Pacific Cup Update- Time Zone Madness

Time Zone Madness

We started the race in San Francisco on Pacific Daylight Time (PDT).  The race is run on PDT.  Our required 8am position reports are in PDT.  All of the position reports on the tracker are in PDT.  So, we run the boat on PDT.

Our weather forecasts all are in Greenwich Mean Time, or Zulu (Z). Z is 7 hours ahead of PDT, adjusted for daylight savings time.  We have to convert the run times for our weather data to PDT to make sure we get the latest updates

As we have sailed west we have crossed 2 time zones.  Hawaii time is 2 hours behind Pacific Time, but Hawaii doesn’t use daylight savings time. So, adjusted for PDT we have gained 3 hours.  Since we are running on PDT, that doesn’t change our watch schedules.  It does change our Sun Time.  That means the 6am to 10 am watch has shifted to 3am to 7am in both Hawaii and Sun Time.  All the other watches are affected in the same way.

PDT vs Sun Time creates havoc with meal times.  No one wants breakfast at 3, lunch at 9 and dinner at noon.  To avoid this issue, Colette has shifted the meal times to match Sun Time.

When do we change the boat to Hawaii or Sun Time? At the finish.  The sailing instructions for the race require us to report our finish time in Hawaii Time.

Sorting all these time zone issues out requires a bit of mental gymnastics.!