Halfway to Hawaii Aboard Andy Schwenk’s Ketch ‘Sir Edmund’

Often when people ask me about ocean racing, they’re curious about what we do overnight. Do we anchor? Are there marinas? How can you sail in the dark? Well, we add another to that list as we close on the halfway point in our 2025 Transpac Race from L.A. to Honolulu. One thing is that we make tea at night. They’re all kinds of teas and we put them in a big bag, and often in a dark galley on a rolling sea, you just get what ya get; raspberry, Lemon Zinger, Earl Grey, whatever. In this case, like chips made with sea salt, our illustrious galley staff makes tea with the seawater spigot rather than fresh water. Unless you have a watermaker, once you shove off the dock in L.A. ye’re carrying all the water you are going to have until you reach Honolulu and drink Mai Tais instead. In order to conserve water we wash with salt water and apparently, on occasion, make tea!

Today marks Day 6, and the fast boats that started days after us are quickly catching up to our draft. With Lucky averaging just over 22 knots (what?!), they will soon leave us in their dust … or not [they hit a slow spot with speed dropping to 5 knots — Ed]. The ocean is an ever-changing lady and lots can happen with 1200 miles left to go. [Now under 900.]

We are currently skipping from one rainy squall to another, winds 8–14 on the beam, and rainbows forming here and there as the vessel gets a much-needed freshwater rinse.

Two boats have returned to port with rudder bearing issues. [And two with crew injuries — Ed.]

On this vessel the stove gas alarm would not shut up, then a pencil zinc fitting in the refrigeration system let go. Besides our taking on a prodigious amount of water in the bilge, it was as if the fridge was trying to make our food warm and the stove was trying to keep our food cool.

Those boat gremlins will just have to try harder, and they did last night. The sailors’ time-honored enemy, chafe, was afoot. Around midnight the tack on the A5 let go. This sail is set ‘tween the masts, and this owner hates drilling holes in his teak decks to mount hardware, so the tack was secured to the weather shroud turnbuckle, which apparently has some sharp edges. Around midnight this sail was flying like a flag from the mizzen masthead. Oh, bother! A little shouting and use of colorful sailor jingo and she was reset in a jiffy.

We figured at daybreak we should probably check the forward kite, an A2, but the decision was made for us around 2 a.m. when the afterguy chafed through. The kite shook the lazy/takedown line off and left us the remaining sheet for recovery. We letter-boxed it behind the main, rousted some crew in sleepwear and harnesses, and were under full sail about 10 minutes later with a new afterguy and a disgruntled offwatch (opposite of gruntled).

Dawn broke cold and dark. Then squalls, rain and periods of near calm. A slice of fresh pineapple for the crew and they were back to avoiding the lash and carrying out assigned duties with a sense of urgency.

The second half of this regatta usually features some of the best ocean surfing any regatta anywhere has to offer. But not always. Fingers crossed, here’s hoping.

The finish line off Diamond Head is legendary: stories of bagpipers, boats finishing with jury rigs, and even a boat finishing backward still under sail.

Stan Honey, the legendary navigator who also gave us the virtual line of scrimmage and first-down line on T.V., claims there are three ways to lose this race. 1.) Fail to clear Catalina cleanly on the first day. 2.) Twist off into the Pacific high pressure zone of no wind about halfway across (trying to avoid that right now). 3.) Make a hot approach to the islands without overstanding.

Transpac 2025 will be remembered as a “good one,” maybe not the best ever or record breaker, but fine sailing just the same.

Interested?

I understand they are already accepting applications for the “Fun Race to Hawaii,” the 2026 Pac Cup. Sign up now before it’s too late and all the good crew are gone.

This story was submitted by Andy Schwenk via Starlink. Andy is a busy Bay Area marine surveyor and delivery captain.

Follow the Transpac to the finish here.