The events were anything but a ”Driftsure” as the largest Pacific Northwest’s Swiftsure Regatta is often nicknamed.
Our race weekend encounters included a less than stellar start due to no wind and approximately 200 boats chewing up the ghost of wind present. We were fending boats off from bumping us on both sides.
However, we picked up 2-4 knots of a building westerly within the hour and got the boat moving nicely. The wind continued to build and we evnuentally were in 20 knots of wind with a reef and a smaller head sail. Bodies on the rail for the next many hours, taking spray off the face and braving the conditions.
One exciting moment for me was hearing the fog horn from something very large and close but not seeing it. A few minutes later a massive freighter appeared less than half a mile from us and moving swiftly. Lots of distance to pass us on starboard but when in thick fog and hearing the horn, it raises your attention to the matter.
Mort, all the power to you. Glad you are looking after us for the Vic-Maui you called the weather and it gets better as we get more wind for the slide home that Sunday. To initially take us back we decided on a asymetrical spinnaker to pull us back into the Strait and to Race Passage. We were a bit late getting her to fly as you can understand doing this in the dark is no easy chore for a crew that is new together and some unfamiliar with the boat. Communicating is not easy and individual personalities are fading as fatigue starts to set in. But we are happy to no longer trying to slice our way through the salty water and in anticipation of a fast and drier ride home.
This lasted all night and once I crawled out of the bunk at 3:15am Sunday we were in a consistence 20-25 knots and peaking at 28. Way too much power, and our spinnaker would either fill and unbearably pull us over on our ears, or the boat would dive down wind and our spinnaker a would relax behind the main sail. Now riding down the Canadian coast we needed to get that chute down and get the boat settled into something more manageable.
We lost dearly on this ordeal but all things considered the crew showed some great character and I will take minute to describe the occurance. Don was our fearless driver during all this time, likely wondering wtf on the other end of the boat, but in any event he kept Turicum on her feet the whole time. No wipe outs and peaking the boat speed at 14 knots. Keep mind mind that while hoisting the heavy #1 the tack tape got torn out of the sail, so it had to come down and packed away. The #2 was called for and put into place in preparation for hoist. We are now ready to put our spinnaker to bed after a night of wet and wild partying. Thank you and we hope we can do the midnight dance again sometime soon. It will be a valuable sail for Vic-Maui 2012. To pull this all off, Chris, Dr. North and Terry, wrestled with a hundred pounds of 3 different sails while others pulled strings and called tactics from the back in a voice you could hear from 500 yards away on a calm day. Thanks to Gunnar and Hale for helping with the decisions through the night. The crew were all safe, we religiously clipped on to the boat and this is definitely a must in these conditions.
With Mort on the wheel, Tim, Mike, Gunnar trimming we feathered our way through Race Rocks beautifully. The sun was on the bow, hot chocolate in hand on only 2 hours from the finish spirits were lifted and bodies were resting.
We continued to gybe our way into the finish under A-sail and a meager 15 to 17 knots of true wind. We finished in the fastest time that any crew onboard has ever done, crossing the line at around 7:40 am on Sunday. While our results were not what an Ocean Warrior would hope for, we all got a good challenge in preparation for the upcoming race to Maui. Driving the IOR designed boat can be a challenge in the bumps and it was good to have people get used to the amount of work required to keep the stick out of the water. Most importantly there were no injuries and we all get to do this again someday soon. We had no breakages other a sail or two need some work.
A great week was had and thanks to all onboard for your hard work and laughs.
Terry.
