Dave Wilhite Sails a Solo Long Pac

I’d just returned from Indianapolis and my 50th high school reunion when Amy asked if I was still planning to do my Long Pac. I opened PredictWind routing and conditions looked good. I could probably cover the distance in a little less than four days.

200 miles out and back, that’s a Long Pac, and mostly I just wanted to do it for me, not as any sort of qualifier for the Singlehanded Transpacific Race. Thirty-six hours later, with tanks full and Symphony provisioned for four days, I passed Point Bonita at 0900 headed west before the full-moon flood kicked into high gear.

My Dragonfly 1200 gobbled up miles, and the five times I’d been up to Drake’s Bay this year prepared me and the trimaran well. I was apprehensive the first night, but catching cat naps felt almost natural. Thirty-two hours after passing Point Bonita, sailing in 15,000 feet of water, I was rounding the self-imposed marker/waypoint and made adjustments to sail and course to make my way home.

No land in sight, the VHF radio and telephone silent, and most of all, no internet access, as long as I didn’t turn on my Elon Musk phased array antenna, felt both weird and satisfying.

Little squalls began to blow up from the south, and I could see what looked like rain, but I never got more than a few sprinkles. Blue-gray with dark gray rain streaks. The squalls were mild but provided steady power through the six- to nine-foot swells. While I was cat napping, one squall topped out at 24 knots and gave us a sustained push of over 17 knots of boat speed, which, of course, was interesting to awaken to!

The next day, Symphony passed back through the Devil’s Teeth, between Middle Farallon and SW Farallon, and later that afternoon cleared the Point Bonita waypoint a minute after 1700, a full day ahead of schedule. I’d recorded my first of hopefully many more 200-mile days on this trimaran!

Amazingly well-rested due to the mild conditions, I could have turned around and done it again, but I’m under no illusions, since this trip was about as easy as it could have been.