One summer day in June of 2021 on our way to Catalina we were able to witness the Transpac race start and we were hooked. We bought Malilia to sail around the world with our son and raise awareness to some of the issues affecting our oceans and the planet as a whole. The Transpac was an ideal launching platform to get the boat ready and start the process of letting people know about our intentions. Racing in 2021 was always too soon for us particularly in the midst of Covid, but watching the start in 2021 crystallized our thoughts and put the wheels in motion. We had 2 years to complete everything and make the start in 2023.

 

We had no idea back then what that would mean to us. A lot of time, sweat and money would be invested, interesting conversations to be held and crew needed to be found. 
As I am writing this, we have less than 7 nights to sleep until the start and those nights I am sure will be short.


Apart from participating in this race for the sake of participating in such a world renowned contest, we had some additional reasons to join.

 

For one, we knew that our ocean cruising vessel was far from ready to cross an ocean in a safe and comfortable manner and Transpac was the catalyst to get "things done", but equally important was to gain experience one needs or should have to cross the Pacific especially with some crew who did it before, with the added comfort that safety in numbers would provide as well as the discipline we would need to make sure the boat was sea worthy and able to meet all the requirements needed to pass the Off Shore Racing SER (safety equipment requirements) and the associated inspection.