loose yesterday sometime but no damage to report. I was able to get two new bolts out of four replaced so it works but we are taking it easy on it for the remainder of the trip. I have a short list of minor repairs to complete at Kaneohe before Oceanaire goes to sea for trip back to California. It shouldn't take me long to complete them. The race? Oh yeah,we’re in one! We are in the back half of our fleet and focusing on our daily improvement (IE) - whether they pull more miles on us in a 24 hour period or we gain on them, rather than our position in the Pac. Morning roll call still remains a highlight for the crew. They gather in the cockpit, some sleepy eyed from just getting off watch as we go through the fleet standings, news on other boats, time to go, best run of the day and so forth. It’s a fun time aboard. The crew is working so hard at doing well and their daily efforts are very sincere, they are super committed.
More excitement aboard. We blew up a topping lift and the pole came down but fortunately the sheet held it enough to keep it just above the water line. This is the number one way to self inflict a dismasting or at least big damage to the boat and certain loss of a vital piece of equipment, the carbon pole. We averted a disaster and quickly got the pole up on deck. She had a big scare but she lived to tell her story and is flying again off a spectra loop at the pole tip along with double back-up loops in case that one breaks. Conditions are breezy with 15 to 20 and big rollers that push Oceanaire up to record speeds. To date 12.7 is are best but we are in the 10’s regularly. Great for a big girl like her. Hope to see you all soon. From the crew, we miss you all. Capt.G

July 25, 2008
Short message today as the email server is very slow downloading by short wave radio. It’s strange to think we are using technology from 60 years ago to send emails. My short wave radio allows me to connect to a server based on the mainland through a private provider that has the equipment to accept short wave transmissions and decode them and process them into standard email format. Old meets new and it works. I can email globally for $25.00 a year. But only 10 minutes a day allowed. We are at 26.27x146.12. All is good and wind and boat really moving along. Hot, sunny days - 65 degrees at night and sailing now in shorts and bare feet. We have had a few break downs but the crew is great and we have dealt with it all well. Now I need to keep the crew focused on safety and not getting cocky. They like to fast. But they are very safe but always testing me for more. I will slow down a bit from here out to insure we don't break the boat as we get closer. See you soon. Capt. Garrett

July 24, 2008
We have been moving along slowly since I cut through the course and the high filled in on top of us. Normally we would sail south then west. The weather allowed us a rare chance to cut miles by sailing southwest by west thus cutting some serious miles off the course. And in fact it was an easy decision because essentially the southern portion of the Eastern Pacific had no wind with a 1016 high pressure ridge sitting there. (All the decisions I have made so far have worked and I still have trouble believing at times that I am capable of the equation. Actually it’s quite simple. I relate it to a golf swing, easy but a lot to think about to do it well. Since this is my first Trans Pacific voyage as skipper and navigator I am pleased with the results. Basically, now it’s head for the island and keep a loose eye on the high). Unfortunately, the normal high had filled back in and caught us a bit too far north and we had to patiently wait out the light breeze while diving south to get into the 1020 mb stream. We made it and are in the trades now with the barometer reading 1020. Yes!! Having a trending barometer has proven to be a valuable tool. It reads the trend, up or down, over a specific time period rather than just the current pressure allowing me to see if the high pressure system is chasing us or moving away. That combined with sitting behind the computer downloading weather models six hours a day gives me a good picture on what's happening with the Pacific High and how we can take advantage of its power. We are really moving now at 8 knots and VMG or velocity made good at 7.9. That means we are headed right for Kaneohe. The weather looks favorable for the next 96 hours but caution teaches us there is no guarantee. It’s all a guess based on models and typical weather trends. We all know the weather is changing globally and if you don't believe it you need to ask a sailor. Spirits were high at the half way mark then a bit low with the crew having to tolerate the light breezes. With more wind come hope of doing well and getting a Mai-Tai and spending some time with our families in Hawaii. Our current VMG shows us arriving on Tuesday at 0400. This changes with the boat speeds so no guarantee but we hope to make it by Wednesday. Signing off. Garrett.

July 20, 2008
We are having a great sail across the Pacific. You can read the blogs at www.sailingforsmiles.org you can also follow the race there and see where we are live. We have a satellite transponder that was supplied by Flagship Sat Systems attached to all the racers on the course. Click on race preparations to read the blogs live from the boat or click on the link to view our position. To view live, go to follow us on the Sailing for Smiles website and click follow the race. We are DIV C. Our current position is 30.42N x 136.58W.
We have 1375 miles to go out of 2300. The Pacific is indescribable. The water is azure blue with visibility to 60 feet. Sky's are blue and the weather is perfect, it’s absolutely breath taking. We have finally made the Pacific High. The breeze has moved 180 degrees and we are flying the twins. All the heavy weather gear is put away and the crew is in shorts, t-shirts and bare footed. We have had every sail on the boat up now. We flew the spinnaker earlier. We will go a bit slower now in the downwind trades, but the boat is comfortable. The crew is healthy, happy and everyone is doing a great job. Lissa is so happy out here. She took a shower on the aft deck and shaved her legs today! The first few days were rough, but I expected that. Lissa was a bit apprehensive but said she felt now felt safe. She did ask me once if we were ok in the middle of the night in a rough piece of the ocean, she's an old salt now. Please follow us, it’s fun. I have talked to several ships. One last night is the Mokihana based in Hawaii and runs RORO’s and cargo back and forth to Oakland, CA!! Nice Captain. He picked up several platforms that will be used to bring several of the boats racing back to Oakland. I contacted him at 0300 in the morning to make passing instructions and make him aware of my position and after we finished our business he asked if we could talk a while. Very cool. He is from Maine, and sails a Rhodes 13!! He was a real east coast Captain, laid back and very professional and we shared small talk for 30 minutes. Just two sailors on late night watch looking for company. Jimmy Buffet stuff, cool He was very interesting and I really enjoyed his conversation. He was very interested in the race and the history of the crew aboard. We talked about ship repair and the lack of talent in the boat business these days. The boat continues to work well. We’re all safe and happy today. Until next time. Captain,G

July 19, 2008

So far so good. We have done well on miles the first four days. Day one - 145 miles, Day two - 181 miles, Day three - 181 miles, and day four - 188 miles. Our current position is 31.43N x 133.29W. The weather is great. Cool but the sun came out today for the first time and the solar panels are making AMPs and still are not raised up to their focused position. I don't think we are doing as well as the rest of the fleet as I went further south than the group before I turned but I am happy with our efforts so far. The crew is happy. Great music is playing in the cockpit and the entire crew is on deck chilling and digging the beautiful Pacific. I sailed alone last night as I gave my watch partner the night off to get some sleep. Breezes have been good and I feel we have been lucky to have great wind early in the race. 1425 miles to go! Thanks and see you soon. Garrett, Oceanaire

July 17, 2008
Hi All. Had a couple of busy days out here. The crew is getting familiar with the boat and we have had a good start. We have hit the weather forecasting right on the money, so I guess I should apply for a job as a meteorologist. We are doing well with a few sick crew. Ed has fallen ill with a bad case of sea sickness and Darren is fighting a cold or something. We have had good wind the first day out and really strong breeze the last 24 hours. We averaged 181 miles in the last twenty four hours and have seemed to stay in the fight for the cup these first two days. Although I don't expect to even do well my first shot it’s fun to be in the pack at least in the beginning. Lissa is doing great and is having fun. She was a little apprehensive last night as the seas were bigger than average with big wind. We saw 25 knots last night and seas were around 10-12 feet. Not huge but a bit intimidating for the first timers. Today we continue to towards Hawaii thundering along in strong breezes. Currently blowing 15-23, seas 10 to 15 boat moving at 7.5 knots and doing well taking good care of us. We were a bit concerned last night as hurricane Elida showed her face on my weather fax at 0200Z! Winds to 190 knots and heading right across our path within 480 miles of Oceanaire. Not good. Today she is at 17Nx127S and appears to be moving in a westerly direction. As we are not permitted outside help or paid or subscribed help of any kind this freaked me a bit as I had to be responsible tracking the beast. The boat is working great. I have been spending my time at the Nav Station and on watch most of the time. Slept for two hours this morning for the first time. I had the opening jitters so I only caught a few 10 minute naps the first few days. We are at 34.28N and 127.17S. Hope all is well- try to get a note out from here on. Sailing hard, Garrett