Post Regatta: Our Truly Excellent Adventure
12 March 2011 | Georgetown, Bahamas
Chris
Okay, here is the whole story of big boats going fast. There is a copper colored flag and a blue regatta flag hanging in the boat as I write this, more about that later. I should have added this to the title: the cheapest total immersion outward bound experience we’ve ever had! The total immersion part is because the seas were 6-8 feet and the waves came every 7-9 seconds. That sets the scene for you. Star of the Sea was stripped down for action, with all the canvas curtains off, all clutter out of the cockpit, all fuel tanks and fenders off of the deck (the Honda generator too). Remember, this is our home too, so everything below was padded with pillows, stuck into corners, and all the rest shoved onto our beds and wrapped in blankets.
About 2 hours before the race the crew began arriving. Food for lunch came with Reto and Sally, a carrot cake with Doreen and Rick. Connie came with all the ingredients for the rum cake she was going to bake during the race, more about that later too. Ken came with the plan for leaving all the chain on the floor of the anchorage and our two dinghies and a fender holding the line hooked to all 250 feet of heavy chain. We had Star of the Sea hats for those who needed them, extra winch handles out and the safety line on the deck in case we needed to go out there during the race. Everyone brought their life vests. All of a sudden, we were free of the anchor, the engine on and off to the upper part of the harbor to set our sails and remember how to race.
The winds were strong, about 17-20 knots inside the harbor, the sun was shining, peaking in and out of the tall cumulous clouds, shaped like large cauliflowers. The stage was set. Peaches was at the helm, being captain and shouting orders. I was in “the pit” where all the lines come into the cockpit to set and adjust the sails. We were in somewhat of a jumble as we weren’t sure who was going to do what, but, we had an hour before our start to figure it all out.
The first glitch happened when the mainsail wouldn’t come all the way out. This has happened a couple of other times, the vertical battens that give the sail a good shape sometimes get hung up inside the mast. Also, as we later found out, the halyard was not up as much as it should be, but when we tried to correct it, a small section of the lower main came out of the in-mast track. So, we turned great big circles through the eye of the wind until the sail released itself, then we re-furled it a bit to protect the bottom of the sail (and because it was blowing like stink and we needed to reef in the sail so we weren’t overpowered).
Technical talk, but the upstart of all of this is we got the main set, got the big jib unfurled and started to practice our tacking and jibing. Rick and Ken handled the winches during these zigzag paths through the harbor and all the other boats waiting for their start. While we were going round and round, sort of a disorienting maneuver when you are topside, poor Connie was below in the galley trying to get the cake ready to bake after we crossed the start line. Her head kept popping up out of the hatch, a little paler each time. I don’t know how she did this baking while we swung, heeled over, pounded on the huge waves, and generally made it hard for her. But, she is a trouper, a cook extraordinaire, and like McIver, making do with what she could find. Awesome.
The start was divided up into four divisions, each with five boats. Ours was the second start. You went over the line one at a time as your course around the island was timed by the committee boat (and a factor added or subtracted according to your PERF rating , a system of measuring length, draft, weight, and much more, like handicapping a horse race). We flew over the start line, all our glitches under control. I ended up at the helm, Peaches adjusting the sails and issuing commands, Rick and Ken (our future fishermen) at the winches with Reto grinding too.
There were marks, some floating, some regular navigation marks, and some just waypoints that we needed to go around. It’d been a long time since we were just sailing without the motor to help us make a mark where the wind wasn’t helping much. We got better and better as we went along. A whole class of boats were in front of us so we “could see the path” and Peaches programed the GPS and our chart-plotter so we knew the way around the course. The waves keep getting bigger and bigger but Star of the Sea took it like the good boat she is. Stella, the autohelm, got a vacation today while I helmed.
As we came out onto the Sound and prepared to turn right to go around the island, the wind and waves made it impossible to turn as soon as we would have liked (to make the shortest distance). We continued out a long way, trying to make the correct tack to not run into the island. We joked that we might as well continue on to Cat Island because the boat was going so well. We turned and started making s-l-o-w progress to our goal. We tacked twice more before we could clear the islands.
Connie, victorious at last, finished baking the rum cake. Remember how your mother or grandmother said not to open the oven door or not to run through the kitchen or the cake would fall? We were pounding through the waves, slamming occasionally when I couldn’t hold it, and she still produced a picture perfect cake. At the same time, Rick and Ken put out their fishing lines to satisfy one of the other parts of the race. Connie and Sally were taking pictures to vie for the last possible award of the race.
We started the race at about 10:20 and by noon, started to feel like we should have lunch. At this point we were going along the island, out in the Sound in the waves, but that didn’t stop us. Reto and Sally had made a big container of sandwiches, chicken and tuna salad. Easy to pick up and eat, even as the cockpit rock and rolled. They were so good. Then, the carrot cake came out, baked by Doreen. Somehow, with both hand on the wheel, I managed to get that down!
We became better and better racers as we went along, starting to take advantage of the lifts in the winds and closing into the final turn into the cut back to Elizabeth Harbor. For the longest time, we were the last boat in the long string of racers, but as we got closer to the cut, we had some behind us (it was hard to tell until then because of all the tacking out into the sound by the boats). As we funneled into the outer part of the harbor, we were neck and neck with a small catamaran. We moved back and forth, trying to get in front of them. They fought back by taking the reef out of their main sail. The winds picked up, the waves were gone, and our speed came up to over 8 knots. We were screaming along, every one of our crew giving their opinion on how to get in front of him. Reto was out on the deck urging us on, watching the wind instruments and getting into the competition in a big way (his and Sally’s first race, ever).
We did it! We were just hurtling through the harbor towards the finish line, big smiles on our faces and a feeling of pride that we made it all the way around, despite the big waves and winds. Our cumulative time, uncorrected was 4 hours, one and a half minutes. The distance was 18.5 nautical miles in a straight line, but probably twice that by the time we tacked and tacked. We continued on past the finish line, still at almost 8 knots. It dawned on me that we needed to stop our forward progress before we blew back out of the harbor onto the sound! We furled the jib, with help from Doreen and Rick (their Beneteau is rigged like ours), started the engine and turned into the wind right near our dinghies and furled the mainsail. A big circle and we picked up the line from the anchor. Ken, Reto and Rick were all out on the deck with Peaches to help. It was such a crowd, I had to have Doreen look around them so I could get us to the fender holding the line. Whew, we were done.
Rum drinks and gin and tonics all around for the crew. We were quickly downloading our pictures onto the computer for the competition. Connie was plating the cake and taking pictures too. The after race party started in an hour so we had to hustle to have the pictures and cake there for judging. The fishing was a bust, although we kept hoping to hear the reels whine when a fish hit the cedar plug. It wasn’t because Ken and Rick didn’t try (a couple of seaweed clods hit the plugs, that’s all).
The party at St Francis was fun. We met the guy in the catamaran and all decided that it was the most fun part of the race for both of us! Drinks were had, and stories told. When the results of all the baking and cooking during the race were judged, we grabbed our cake and all fell on it like we hadn’t seen food for days. It was so good! We stayed for a while and suddenly felt how tired we really were from the race and the preparation the day before. Our adrenaline rush was over so we took our dinghies back to our boats and collapsed. What a day!
Well, we’ve gotten the boat back together, getting our fuel tanks back from LaDanza and our fenders and poles back from OZ. We’ve rested up, taken beach walks, attended a seminar on baking bread on your boat, Ken went to a seminar on catching fish while sailing, and last night we all went to the awards show. Who knows, we might have won something.
Ah, you’re all saying what were the copper and the elusive blue flags you talked about at the beginning of this story of good friends racing in the Bahamas? Well, the copper flag was our starting group flag………..everyone got one of them. The blue flag, on the other hand, was a first place flag in the Around the Harbor Race…………………………………………………for photography! It was a picture taken by Connie of Rick, happy and contented on the boat, sitting in his corner, see the top. We didn’t place in our division or any other division but we sure had a great time, and we made it all the way around. A note, Connie should have gotten a blue for the cake too, it was outstanding. Thanks to all our crew….Connie and Ken from OZ, Doreen and Rick from Breathless and finally, on their first race ever, Sally and Reto from LaDanza. [hey, we finally found the fast button right at the end of the race, now I just have to remember where that button is!]