Race Day
08 December 2015 | Cabo San Lucas
Annette/Editor Mike
With in every group of people you have different factions, and the same is true amongst the sailing community. There are the "racers", those extreme sailors who squeeze every possible fraction of a knot out of the wind and weather conditions, continuously changing and trimming the sails. Then, on the other end of the spectrum you have the "cruisers" who are more concerned with comfort than speed, go where the wind blows, choose weather windows and generally take their time. However, there is an unspoken truth even amongst "cruisers" that whenever two boats are moving in the same direction within sight of each other...it's a race!! So it's been with our new sailing buddies on "Moon", a beautiful Hinkley 42' monohull. As each boat design has strengths and weaknesses, catamaran vs monohull, various sail options and configurations, willingness to push ones boat past the comfort zone, it makes for a very interesting race. That was the case a couple of days ago. After enjoying happy hour with our new friends Lisa and Lyndon the night before, the following morning we both weighed anchor about the same time. With no wind to start, Moon (having one big motor compared to Rum Doxy's 2 very small motors), took off as if we were standing still, taking a big lead until becoming a white dot on the horizon in front of us, Arrrrgg! But we didn't have to wait long before the wind started slowly filling in and we were back in the race. Rum Doxy sails really well on a beam reach and down wind with a fresh breeze and a spinnaker. And that's what we did. With signs of light air on the beam we raised the mainsail and opened up our "drifter", a large, light weight headsail, and began to pick up our speed. 5,6,7 knots. We motor at 4.5 knots at best (when no wind or current is against us). Slow and steady we started to close the gap. Than as we cleared the wind shadow of the mainland the wind-speed increased from 8-10 knots to 15-20 and clocked around behind us. We furled the drifter, dropped the main sail and raised the spinnaker, an even bigger and lighter sail shaped like a balloon, and off we sped like a race horse out of the starting gates. 8,9,10,11, even 12 knots which, although slightly more that a jogging pace is like light speed on a boat! In less time then it took for them to put distance between us at the start we caught them, then passed them, then they became the little white dot in the distance behind us.... then disappeared. We were so proud, Rum Doxy Rocks!
For several hours we were flying along happy as can be, when the wind gods flipped a switch and the wind died, dead, nada, nothing. Uh-oh. We saw our knot meter plummet from 10-11 knots of speed to 2-3 knots with in minutes, not good for Rum Doxy.
With the wind knocked out of our sails we humbly turned on the motor and dropped the spinnaker. Not long after we looked behind us, the little white dot reappeared on the horizon then it became a sail and as it crept closer we saw Moon bearing down upon us. Just as we began to make out the details on their boat feeling like a sitting duck, I felt a slight breeze on my neck. Could we be so lucky?? Yes! 5,6,7 knots of wind coming up right from behind, pop goes the spinnaker and we're off again, Bye, Bye. As we neared our destination we needed to make a 90 degree turn into the bay and than continue another 2.5 miles up to the anchorage. Because of the change in the wind angle we had to drop the spinnaker, and, too lazy to raise our 'going to windward' sails, we turned on the motors. We moved along at 4.5 knots, but, before we could get to the mark, Moon came charging up from behind flying past us with a full "genoa" (a large jib sail).They had their sails down, anchor set, and were sipping rum cocktails as we pulled in a few minutes later. It was a great race, both of us feeling like winners because we had a great day on the water, got to play with our sails and enjoyed the company of kindred spirits.