We have now apparently cornered the market, at least in the
English-speaking world, on roller bearings for the Harken 65.3 and 60 winch
models. These "custom" items are as hard to find as they are fragile.
Apparently, BOTH of them collapsed in our winches. They cost $200, and you
_cannot_ find them.

Well, you can. there was one in the US and two in UK. We bought them all.
Now, we control the market.

But seriously, Harken. WTF. This is a rare excursion from your normally
excellent products.

These inexpensive and lightweight items have many uses on Oaxaca. From padding the edge of the nav station to providing a softer hiking space. They serve to wedge loose items in place that might otherwise shift or vibrate.  Yes, the pool noodle.

They are not super UV stable, so leaving them out in the sun for a long time asks for them to be covered.

Maybe it's time for a post on Duct Tape (our brand of choice: T-Rex)

New instrument panel at helm. Mob button now on top

Today's projects: Validate that we can retrieve satphone voice mail. Finish the helm instrument pod. Spreadsheet finances. Reserve hotel rooms for the remainder of the crew and maybe make a reservation at Pappy's Seafood!

Oh, and find my travel CPAP machine.  Nobody likes a snorey captain.

Quite a few test mails with the Iridium GO!

It's slow, but it works.

How did we get so many??

On board for the 2023 Transpacific Race to Hawaii will be her owners Michael Moradzadeh and David Ritchie, as well as our fearless and highly competent crew

• John Jourdane (navigator doing his 63d crossing)
• Brett Dewire
• Liz Kroft
• Andy Goodwin
• Hawkeye King
• Michelle Diaz
• Kelsey Tostensen
• Jo Haimsworth

Our race starts June 29.

Except for one minor hardware issue, we seem to be in control.  Looking forward to it.
The hardware issue? Both primary winches had failures of a small bearing. Design flaw? Ya think?

We'll give this some thought.

They said it couldn't be done, but with duct tape and misallocated effort, we have gotten things posted to social media.  If you are reading this, that is.

Some fun pictures

And does this work?

It's *critical* that we can post to the web via email, or otherwise
remotely. A small custom module serves two purposes. First, it allows us
to post remotely. Second, it lets me develop a small custom module.

Tadaa!

Well. We have everything on our task list that CAN be done, either done or accounted for. This over two weeks before TransPac feels... unusual.

David and I drove down, and Patrick flew, to San Pedro where we relentlessly attacked the task list. Among the more annoying was our "professionally" installed bow lights.  Splice inside the pulpit tube, open hole at top, and sealed at the bottom.  Why yes, it DID fill with salt water shorting out the system, as we discovered on our motor trip north.  Pulled out the old wire, dumping a pint of stinky, rusty water out, and created new, properly crimped, and silicone-sealed, joints OUTSIDE the tube, and with proper drainage.

Okay, we've had several rather serious kelp encounters. TransPac '17, we did a lovely back-down/sail change, simultaneously shedding kelp on the keel and an undersized sail. We did another backdown mid ocean, likely due to a fishing net.

In the Cal Offshore, we did ANOTHER back down for kelp.

We've borrowed a stick (more like a harpoon) from Deception to try to do better with Kelp.  Thanks guys!

During the 2019 Coastal Cup (Monterey to Santa Barbara), the Santa Cruz 50 Oaxaca experienced a person overboard emergency, well offshore, at night, in medium-heavy winds (about 25 knots). The crew was safely recovered. Here is an account written by the skipper/owner, Michael Moradzadeh. This was the first time, in 35k miles, we had lost anyone overboard, and the first time the crew member, in over 200k miles, had fallen overboard. 

At midnight, Michael (skipper, writing this) and Molly came on watch. Already on watch were Dee, David, Harry, and Brett. Winds had been in the mid-20s and the boat had been moving between 10 and 20 knots downwind.

Team Oaxaca finally brings home some gold!  With a great set of folks on board, we went 1-2-1 in the California Offshore Race Week to take first in our class and third overall.  This was a big thrill!

A combination of light and heavy winds at the right times, some good strategic calls, and some great boathandling by the crew brought this home for us.