Freedom #18230 Race Team

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Freedom #18230 Race Team 2026 Pac Cup Race
We are racing in the 2026 Pacific Cup from San Francisco to Kaneohe, Hawaii, leaving on July 6th. Please follow us on our journey. Jib Martens

Our crew is my son Will, my brother Dave and two friends, Curtis Kroeker and Peter Cann.

08/11/2026

Final day. Tuesday 2pm. We have some great sailing today w 20 + knots abaft beam and some moderate leftover seas. Took the opportunity to hand steer as so much fun. I say our autopilot has steered 95+% of our trip except when fun to sail. Last few days a bit of challenge as big seas and wind 25 with gusts to 30 Decided to take the comfy route snd have been sailing w just our small jib for 2 days. Not rocket speed but puttering along at 5.5 to 6 knots snd boat not overloaded but peaceful. Heck of a roll in these big seas and the occasional stray wave slaps the side and sends a garbage pail full of water all over the boat. Sometimes seems like we are a submarine

Video shows us just cruising along at 7-8 knots w 20 knots wind s as nd manageable seas.

Will send video as we pass farallones as they are cool and then going under Golden Gate Bridge after midnight. Bridge is very cool at night as lit up with its yellow lights.

Can’t wait to sleep in warm dry bed snd had fruit snd vegetables for breakfast

Grateful to be almost home!! Jib

Pacific Cup Yacht Club

08/10/2026

Second to last night. Sunday. Hope to be in by Tuesday evening. 328 miles to go

Wind off ca coast living up to its reputation. 20+ knots from nw with clouds and drizzle ….but wait the sun does come out occasionally and it can be spectacular. Check out the evening on the video. Gorgeous. Sailing a bit sporty with big waves and wind. Good news is wind finally starting to bend behind us so easier sailing and going sideways to waves and not beating into them like this am.

We are trucking along at 7-8 knots snd hopefully with wave patten it will be easier to sleep. Very noisy below when Freedom is driving hard. She’s going fast now but with waves sideways get speed without pain!!!

Love to everyone snd hope you are in a good space. Jib

Pacific Cup Yacht Club

08/09/2026

On the last leg!!! After a few days of pleasant sailing and then 30 hours of motoring thru the high, we picked up the California coast NW winds. Today sailing at 6-7 knots right at SF. Winds are 15 knots on close reach. We expect to to be in by Tuesday evening -3 days from now w under 500 mikes to go. Winds will build to mid 20s over next few days so we will have a sporty and quick sail home.

We are eating well except we are out of veggies at this point though we still have some fruit. Looking forward to big salad on land!!!!

Will send video tomorrow of sailing conditions but pretty standard for our coast….. windy, cloudy, grey, mist at night snd …… sometimes even some sun!

Have a good night! Jib

Pacific Cup Yacht Club

08/04/2026

DOLPHINS!!!!! Yeah. How cool. Check them out.

08/03/2026

Awesome sailing!!!!!!
Yesterday was great as we motored on glassy seas, went swimming again AND… caught a small mahi mahi. We ate sushi right off the fish on deck and then had more sushi for appetizers and pan fried fish. Chris is excellent cook

And to top it all off we started sailing again at 11 pm. Light breeze from abeam but moved us along and enabled us to conserve diesel as we have some more light spots coming up

TODAY is further awesome. Seas calm w 8 knot breeze on beam. Spinnaker up… big kite with 1600 sq ft…snd we are just moving along so nicely. No stress or agresive sailing. Boat just gliding through water at 6.5 knots. Awesome.,… especially after sf bay where it is always blowing

Jim Quanci calls it champagne sailing and I would add it is Dom Perione!!!

Marvel at the beauty of the planet. Hope everyone is having a good day. Jib.

Pacific Cup Yacht Club

Ok… so one of my first thoughts on deciding to do this race 2 years ago was swimming in the middle of the ocean in the m...
08/02/2026

Ok… so one of my first thoughts on deciding to do this race 2 years ago was swimming in the middle of the ocean in the middle of the high

WELL…. It lived up to my hype. We have gone swimming two days in a row. It is really something to dive into that crystal ckear BLUE…. Did I mention blue? Water and swim around. It looks really cool seeing Freedom rocking and rolling in the gentle swells. I think we will go again today!!! So another highlight of the trip

So swimming pics of Chris and me and a few more sunset pics. They are all beautiful but the real life experience is far better than the pic

One cool pic is of glassy ocean reflecting blue sky and clouds. Hard to decern the horizon snd colors are magnificent

Now about all that glassy stuff…. Kind of a bummer as we seem to be stuck in an amorphous high that kind of follows us…. It is possible we may not get sailing wind till Thursday which is a bummer as we don’t have enough diesel to motor for 9 days so we will need to shut down engine to conserve fuel and Bob around waiting for wind. Hope that doesn’t happen as it will make this a 3 week plus trip…. But nothing we can do about it. We have enough food and water and also a small water maker so no issues there. We do need to save enough fuel to charge batteries and also get into our slip and also have some reserve in case of sone emergency where we need the engine

Hope all is well with everyone. We are happy snd appreciative out here!!! Jib

Pacific Cup Yacht Club

08/02/2026

Sunset in the middle of the Pacific w Bonnie Rait!!! Awesome

07/31/2026

Here is second video at sunrise. I don’t chatter on this one so u can actually enjoy the moment!! Thank the Lord! And actually come to think of it…. Thank you God for this amazing planet!!!!! AMEN. Jib

Pacific Cup Yacht Club

07/31/2026

Ok. Sorry. I am addicted to the marvel and beauty of the sea. Two videos … I can only upload one at a time so 2nd will be on next post…. So not much on videos but awesome ocean. One at 3am w full moon. And next at 7 am w sunrise. I wish I could capture more fully the incredibleness of the moment but the videos will have to do and use your imagination for the rest

The ocean is quite serine w 10 knots on the nose and gentle rolling seas. We are 700 miles north of Hawaii and now 1650 ( yeah… starting to have this number shrink faster!!!) west of San Francisco. Nothing around but peace and beauty. Chris and I are most blessed to be able to be here.

Aloha Hawaii ….blessings to everyone. Jib

07/31/2026

Recap of first few days on return. Tough first two days with big disorganized seas,,,,, rough, wet, boat thrown all over the place and all sorts of sea water below.
Last two days have been beautiful with calmer seas wind is still up around 20-25 but with better seas Freedom is ripping along at 7-8 knots. She loves this stuff and sails awesomely in the ocean.

Update as of Friday morning at 1 am we put motor on and headed 62 right at San Francisco. Wierd wind pattern next few days so not sure how/when we will pick up wind again and the other hurricane is crossing our path though much diminished at that point.

The ocean is awesome Incredible beauty peace and solitude. It can also be very angry!!!!!!

Hope everyone has an incredibly positive day !!!😀. Jib

Pacific Cup Yacht Club

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