Monkeybones is now back in her slip at Elliott Bay following
an eventful summer in the San Juans.
SHAW ISLAND CLASSIC
She made her way north at the end of
July to Friday Harbor via Port Townsend and arrived just in time for the annual
Shaw Island Classic, which is a race around Shaw Island starting in Friday
Harbor and going the direction of your choosing. As is often the case in
the San Juans, the winds were light for the start, which resulted in the 40
boat fleet drifting across the line with lots of soft collisions. MB
barely escaped hitting the committee boat after being pinned in by an old timer
with a pipe and a salty disposition. Once we found the knot or two of
wind we were able to pick up speed and started working through the fleet.
Our crew consisted of Shawn, Elizabeth, Jeff and Jason, and we were joined by
six kids.
We worked the bays and reefs to stay out of the current and
made our way up to Turn Island. The two lead boats chose to anchor
instead of plowing into the 4 kts of current from the incoming tide. MB
was in fourth immediately on the stern of an Etchell and, after pausing briefly
to validate there was wind in the channel to fight the current, charged
off. Once around the island we wind increased to 8 kts and we set the
spinnaker and screamed off away from the fleet. We rounded the SE corner
of Shaw and moved into the overall lead. At this point we took a quick
crew video to capture the moment…
We were slowly reeled in by the faster Hobie and rounded the
NE corner of Shaw in second place. As in previous races, the north side
of Shaw gets really squirrely around the ferry docks and the shifting wind put
us and our crew in a “spot of bother”. We passed the half way mark in 4th
overall and fought through the shifting winds to round the NW corner in 3rd
place. We were treated to a great show by the local orcas and set out
south for Friday Harbor and the finish line. We passed Interface to
move into 2nd overall, and then the wind died. After 45
minutes of aimless drift a slight breeze formed and we worked our way up along
San Juan Island to stay out of the current. However, the currents were
too strong and the winds too light to turn the corner and cover the last ¼ mile
to the finish line, so we hung near the cliffs hoping for a change.
However, with no wind and swirling waters we were eventually sucked out into
the flow and put on the conveyor belt going to wrong way. We were sucked
out and drifted for another 45 minutes and watched helplessly while several competitors
moved up the inside of the island and took up positions in front of us.
We could see a southerly filling in and it took hold just in time to have us
cross the line fourth overall at 5:53, seven minutes before the 6pm time
limit. We watched as Interface caught their wind and came up to cross the
line 90 seconds before the cutoff. With the PHRF adjustment they finished
first in class, pushing us down to 2nd. Monkeybones finished
sixth overall and was one of the very few to actually finish the race.
Everyone congratulated us on our young crew.
After the Shaw Island race MB sat on the buoy at Johns
Island for two weeks with little to no wind. However, we got some great shots of her!
NORTHERN CENTURY
Shawn returned in time for
our second Northern Century, described by the website as:
The course starts in Fidalgo Bay and heads
north to Point Roberts, then south any way you choose to Hein Bank,
followed by a return to Anacortes with a finish off Washington Park (details at
skippers meeting). The race
starts on Friday, August 22, 2014. Double-handed entries start at 1930 (GPS
Time) followed by fully crewed
entries at 1940 (GPS Time). It will likely take most competitors until Saturday
night or Sunday morning
to finish. This can be a very challenging event that involves considerable
navigational skills, plus
night sailing, strong currents, transit of vessel traffic lanes, and
potentially strong winds near Hein Bank.
We learned a lot from the 2013 event both in sail tactics as
well as how to prepare. In hindsight, we nailed the race, but failed
epically in the preparation. We arrived late (again) to Anacortes and had
to rush to work race and boat logistics, as well as pick up food for 24+ hours
of racing, and grab a dinner. The first dinner option was closed so we
dove into the local Mexican restaurant and had big burritos – which was mistake
#1. We wound up living through that ordeal all night long. We
eventually got on the water and the sails up. We had a great start and
all 20 boats in the fleet set off to the SE towards the tip of Guemes Is on a tight reach.
We debated if we could fly our spinnaker so proceeded under the #1, falling to
the back of the pack. We eventually decided to pull out the asymmetrical
that had been stashed in the bow for a few years and launched it, only to
discover that is was a small cruising asym which looked really funny up
front. The boats raced up around the point of Guemes on a light westerly,
which died in the shadow of the island. Being slightly behind we had the
benefit of watching this all unfold and jibed back out to run further east and
stay in the wind. As a result we were able to sneak down and around the
train wreck of drifting boats and set up nicely along Saddlebag island.
Wild Rumpus, a Santa Cruz 27, saw our move and broke from the pack to
follow. The woman only crew drew alongside in the fading wind and
commented “we liked your move”. They then proceeded to comment about how
small our asymmetrical spinnaker was. At that point we added it to the
“must buy” list for 2015. As was the case the previous year, the boats
worked their way very slowly up the side of Guemes in the light and variable
wind and dying light. As night set in we steered MB to the east to avoid
The Black Hole of 2013 – the outgoing current around the north tip of
Guemes. Our strategy was to stay east and work up the shore of Lumi Is to
avoid the negative ebbing current. This approach worked well and for a
period we were leading the fleet, until the wind died again. We watched
in vain as Time Bandit (J/120) sailed up behind us and the rest of the fleet
moved past farther to the west. Sometime around 1am a good southerly
filled in to 13 kts and everyone rocketed north. From 2 to 6 am we sailed
north under spinnaker and each managed about 1 hour of sleep. With
sunrise our enthusiasm brightened and we found ourselves in seventh place
overall (out of 20 boats) and having put a good amount of separation on the
broader fleet. Race report below...
We rounded the Pt Roberts buoy at 7 am as the big ebb
started and rode it south towards Stuart Island. The wind around Pt
Roberts was dying and it turned out that all of the boats behind us would get
swallowed by the lack of wind and strong current - 12 hours later they were
still in the same general vicinity. Once heading south and into the wind,
MB found her grove and was doing 6.5 kts through the water in 5 kts of
wind. We powered across the Strait of Georgia and rode the big ebb
currents around the east end of Saturna Is. By staying in the main flows
we were able to make up ground towards the boats in front of us, which had rounded
Pt Roberts miles ahead of us. Unfortunately as we approached the Stuart
Is lighthouse the winds faded for us and several other boats. We could
see wind much farther south, but we could not bridge the gap. We drifted
past Hijinks (J/30) into sixth overall, but then watched as Time Bandit, then
Cinco de Mayo and finally White Cloud catch the southerly and disappear towards
Hein Bank. By being in the current we were able to slowly drift out and
around Stuart Island between the hours of 10 am and noon, but the other boats
had sailed over the horizon by then. Finally around noon the first puffs
of the southerly reached us, just as the ebb was changing into a flood.
We were able to use this wind to scoot over towards Sydney BC to stay out of the
incoming (and negative) flood tide and worked up through the islands on the
Canadian side. By 3pm we were nowhere near Hein Bank and started doing
the math as to when we would finish – if at all. We had extended hall
passes but also had obligations Sunday which required us to be both present and
coherent. We were on the Canadian side of Haro Strait making 6 kts over
the bottom and could suddenly see White Cloud (Cookson 12M) and Cinco de Mayo (C&C115) struggling up
the opposite shore in the stiff flood tide. As we powered south we saw
White Cloud pull the plug on the race and power towards Roche Harbor – suddenly
we were in fifth place! Our plan was to stay west out of the big currents
as long as possible, which meant we sailed down towards Victoria. Once we
had the push we headed east and came racing up on Cinco de Mayo. Due to
the fact that we were further south we could sail a deeper line to Hein Bank
and were able to power by them and rounded Hein Bank in 4th place at
6:30 pm (see race report).
We launched the spinnaker (for like the 8th time that
race) and set out towards the finish off Washington Park with 10 kts pushing us
along from the stern. Last year this run took us three hours in similar
conditions and we were excited about our prospects of finishing the race.
Unfortunately our excitement didn’t last long because the wind subsequently
died down to 5 kts. Further, the tide switched again and we were only
doing 2 kts over the bottom with 13 miles to go to the finish. Both Cinco
de Mayo and us watched as Hijinks worked their way up behind us and rounded
Hein Bank several miles back. To make the situation more interesting, the
Strait was pretty beat up from the afternoon winds and the boats and sails were
flapping violently and very ineffective. As the sun set for the second time
we took stock of our situation. At the current rate of progress we MIGHT
cross the finish line sometime after midnight, and then we had 3 hours of
motoring back to the Hook before getting to bed. At that point we only
had 1.5 hours of sleep in the last 36 hrs, and raced for 25 of those hours
double handed. From a race standpoint the other two boats: Cinco de Mayo
and Hijinks; were both better downwind so we were looking at finishing between
4th and 6th place (unbeknownst to us at that point the
trimaran had already pulled out so it was actually 3rd to 5th
place). Given that we had commitments and nothing more to prove, and we
were damn tired, we opted to turn north and head towards Shaw. As it was
it took 3.5 more hours of motoring and we didn’t pull into the Hook until
11:45. We slept soundly and woke knowing we made the right decision. We checked the tracker to find that our other two competitors crossed the line just after 1 am, so that confirmed our decision!
