return #6 Sunday day 7

Aloha Westward Fans.
Saturday was a BUST, no fish only blue skies, blue water nice sun and good company. After the Bloody Marys wore off we went to work for Ocean Cleanup. We completed 6 1hr trawls, 2 30 minute observations, documented the filters and the crap they contained. The monstrous trawling fixture has a 6 inch micro filter bag that collects what the trawl with its 30 inch opening traps on the surface of the pristine ocean. Even when the ocean look beautiful, the filter captures bits of plastic every 1 hour trawl. The mico plastic is everywhere, you normally just don,t notice. The study is only keeping pieces that are under 2 cm. Our crew is maintaining a stash of the larger pieces so the trash will not just be hear-say. Actually Laurie Banner is doing all of the work, the guys are good support hoisting the trawl off and on Westward by our spinnaker pole lifting crane.

Ona voyage like this personalities blossom. Lets talk about Roger Gough, his dedication to work is amazing. He needs get back to continue his teaching career and the boat will not go fast enough or strait enough. After discussing the options, we decided to motorsail when boat speed was too low. This will work well as long as our fuel holds out. ps under the BS fishing platform is an additional 100 gallons. We will keep our fingers crossed and paddle as fast as we can so we can return Roger in time

water: unseen floaties
wind 8 knots
waves 1 foot
sky puffy clouds

We will keep you informed as things progress

lat 33 24n
lon 155 19w
wind 12 k
sea 2 ft waves
spirits: high

COME ON HIGH and hopefully DRY.
More to follow!

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return #5 Saturday day 6

Aloha Westward Fans.
The BS fishing platform seems to be working, yellow tail shashimi for lunch wasn't bad at all. Winds keep the same direction however are lightening up. The high is elusive so last night we tacked and headed east(magnetic) to join in the data collection fun. We are now in the zone and put out our first trash trawl at 0800 this morning. We had it upside down and when corrected the monster unit took off in the wrong direction. It crossed our stern and continued until it stabilized 20 yards astern and 10 yards to our stb. side. We let it go for the 1st hour, retied the bridal after retrieving the first sample screen collector and now it looks like a mine sweeper on our stb side. We made ice yesterday and after we put the rig for collection Laurie served up ice cold bloody marys because we felt celebration was in order. We have now joined "the Mega Ocean Cleanup" party which we plan collect plastic as well as other material.We are motorsailing east and plan to trawl for 6 1hour5 knot sessions a day, 3 in the am and 3 in the pm with collection screen replacement each hour.

wind 8 knots
waves 1 foot
sky puffy clouds

We will keep you informed as things progress

lat 33 24n
lon 155 19w
wind 12 k
sea 2 ft waves
spirits: high

COME ON HIGH and hopefully DRY.
More to follow!

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return #4 Friday day5

Aloha Westward Fans.
Oh Well, false alarm, The Mahi slid off of the "Bill and Scott" (BS) fishing platform with a roll of the boat. BS built a substantial fishing platform on the stern of Westward under the pretext of securing the 2 55 gal. drums of extra fuel. The platform will survive a complete roll over but the real beauty is the 24x48 inch knife holding working cutting board. I think they are planning on a Wahoo. We did catch several other Mahi that were not nearly as big as "THE FISH THAT GOT AWAY", but were still plenty large enough to eat. We love "catch and release"!

We just put up the large topsail as the winds are beginning to soften, now doing about 5.5 knots about 020 deg. mag. The waves are down, decks dry, beautiful early morning moon, good food, beautiful sunset and sunrise, all spirits are high. Just like Transpac, we will all forget the 1st 4 days.

We are just now approaching the Trash study zone and have made contact with the mother ship. They promised to deliver the bridal for the trawl that was inadvertently left off when head quarters made last minute modifications to the monstrosity.

We will keep you informed as things progress

lat 33 24n
lon 155 19w
wind 12 k
sea 2 ft waves
spirits: high

COME ON HIGH and hopefully DRY.
More to follow!

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return #3 Thurs day4

Aloha Westward Fans.

Whoops, the all hands on deck call was for naught, the huge mahi wore us out and ended up as a not wanted game of "catch and release".

Life is settling down along with the waves allowing for things to partially dry out. We hope meals will become more regular with a sing along at each.

We discovered that the trawl that we are supposed to use when we enter the "Mega Ocean Cleanup" study area became missing after the sponsors had taken it to install addition scratch guarding material back at Hawaii yacht club. We are going to contact the Mother Ship for instructions and maybe replacement, or not.

We are moving at 5.5 to 6 knots with 1 reef and staysail and riding comfortably with 15 to 20 knots wind going 025 deg M. Except for flying fish stopping to visit on the deck, other that internet, we have had no additional outside contact.

COME ON HIGH and hopefully DRY.
More to follow!

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return #2 Wed day 3

Aloha Westward Fans.

It appears that we beat Guillermo, except we have had constant 15 to 25 knot headwinds causing a due north compass heading. Squalls to 35 knots cause us to feather the staysail and double reefed main. The staysail stays up and the wind velocity determines the number of reefs in the main, mostly 2. Today at 00:00 hours we cross the tanker Ernst M on its way to Japan. The communication officer said with winds will be better east, what a relief to know. We are wet all over and need some drying time, come on High!
Two on watch at all times with a replacement every two hours, same time of day every other day, seems to work well. Oh, Oh, all hands called on deck to fight the fish that just now hooked up. We have enjoyed the Mahi thet we caught Monday for several meals with Windrose potatoes steamed in our pressure cooker. All systems go.
COME ON HIGH and hopefully DRY.
More to follow!

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return #1

Aloha Westward Fans!

Well guys, the sad part of any adventure is the retracing of steps back to home. Roger, Bill, Scott, Sam and Laurie left our 1 week home at the Hawaii YC with the fanfare of the whole Suite Host Group. What a week, Wendy watching us like her own flock, vehicle, meals, transportation, continuous "smiles" and any other support needed. Westward headed for a PR rendezvous with the Ocean Cleanup group at 1200 which we milled around for 1 hour off of the Hilton Hotel, said our goodbyes to the organizing group and headed clockwise for Los Angeles. It was a pleasant sail in the lee of Oahu and all were enjoying the sail. We stuck our nose out from under the Island and we all now realize what homeward bound really meant.

Unlike the Hawaiian area on the trip down, rolling swells, nice breezes, sunsuits and warmth, the same conditions on the retrun means steep swells, head on spray, complete foul-weather gear and a chill factor. The boat has to be closed up and is hot and humid within.


Our first meal with Wind Rose potatoes was excellent and future meals will keep the high spirits. We just landed a Mahi Mahi big enough for several days but the second one released itself upon reaching the boat. Future updates to Follow
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Transpac 2015 is in the books!

Aloha Westward Fans!

It's been exactly a week since I posted the picture of Oahu from our vantage point, and most of you have probably seen the pictures of our finish and Aloha Welcome on Facebook, so this isn't news -- Westward finished!

The last 16 miles to the finish line were great. We navigated through the paddle board racers and got the chance to cheer them on,  saw "things that swim in the ocean!" on our way down the channel (after 13 days at sea, brains are a little mushy), were cheered on and welcomed by a group of enthusiastic sailors, learned that the amazing Betsy Crowfoot rescued Willie's hat just after the start and brought it to Hawaii, and enjoyed the view of passing by the red buoy off Diamond Head. We finished just after 1:30 pm Hawaiian Standard Time with Zack at the helm.

Mara, Alli, and Graham in the Molokai Channel

After the Diamond Head race committee gave us our official finish time and order (14/61), we took down our sails and followed Abby's Dream, our escort boat, into Ala Wai Yacht Harbor. Sometimes the ride into Ala Wai can be...exciting...because the waves will break into the channel. That was happening when we finished, but our trusty escort boat got us in no problem. It turns out we finished right in time because the channel was closed that night and 11 boats had to bob around after finishing until 5:30 am on Monday when the escort boats were allowed to go get them.

If you've been reading this blog for long, you know how I feel about finishing races and the ULTIMATE in race finishes is Transpac. As we came down the channel and Hawaii Yacht Club came into sight, we saw all the people gathered to welcome Transpac finishers. The Bells travel in packs and the welcoming party in Hawaii was huge! Our shore team consisted of Candy Bell, Shauneen Bell, Rosey Bell, Sadato Hoshina, Lee Ann, Whitney Rush, Jon and Alice Rush, Roger Gough and Margie, Paul Huber, Bill and Sally Huber, Lori and Martin Wilson, the Tom and Dixie Jorgensen family, Tom Trujilio, Dave Cort and Carol, a whole bunch of other LAYC and SDYC people I'm sure I'm forgetting, and of course, the best hosts ever, Wendy and Howard Suite. We also were greeted by our friends at Hawaii Yacht Club and the Honolulu Committee (Beth, Brian, Christina, and Dr. Bob -- looking at you!). We got inspected (every boat goes through a safety inspection) and lei-ed (we had a lot of leis which was good because we were stinky). Some of our competition was there to meet us on the dock, including Kerry Deaver who sailed on Between the Sheets and gave us our admonishment (which always feels more like she's proud of us) for beating them. 

Wendy and Howard Suite

The inspection committee.

Bells...lots of Bells...missing some!

Parents and kids.

Westward's crew holding each other up on land.

After the inspection, we were allowed off the boat, into the arms of our loved ones, and up to the party! The Aloha Welcome is a time-honored Transpac tradition and Wendy and Howard sure know how to throw a party. We sat around for hours eating and drinking and swapping stories. When it was time to leave, we continued the party up at the hotel until nobody could keep their eyes open.

It's important to get a good night's sleep because there's lots of work to be done in the days after you finish including cleaning up the boat, regaining your sea legs, and helping to welcome the other boats in! Alli and Candy got up early to help welcome Pyewacket, which was full of SDYC friends, and along the way also helped welcome in two other boats with longtime friends aboard. Unfortunately for them, these were three of the boats that had to spend the night floating around off Waikiki, but that didn't dampen their spirits in any visible way. 

The whole Bell team congregated for breakfast on the balcony of Hawaii Yacht Club and stayed there pretty much the entire day helping to welcome boats in. When a boat would come into the harbor, we'd spread ourselves out along the deck and make as much noise as possible. This practice was later termed a "Bell-come." One of the boats we Bell-comed was Resolute, which was double-handed to Hawaii...only two people brought that boat all that way...well done, Erik and Tim!

Later in the day, when the heat became too much, we retired to the pool and from there to crew dinner at La Mariana Sailing Club and Tiki Bar -- a cool little spot near the airport. The next morning brought the first round of departures with Graham, then Candy, then Alli all heading back home. The two days we all were together were a fitting end to an awesome race. When asked about their first experience at a Bell function, Jon Rush (Graham's girlfriend's father) said "well, the Bells are a great organization." I'm a little biased, but I must say, I agree.

The rest of the crew hung around for the week helping get the boat ready, enjoying Wendy's gracious hospitality, and picking up our THIRD PLACE hardware at the trophy ceremony.

Sam, Zack, Mara, and Willie representing Westward at the trophy ceremony

Just today, Westward began the long trip back home with Sam, Roger Gough, Bill Spencer, and Scott Miller on board. She'll be participating in the Mega Expedition. As part of this effort, they, along with the other boats that are participating, will collect samples twice daily along their unique path to bring back to scientists who will use the samples to learn more about how trash circulates in our oceans. This is an exciting and important effort. The amount of trash that we, and other Transpac racers, encountered during our two weeks at sea was shocking. A good reminder for us all that what we do, and how much we consume, affects the entire planet. (There was a trash blog in the works, but I just didn't have the energy. Let me just implore us all to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Please.)

If you're interested in tracking the return trip, you can do so here: http://yb.tl/transpac2015-return

I've been told that there may be some blogging going on, so keep your eyeballs peeled (as Charlie Bell always used to say...really, it sounds pretty gross).

Before I sign off, let me just say a huge MAHALO to everyone who helped make this possible (and, yes, if you're wondering, I'm getting a little teary). Sam and Willie, thank you for the gift of participating in what is undoubtedly the best family tradition not once, but twice. All the other Bells, thank you for your support and all the work you did to make sure we could go. Howard and Wendy, our Hawaii Ohana, Mahalo doesn't seem like enough. Transpac committees -- both the LA and Honolulu sides, thank you, thank you, thank you for all the hard work you do to make sure we have a kick-ass time and are able to race safely across the Pacific. Hawaii Yacht Club and members, thank you so much for the warm welcome and always making it feel like we're home when we hit (sometimes a little too literally) your docks. There's NOTHING in the world like pulling in there. All the friends who came to Hawaii and supported us from afar, you'll never know how that kept us going when we were cold and wet (everywhere) and just wanted a nice warm bed. Betsy, Sharon, and Jeremy, thanks for the awesome stills and videos that we will always cherish.

Until next time, Westward Fans, fair winds and following seas.