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Swiftsure-04
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2004 Round
the County Race
Hi All!
What is 64 miles of currents, wind lines, back eddies and a dying wind
on a falling tide? What is 18 hours of intense competition over two
days with a layover in one of the world's loveliest harbors that as the
Harbormaster said, "Is really all yours at no charge."? What is
waking
up on day two and seeing 150 foot tall fir trees leaning over and seeing
white caps in the harbor? What is seeing 4-6 foot seas and 11.5 knots
close hauled with only a reefed main, watching the bowsprit disappear
under water again and again, rolling bigger boats time after time to
windward or leeward? What is watching a Bald Eagle pull a salmon out
of the water amongst a flock of gulls and seeing Cheekee Monkee port
starting under full main and spinnaker and neatly threading through the
pack of the BIG guys, jibing to starboard and gassing it to roll every
one? What is a Catana, a dad and his 2 kids, a hot rod tri (that became
a racing Proa a mile from the finish) and a couple with a friend doing
on a 30+ knot day, along with about 60 other boats? Why, we are sailing
around Island County!
Nestled among the San Juan Islands is the quaint little town(?) of West
Sound, home of the Orcas Island Yacht Club. They hosted the Race and
it was great. Our start time was 9:20 and 9 miles from west sound.
Kirby arrived promptly at 7:30 and we were the last boat away from the
dock. This was a new course to us and the light fog or low cloud made
for a cold motor to the start. We had arrived the night before and
found The Kingfisher bed and breakfast next door to the yacht club. A
word here... these folks were great. Next year, we will encourage
anyone staying in West Sound to consider them as a place to stay. They
even left a key in the door for us when we arrived after hours. They
served breakfast at 9:00 which did us no good but they put us up some
great sandwiches for race day. Made to order for me (grin).
Anyway, we arrived with little gas, which necessitated a stop at Blakely
Island. Time was really tight and as we overhauled a big black hulled
mono, the crew jumped up and down and held out a line for a tow. We
took the line and I hailed if they had extra gas. They said they had
plenty of gas but the motor wouldn't start. Cool, a tri towing a mono
at their hull speed of 6+ knots. They finally got their motor running
and we slipped the tow and sprinted to Blakley harbor. Store opens at
11 PM. Linda found someone and we departed with 6 gallons of fuel,
shut down the motor at 9:15 and crossed the start at 9:21. We
screachered, double slotted with jib, nursed, ghosted, muttered and
studied not only the water and its multiple shades of color and texture
but the other boats ahead of us. We learned from their mistakes and by
the 1/2 way point had passed most of the boats in the fleet and caught
up with Blue Lightening and were surprisingly close to Cheekee Monkee.
An hour later Mustang Sally was there, too.
Wind came and we are off again. Cutoff time is 6 PM and we are 2.2
miles from the finish with a long hour to go. I check the track and we
tack to starboard. This is a 90 degree tack that results in a 135
degree track. The tide is flushing out at an increasing rate. GPS says
we need an additional hour but we continue, hoping for a 20 minute gust
to let us finish. Lots of boats are calling to report they are droping
out. We were frustrated but poor Mark was short by only 5 minutes.
Cheekee and 9 other boats finished.
Sunday was a bit different. Steady high 20 knot winds with powerful
gusts to mid 30's. A 10 mile beat with wind on tide. These were
the
most severe conditions we have sailed in. Linda is grinning as she
surfs the waves. We carried a single reef, bare headed. The boat felt
VERY stable and we were fast upwind (11+ knots) and sailed almost
identical tracks to the monos, most of which were reefed with #3 jibs or
bareheaded.
Cheekee was gone and Mark finally found his jets, getting visibly
smaller as we watched. We finally saw Mark and his 2 kids an hour from
the finish as they went by on their way home, back to Blaine, shrouded
in spray and flat out.
Cheekee had been playing with Cassiopeia and Neptune's Car for first to
finish. He had led and they caught him in the lighter area but the wind
filled again and he passed NC on the heels of Cassiopeia or the other
way around or had passed both...anyway he was flying 2 hulls most of the
day and as the southeasterly funneled up the SW side of Lumi the wind
speed was in the 30's. The Monkee was sailing on the foil on the lee
hull. Kim said it was like a dolphin, launching 10 to 15 feet through
the air again and again. There was a loud crack and they figured it
was the foil breaking again. They were only a mile from the finish so
they figured to finish and look at the foil later. One of the crew
took a closer look and announced it was the Ama. The box that holds the
foil is watertight so they were still OK. Then he announced that the
beams had let go and that the Ama was held only by the broken fibers.
He was now a Proa!
I admire the effort it must have taken to save the boat. We came
through this area sometime later and it was the most challenging
conditions of the day. We sailed into it with no one ahead of us and
it sort of took us unaware. I knew there was wind the water told us
that but I underestimated how much.
We finally got the jib down (Kirby now has a prehensile tail and his
toes curled the soles of his boots to hold on) and I watched in
amazement as the jib crawled back up the headstay when Kirby lost his
hold. I called for a reef and tripped the main halyard clutch.
Linda punched us up and we could only get a single turn on the crank.
She was trying to keep us from going into irons and managed to repeat it
enough times to let us get a deep reef in. It wasn't pretty but it
worked. Problem was, every time we bore off to a close reach, the
leeward ama went under water. I had the sail out to the shrouds plus
some and we would drive close hauled but the finish was "down there
somewhere" and we needed to fall off. Helm up...ama under water.
Chance came to the rescue with a short pause in the wind. 200 yards
later the winds were less intense and we were fine. Kim had told us
earlier to travel all the way down and sheet in tight. My fault, too
much excitement and fatigue. The traveler was amidships and the main
sheet well out.
I find survival is a learning experience. The boat is wet inside from
the water coming over the top. Kirby left us with a big smile and
looked totally beat. I am no longer superman and have some interesting
bruises. Linda's shoulders are sore and with 5 layers of fleece and
capiline and a jacket over her drysuit, coupled with the Wallace stove,
only her hands were cold. The only downside was after the race, while
tied to the dock; Linda stepped out of the cockpit onto the blasted net
and slipped injuring her knee again. She is smiling and we will do it
again.
1st Mustang Sally
2nd Blue Lightening
3rd Cheekee Monkee
3rd Cuttlefish
Yup 15 hours of sailing and Kim and we tied to the second. What a
hoot!
Martyn & Linda Adams
F27 Cuttlefish
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