Pac Cup Summary Thoughts

I just noticed in my "back to work" post I mentioned that I would post summary thoughts on the Pac Cup experience and I haven't yet.  I have a feeling that this is a post I will come back to later to edit or add to as I spend more time thinking about this.

The 2010 Pac Cup started for us right after the 2008 Pac Cup ended.  I know I have said before; my husband, Matt, and our friend Scott did the 2008 Pac Cup with a group of guys.  Once they got to Hawaii they immediately told me and Scott's wife, Kim, that the only thing that would have made the trip better would have been if Kim and I were on the trip.  So we soon agreed that we would do the race again in 2010 with the four of us and maybe two other people.  By the end of September of 2008 Kim had found a J-42 in San Diego and Scott quickly purchased it and had it delivered to San Mateo.  Then the work began.

Getting the boat ready for the race took every bit of the almost two years we had to spend on it.  Not that we were frantically working on it every minute and that there weren't periods of time when no work occurred.  We had lots of good times along the way, including some GREAT cruises with just me and Matt or with all six of us (me, Matt, Scott, Kim and S&K's two young boys).  Spending New Year's weekend in 2009 at Encinal Yacht Club's guest dock with the six of us aboard was great fun.   We were usually working on projects as time allowed and keeping the to do list up to date.  There were times when it seemed like we were adding new projects to the list as fast as we were checking off completed projects, especially as we hit the crunch time shortly before the race.  And you have read about our major issues with the refrigeration and forward water tank that occurred pretty much "at the last minute."   With crew member Vince's help, and towards the end (the weekend before we left) with all the help of Kim's family who were in town from VA and TX, we got everything done. 

Really after all those months of prep and build up the race itself was kind of anticlimactic!  Almost two years of prep for a race that took a little less than 13 days.  I could get out the calculator and be precise, but I'll ballpark that it was almost two months of prep for each day we were at sea.  Most of the actual race was pretty boring and uneventful.  The first week, as I have said, was like a never ending OYRA race right off the coast here in Northern California.  Gray, dull, skies and sea, cold, wet, people vaguely nauseated and not really hungry.  Um hmm, not so much fun in my book.  Seriously the only reason I do this stuff is to have fun so it was kind of a let down.

So it finally got nice and we had some spectacular clear nights (actually some of these may have even been during the crappy part) where we could see zillions of stars, the Milky Way, planets, satellites, etc.  Stuff you can't see from where we live on land.  Maybe out in the middle of nowhere away from cities and light pollution.  THAT was cool.  Whales, dolphins, flying fish, squids on the deck, Cool.  Beautiful colors in the sky as the sun was setting, Cool.  The couple of nice sunny days we had towards the end, pretty cool. 

The downside of it finally getting hot was of course that the smell level ramped up down below.  Really this wasn't THAT bad other than stinky feet but at that point I hadn't had a shower for over a week and was tired of being in cramped quarters with my six other shipmates.  Well of course I was thrilled to be in cramped quarters with my beloved cutie pie hubbie, but the OTHER five people.  LOL.  I am really more of a loner so the forced intimacy was a bit much for me after awhile. 

Also Matt and I are pretty much neat nicks.  Yes crap occasionally piles up around our house just like at everyone else's house but we really like to keep things put away and to put them in the same place all the time.  This is tough with seven people in the middle of the ocean.  I was trying not to let it bother me but by the end I'd be muttering to myself in my head "HOW HARD IS IT TO NEST THE NESTING POTS WHEN YOU PUT THEM AWAY???? OMFG"  Obviously I have issues!  And really we kept a pretty tidy ship under the circumstances but it was still tough for me.

So obviously the actual race wasn't so much my "cup of tea."  It was nice to actually GO on the trip after working so hard to get the boat ready for it (I helped prep the boat the guys went on in 2008).  But now that I have done the race I can honestly say I enjoyed the prep more than the voyage.  And I enjoyed the vacation in Hawaii more than the voyage.  So next time I want to go to Hawaii I will fly there.  :)  And when I finally get to go cruising I think I will start with (and maybe stick to) places I can get to without looooong passages.  Though hopefully the passages will be with just me and Matt so if the pots aren't nested I know who to talk to. 

I hear from a lot of other Pac Cup participants that they learn a lot about themselves on the trip or find that they can handle tougher situations than they thought or stuff like that.  Honestly I had the challenging situations on the boat in trips that happened leading up to the Pac Cup and the race itself seemed pretty benign to me.  Granted I did not drive the boat after the first week or so as the better drivers seemed to prefer not having me drive my zig zagging course.  :)  As for learning about myself, I learned a long time ago that I am not a particularly introspective person and I shouldn't pretend to be.  I'd say the extent of my introspection on the trip was me reminding myself that if someone was irritating me that was MY issue that I needed to deal with.  Looking up at a zillion stars does not cause me to ponder the meaning of life, the origins of the universe, my small place in the world... anything like that.  I am more of a "ah, stars" or "sigh, I used to know the name of that constellation" type person.  To each his own!

I am going to leave this for now to perhaps come back to later...