Jiggety-jig.
Thanks to Rhys, Erdun, and the whole crew via Griffin Bay Adventures for safely bringing Oaxaca home.

They're dribbling them out slowly, but here's a nice shot of our finish from Sharon Green. This one we had to pay for. Respect their copyright.

From Skip Allen: 

Time to pack them up.

Plastic spider on board caused great concern.

Skipper unfairly accused of planting it.  To be fair, it is something he WOULD do, but in this case, did not.

This trophy stuff is new to me (Michael), but it sure is fun. We went up to collect a number of plaudits: Div IV first. First SC50/52. Navigator div win (Liz), Team Trophy (Naughty Blue Tequlia).  A nice upbeat presentation by Chuck Hawley, and dinner for many of us at MW restaurant afterwards.
 

The big event tonight is the handing out of awards, and we're pretty excited.  Oaxaca is in for a couple of them (first in division and team trophy), so we'll be all smiles.

Of course, thanks are due to so many, from our partners and spouses, our families, and our friends to the many businesses that went out of their ways to help us succeed. 

Thank you Erik for a great article from Pressure Drop:
 

While TPYC sorts through their files to show finishers, we wanted to share a great shot taken by Max Roth.  This is Oaxaca at the finish, pushing hard, to complete the course with a whole 12 minutes to spare for the first place spot!

See our full gallery at https://oaxaca.smugmug.com/2019-Transpac

The fierce Valkyries of Norse legend are nothing compared to what we had aboard Oaxaca. With a gender-neutral crew selection, we picked from the best available and ended up with three superstar women in the mix.

Liz Baylis, navigator, match race champion, and longtime friend has excellent skills and fully applied herself to the navigator role, making some great calls to put Oaxaca in position to do well and exploit her advantages.

Well, we spent all our money on sails and stuff, so did not get the personal photo package. However, we DO have a photo gallery of onboard and arrival shots.

Check it out. https://oaxaca.smugmug.com/2019-Transpac/

According to the provisional results, we may have won our division.  How frickin cool is that? When you sail with rock stars, expect a concert.

https://yachtscoring.com/event_results_detail.cfm?Race_Number=1&eID=4758

Aloha from SV OAXACA early Sunday morning!

It's still dark at 0700 on the boat as we are still on PDT despite being about 100 miles from Molokai.

As you have probably seen on the tracker, we are pretty darn close to our buddies on Horizon and are working hard to further close the gap. They owe us time, but we aren't taking anything for granted.

Last night was one of those incredible starry skies That you can only experience on the open sea before the moon rises. Absolutely beautiful. Priceless experience that you can on have here with no light pollution.

Aloha from SV OAXACA!

Sorry the day got away from us and we forgot to write an update!

As you can see from the tracker, we've been working really hard to cut into Horizon's lead, so not a lot of time to write.

Last night and most of this morning were filled with rain and squalls which made for wet and challenging conditions as the wind shifted and changed velocity with each passing squall. And, inevitably, the squalls came within 10 minutes of the end of a watch which insured that everyone came down below soaked. Except Liz because she lives in a cave where is no rain. Or air. Or sunlight. You will recognize her in Hawaii because she is pasty white. But not bitter. (-:

The rare sighting of the navigator out of her hovel and steering the boat!

Friday noon. After a gybe, we are getting used to new wind and sea angles. Less drama on this board. Tamales for lunch made us feel very Oaxacan. Latest standings give us great encouragement. Go Team Naughty Blue Tequila!

Aloha from the mighty OAXACA!

The big excitement onboard, which you probably already observed, is that we gybed at 0340 this morning and are pointed towards Hawaii! Cowabunga!

And since this report is a little later, we have seen the Daily Standings report from the Race Committee and as of the 0800 positions we are sitting in 2nd in class between Horizon and Lucky Duck. Which coincidentally is where we are positioned on the race course - between Horizon who gybed at around midnight and Lucky Duck who gybed sometime after 0500. Hard to cover two boats at once!

Our theme song for the last few days is "Moving On Up" from "The Full Monty" as we climb the standings.

Aloha from SV OAXACA,

Wednesday was "Halfway Party Day" and Liz's birthday, so we celebrated all day long. Starting with Liz's "birthday cake" (aka fresh baked scones) in the morning to a fun halfway prank on one of our Transpac rookies to opening Halfway Party packages from our friends and family after our scrumptious "Coconut Chicken Curry" dinner to TWO incredible moonbows. Not a bad way to spend the day. And, oh yes, we sailed hard, too!

Team OAXACA (including mascot Trexie) are enjoying the ride on Halfway Day = with co-owner David driving!=0A=0A

Aloha from SV OAXACA!

The 0400 to 0800 watch has mixed emotions about the sunrise moving later each day - their watch stays darker longer, but the Mai Tais are getting closer!

Yesterday was an exercise in conviction for the crew. We are committed to our southern route, so we had to be patient and watch as our competitors sailed higher and faster most of the day. But the last 5 YB position reports are starting to show that our patience may be starting to pay off. We'll know more over the next few days.

Today we should be crossing the half-way point, so there might be a little celebration later!

We did start the morning off very well with fresh baked scones from our mildly domesticated navigator.

Mahalo to Uber tech Walt for being my remote restarter for our web log. Somehow, I had turned it off just before the start!