Tension is in the air to start today's race. We are now setting out to cross the infamous Nawhitti Bar and rounding Cape Scott. These waters have been known to blow the windows out of boats, proving a piece of water to show a lot of respect for.
The start line today is huge, probably 1 mile long or more. There is tug and log boom that delays the start by 10 minutes followed by yet again another general recall. The port side of the line is heavily favored but you need to cross it on port. Our second start was maybe our worst of the entire race, we are probably the last boat to cross the line.
The breeze builds to a nice 10 knot Westerly and many of the boats hit the shore early. We don't think this is right as the tide is pushing us out so we stick to the middle of the bay, and quickly find ourselves mid fleet. By the time we round the corner and enter Goletas Channel we are in 2nd place, a great recovery.
We have about 15 miles of upwind sailing till the bar. We can see in the distance a dead spot and what we think is a big leftie coming out of it. Well being out front we get to be either hero's or zero's and though we do ok, boats that were well behind us took the right side and came out ahead.
We hunker down and work the shores till we get to the bar. Well once we are there the breeze is at best 5 knots and the seas flat, oh as we turn left, so does the breeze, we are still going up wind! Will this race ever have a different point of sail? Jockingly we re name the race - the UPWIND van isle 360!
The breeze completely dies, we are drifting with about 10 miles to go to Cape Scott. We have caught our fleet with only Rubato and Kiva ahead, but not by much.
The wind does fill in and we enjoy a great dinner and gorgeous sunset rounding Cape Scott. We turn left, find the Coast guard vessel that will escort the fleet down the treacherous West Coast and begin to settle into night sailing. Oh did I mention we are still going up wind.
As night comes we are solidly in 3rd, sailing with Kotuku. We decide to head out to see if we can find more wind.
The night is rather uneventful, the breeze is light, maybe 5-10 at best ( remember we still don't have any instruments, we are navigating by paper charts and an I Phone! Around 2:00 am Kotuku lee bows us so we tack away and that was the last we saw of them.
As day broke we struggled to find boats. We could see a large number behind us but we were missing a few. A few, namely Opus and the Hobbie had taken the shore route and snuck past us. We tacked into shore ASAP and got a nice lift to pass Karina II but the leaders were in and we finished 6th.
We motored into Winter Harbour and found our private dock and the owner's Pat and Phil of Winter Harbour Cottages. The met us, got us power and water and showed us to our cabin.
The weather couldn't have been more peaceful and scenic. A great meal ready to go by Nick had the guys full of food and we began to work on the boats electornics again.
We walked down the boardwalk to the general store ( also the post office and liquor store )that afternoon where the local merchants put on a great bbq for all.
Talk that night was that a gale was forcasted for tomorrow's leg down the graveyard of the pacific past Brooks Pennisula so we were going to start an hour earlier to get around safely.
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