Van Isle 360 - Sailing the outside of Vancouver Island

Up Goletas Channel, over infamous Nahwitti Bar and around Cape Scott - this is the start for the off-shore legs for the Van Isle 360.

Light winds prevailed again for the first part. Just around Cape Sutil a couple of fin whale played in the wake of Turicum for a while.

It was a long and slow night for us in light winds with the current against us. Arriving late & tired in Friday Harbor the crew did not get much rest. This ultimately led us to retire from the next leg to Ucluelet when light winds again suggested a long and tiring two nights at sea.

Having retired from the Winter Harbour to Ucluelet race we arrived early morning and had a wonderful day away from the race circus. 

Some of us explored the Amphitrite Lighthouse while others went for a some more sleep.

With the batteries re-charged the crew was looking forward to sailing in the forecast strong northwesterly breeze promised for the leg to Victoria.

Off we sailed to in a light breeze towards the Juan de Fuca Strait. The wind built slower than expected but around sunset rose steadily to a good 20+ kts. The spinnaker went up and we had a fantastic sail down along the Canadian coast towards Race Passage. At 1 am we screamed through Race Passage overtaking other boats and sprinted towards the finish line.

What a great adventure and what an achievement for the crew who until that moment never saw much more than 10 kts of wind, let alone in the middle of the night with a spinnaker up.

Well done everybody and we look forward to the final leg through the Gulf Islands, sailing towards Nanaimo.

Christof Martihttp://www.simplysailing.ca/1/post/2013/06/van-isle-360-sailing-the-outside-of-vancouver-island.html

Van Isle 360 - Day 6: Last leg on the inside

Leaving Telegraph Cove is always difficult. Such a beautiful spot with a rich history. The old boardwalk connecting all the houses and the the the former saw mill is still there.

After the start we enjoyed the usual light winds. We were having issues with the wind instruments. This made it difficult to sail the boat at it’s optimum. There were also some issues with the running rigging. To add insult to injury we got “stuck in a hole” an hour after the start.

Up goes Daisy our “wind-seeker”. We run a poll guessing at how long it would take for the wind to get up again allowing us to set a “proper” sail. The estimates ranged from an optimistic eight minutes to the doom and gloom estimate of one hour. Caroline, one of our charming “pit princesses’ guessed eight minutes one won. 

Seven minutes after sailing into “no-wind-land”: The wind got stronger and up went the #1 jib . Seven minutes does not sound like much, but it was enough so we had to watch the fleet sailing away from us.

Finally the wind filled in for us as well and we had a great time sailing towards Port Hardy. With nothing to loose we were experimenting with our new jib (a 3DL sail by North Sail) and had a ton of fun with that. 

We were doing countless, small adjustments and watching the boat speed after each adjustment. Fascinating.

Tomorrow we are off to our first overnight let around Cape Scott and hopefully enjoy decent wind on our first off-shore leg.

Van Isle 360 - Day 5: Missed the current

Another day that started with light winds and fighting the currents. 

A botched gybe and a run in with a tug & tow made us miss the favourable current and we got behind. Later in the day the winds picked up and we had some great sailing up Johnston Strait. The wind got up to 20 knots and for the first time we had to get our #2 jib up.

Lots of fun and fantastic crew work made this a great sailing day.

Another salmon BBQ awaited us in Telegraph Cove.

Van Isle 360 - Day 4: A race for the history books

This race few will ever forget. Most boats left Campbell River around 6 am to make it to the start in Deepwater Bay at 8 am. This early start was necessary to get some favorable currents through Seymour Narrows. 

Seymour Narrows is famous for the blasting of “Ripple Rock”. This rock cause so many shipwrecks, that it was finally decided to blow it up and remove a dangerous hazard to navigation. 

A spectacular video of the blasting of Ripple Rock can be found on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVQOvKh3IWY

After a light start, there was some wind and current in our favour. Close to to the finish line at Eden point the wind reduced to a whisper and the currents became vicious. Dozens of boats were piled up against the rocks trying to inch towards the finish line.

Having no steerage at all we bumped into Night Runner. No harm done, thanks to fenders. A little while later as we are drifting south, Night Runner caught a back eddy and they came screaming at us and we hit again. We did a full circle on an eddy line while Night Runner took another run at us. The scene was the same all around us. Some boats anchored, other boats fended off the rocks: Carnage all around. 

Everybody had a great laugh but after a few hours of bumper car racing the fun was over and we all headed for the fish farm where a gourmet salmon dinner waited for us. 

Needless to say no one finished in our division.

Later that night we were invited by Ede & Gunnar Jonsson for a Margarita Party on their boat Havoc (SR 33). Somehow 32 people piled into Havocs cockpit. Amazing. Danny served the best Margaritas and I could not help thinking he was trying hard to get us drunk to have less competition the next day.

Van Isle 360 - Day 3: Spectacular Race Start 

6:30 am - French toast breakfast at the marina. The sun was up and a light breeze was blowing in the Strait.

At the start line there was about 10 kts of wind from the Northwest. The pin end was clearly favored and all the boats were jockeying for a good starting position. 

9 am, the gun goes off and..... general recall. The line wasn’t square and too many boats were over early. So we tried again.

This time all boats had a clear start and off we sailed towards Cape Lazo. The winds were from the Northwest and after a good start we had fun sailing with the other boats in our division. 

The wind was reasonably steady and most of the fleet tacked along the coast line towards Campbell River. 

Later in the day the wind veered north and eased. As we approached Cape Mudge the current was against us and in the light winds many boats would drift aft. With the time limit of 6 pm approaching quickly it became apparent that most boats would not finish within the timeline. Having had a good day, but disappointed about not being able to finish we retired along with most of the fleet and motored to Campbell River.

We are hoping for more wind over the next few days.

Van Isle 360 - Day 2: Sailing into the top 10

6:30 am - the alarm goes off. 7 am Pancake breakfast at the dock. The wind is blowing at 10 - 15 kts from the Northwest, just like all the different weather models predicted.

We decided to leave the dock early and getting into race mode. These were conditions Turicum (our C&C 44) should thrive in.

8:55 am - the first gun for the start went off. We are in a much better position than the day before and head off north. A few boats decide on the inshore route close to Vancouver Island. We went to the right of the course. It was great sailing. The crew work was fantastic, communications were clear and everybody was focused on sail trim.

We were right in the groove and made good speed. This was champagne sailing: Sunny, a nice breeze and right along with other boats in our division: Night Runner, Cu na mara, Hana Mari, Zulu and others. It was great to be that close to other boats and being able to see the effect of each trim change as we measured boat speed against our competitors.

From driver to plumper: After having helmed for a good hour a little less glorious task was to take care of a blocked waste line. After a good half hour mocking around hoses, chocker vales pieces of hose and hose clamps we had a functioning head again. Half a bottle of bleach to care of the mess after the repairs.

Back on deck, I realized the wind eased a bit and the speed was down somewhat. Still, we were making good progress towards the finish line. We were neck on neck with Havoc and Night Runner. Both boats were lower than Turicum and we were pulling ahead. Then the boats ahead of us launched spinnakers. Among them Amazing Grace and Papillon. We got Zelda on deck, our light weight A-sail. Up she went and away we pulled from Havoc and night runner.

To our disgust the wind went further and further aft, favoring the Havoc and Night Runner who were both lower than us. It was painful to watch as both boats pulled ahead of as and managed to get across the finish line just seconds before us. Nothing we could do at that point.

10 place for Turicum - a vast improvement from day one. The crew was happy and we celebrate with wine and pizza at the back of the boat in Comox Harbour.

A huge thank you to Marilou and Breda of the Amazing Grace team who drove us to Courtney, were we had to pick up the pizza. Without them the day would not have ended as wonderful as it did.

This was a demonstration of great sailing spirit: Amazing Grace, our nemesis on the water but part of the big Van Isle family once we are tied up to the dock! 

See you all on the water tomorrow!

Van Isle 360 - Day 1: Nanaimo - French Creek

The wind forecast called for light winds. Some model predicted a south easterly wind while others called for a north westerly. This made for interesting conversations during the pancake breakfast put on by the Salvation Army.

Initially, indeed the wind was from the SE, but while racers prepared the boat for the start at the dock the wind backed to the NW. With the wind almost on the beam, most boats started with a spinnaker. 

Of we went, a little lower on the starting line than we were hoping. Once around Protection Island we change to our #1 jib and headed north. We were well placed in the fleet and had a great sail.

A few sail changes and gybes later we saw ourselves further back in the fleet. It looked like we were not quite in race mode and a few things went slower than we were hoping. Light winds can be very unforgiving and once we got behind it went from bad to worse as the wind got lighter and lighter.

We were still having a good time sailing against some of the other boats at the back of the fleet such as Amazing Grace and Rubato.

As the wind slowly died, so did our hope to finish the race and we had to use the iron spinnaker to get to the finish in French Creek.

Not a great race for us, but the spirits are high and with a few changes on how we will manage the boat during the tomorrow’s race we hope to be competing again for a much better finish.

THE ADVENTURE ENDS

Turicum and her delivery crew made it safely back into her home port at the Vancouver Rowing Club.

The return trip was not without it's challenges as one of the crew developed a medical condition and had to be evacuated. Turicum rendezvoused with the the Greek  container ship a thousand miles north of Vancouver. More can be found here:

http://www.virtual-strategy.com/2012/08/10/greek-amver-container-ship-caves-canadian-sailor

We greeted the remaining crew and their skipper Jack Dale with some beer and champagne at the docks. A mini welcome party.

Since then the team and mainly Hale & June returned Turicum back into cruising mode and spent a lot of time cleaing everything up.

Next weekend Turicum will leave again for a cruise and learn with Hale on board.

The race crew is already discussing future adventures :)

Vic-Maui 2014 - we will be ready again!

Thanks for following us on Team Turicum during the last weeks and months.

Turicum out!

Arrived in Victoria

Turicum completed the last few miles into Victoria last night. The arrival time was Aug 16 @ 00:08 PDT. The plans are to clear customs in Victoria today, then to head over to Vancouver. The estimated time of arrival in Vancouver is between 15:00 and 16:00 PDT. Jack will be updating Gunnar with their progress.

Now for our little contest. The closest estimate for the arrival time in Victoria was Linda. She guessed Turicum would be in Victoria Aug 16 @ 01:00 PDT. She was 52 minutes off their actual arrival time. The runner up was Don who guessed an arrival time of Aug 15 @ 22:00. He was 2 hours and 8 minutes off the actual arrival time.

Update August 15

Just got a text message from Turicum. The text was simple, "Land Ho". This also means they have some amounts of cell coverage. From the tracker they are now 100nm from Victoria. Weather looks pretty quiet for the next few hours, so their progress might be a little slow, however they were still running at 6.1 knots. We will continue to keep track of them over the day. As they get closer and get better cell coverage we should start hearing a little more from them.

More updates as I receive them.

Update August 14

Turicum continues to make great progress towards home. They are now 193nm from Victoria. From the tracker they have been keeping some great speeds. I have not seen anything below 7 knots over the last day. The wind looks to hold out overnight so they should be into the straight of Juan de Fuca tomorrow. From there it will all depend on the local winds. The local weather report looks to have light winds tomorrow afternoon and increasing again tomorrow evening.

Several people have sent me their guesses for arrival times. I will keep track of these and ensure I let you know who guessed the closest.

Update August 12, 2012

Have not heard from Turicum over the weekend, however if you have been following the tracker they are making steady progress. They are currently 532 nm from home. They have managed to keep some steady speeds over the weekend. The weather continues to look favorable for the rest of their journey.

Now for my little contest. I have 3 estimates for Turicum's arrival in Victoria:
Terry Reid - Aug 15 @ 17:00 PDT
Gunnar - Aug 15 @ 18:00 PDT
Darren - Aug 15 @ 20:00 PDT

Some of you may be feeling shy about guessing, but let's have some fun. You have just as much information as the rest (Perhaps more if you have received a phone call). Make your best guess for their arrival time in Victoria and send it to me. I will announce who is closest when we know their final arrival time.

Anyone watching the blog that does not have my email address. Please leave a comment and I will watch for these.

Just got an update directly from the boat.

Turicum reports fine weather with 13 knots of wind across the beam. They have been maintaining a steady 7 knots of boat speed. They are currently aimed straight at the entrance of Juan de Fuca with 500 nm to Victoria. All crew is reporting that they are happy, but looking forward to getting home to see family and friends.

August 10 Update

Had a quick chat via sat-phone last night. Here is the latest updated from Turicum.

All is well onboard Turicum and they are having a great sail. They were in 25 knots of wind averaging over 7.5 knots. They were sailing with a double reefed main and a jib. Their max speed so far was just over 13 knots. Jack said he was taking it easy on the boat; much slower than the max speed of 18 knots on the way down to Maui. As of 14:00 UTC today, they are 877 nm from home.

The weather looks to be in their favor for the rest of the trip. There might be a day or two where they slow down. Just depends on how close to the HIGH they cut. However once past that, they should have great winds to bring them home. It is still a little early to guess as their time of arrival. However if anyone wants to venture guesses it would be fun to see how close you can come. Sorry no prizes other than the bragging rights. Feel free to send me your best estimate. I will track and let you know who is the closest.

Past the 1/2 way point

The following update was received from Turicum via Red Sheilla.

Andy Dawes was evacuated for non life threatening issues on August 7.  Andy is now aboard an LA bound freighter.  He plans to fly home from LA.  We wish Andy a speedy and safe trip home.  The rest of the crew is doing is well and has continued their passage.

They are now past the 1/2 way point.  Only 988 miles to go.  Over the next several days they look to have great winds that will carry them towards home.  Still no luck with the sat-phone, so we are still communicating via a relay with Red Sheilla.

Just over 1/3 of the way home

Turicum is now 840nm out of Maui and 1457nm to the entrance of Juan de Fuca.  They are following Red Sheilla at a distance of 6nm.  All communications have been relayed through Red Sheilla as they have not been able to get the sat-phone working.  All crew is doing well and enjoying the trip.

Turicum on the way home

Turicum left Maui on August 29 @ 18:00 HST.  Over the first several days they have been making steady progress towards home.  Sailing is great and the crew is enjoying themselves.  They are currently 1642 nm from home.  The forecast is showing a light wind patch upcoming over the next week; this will quite possibly slow their progress while they negotiate this area.  If you would like to follow their progress you can follow them at http://yb.tl/vicmaui2012return.

We have not received any comments directly from the boat as they have had trouble with their sat-phone.  We have had a few relay emails from other boats that are in the area and in radio contact.  We will post further updates as we receive them.

TURICUM - BEHIND THE SCENES part 2

And some more pictures from our second on board camera.

 Marie, Mort, Ede & Gunnar in Victoria

 Margaridaville - Don & Maggie's boat with friends and family sending us off.

Hale is on the helm.

 Maggie

Family Affair - we had here in sight for two days & nights.  

Gunnar & Chris.

Mort - full concentration needed at night.

Ninja Sailor Terry. 

 Dave - on top of the world, feeding a halyard down the mast.

 "A monkey could not have done it better, Dave!!"

 "John, the goody bags are for the people on watch!"

Terry: "Look, we even have pillows!"

Mort & Marie provisioned Turicum and Mort took pride in serving every meal!

Thank you both for the culinary journey. 

Many thanks also to Ede, Don & family for the welcome additons. Every meal was a treat.

Night sailing - it's hard to see the luff of the spinnker. We sailed by instruments a lot.

Sunsets were some of the most amazing moments aboard. 

John and Thunder Chicken.

Red watch: Do you prefer the Spinlock tan or the Mustang tan?

Land Ho!!

Team Turiucum, this was an amazing journey of adventure, exitment, friendship and fun. Thank you!!

I wish you all a save journey home.

We wish the delivery crew (Maggie, Dave, Ed, Graham & Andy) with skipper Jack Dale a great sail. 

Team Turiucum out!

TURICUM - BEHIND THE SCENES

These are the pictures from our board camera - courtesy Team Turicum.

 Lois & John

Ede & Kinetic skipper David.

Maggie, Leonardo & Andrea 

 I want to go too!!

Dave getting ready. 

Mort - full concentration.

Chris on A-sail trim. 

John - rest between watches.

 Gunnar: "Eat your oranges or else you get scurvy."

Don on main trim.

Dave on top of the mast. Awesome!

Gunnar at the helm & Dave on trim.

Gunnar's favorite spot when he is not at the helm. 

Dave - having a good time!

 Dinner time (Don, Terry, John and Mort)

Sunset on the Pacific Ocean.

Chris - taking a rest on the windward rail.

 Dave on the foredeck.

Zelda, take us home!

 Terry - as happy as a man can be!

Chris, Gunnar, Dave and Mike (Black Watch) and Don from Red Watch.

John, a quiet moment on deck. 

 Don & John

 Gunnar comes on deck.

 Getting ready for a sail change.

 Gunnar: " Champagne Sailing!"

 Don - looking for the treasure under the rainbow.

 Happy B'day Terry from all of us!

 Dave, back on the transom imporving the jury rig on the backstay.

A happy skipper with a happy crew!

 Don, Dave, Terry, Gunnar, Mort, Mike & John - we are nearly there!!

 Salmon for lunch!

 Sheppard's pie for dinner!

Chris & Mike, driving into the night.

 Mort and Dave

 Another beautiful day on the ocean.

 Getting ready for another squall and a shower!

The dolphins greated Turicum when we she was becalmed just a mile before the finish line.

 Yeah, we made it!

Gunnar and Mike with Chuck, our sponsor for the welcoming party.

 Lenny is still trying to get used to have dad around again.

Leanne, Gunnar, John & Marie.

 Gunnar & David: Team Turicum congratulates Kinetic for their 1st in class!

 The welcoming team.

The dock party in full swing.

Bring on 2014!