Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Summer 2015 Sailing Recap

The year 2015 has been an extremely busy one for Shawn and Jason.  As a result we haven’t been on the water as much as we’d hoped.  Over the summer Monkeybones participated in many of the Thursday night Elliott Bay racing series, and then made the trip north to the San Juans for August.  She placed well in the Shaw Island Classic race with our crew of kids, finishing 7th overall (see highlights below)



Shawn and Jason then did the Northern Century double handed, which turned into a giant drifter.  We had a great start and were leading the fleet off the line (see our video below).   Things went down hill from there.  After spending 15 hours on the water and making it only 25 miles into a 100 mile race, with few prospects of finishing, we decided to pull the plug and spend a glorious weekend with the family instead.  



The most excitement of the summer came at the end of August when a freak low pressure (the lowest ever recorded in the PNW in August) came through and resulted in storm force winds.  We raced to rescue MB, which was tied to the mooring buoy on Johns Island.  We braved 40 kts winds and epic seas across Rosario Strait in the Almar and made it to MB just as the wind cranked from 25 kts up to 40kts.  Jason and Ellis jumped aboard MB while Marian and Ava ran in to Roche Harbor for safety.  Ellis and I fought against the rising storm and limped into Roche Harbor with the speedo topping out with gusts of 46kts.  We double handed it (that’s one kid and one adult) somehow onto the dock and lashed it down until the storm could pass.  Two days later Shawn and I took it down to Seattle fighting 15-25kts on the nose and a driving rainstorm the whole way.  Around Point No Point it started building to 30kts and we were motor sailing under full main when the outhaul blew.  The main, still attached to the clew car, which is a stainless steel fitting that weights a couple pounds, started whipping around wildly and with a lot of force.  Somehow we managed to secure the sail by putting in a quick reef before the car damage the boat or seriously injured the crew.  It always seems that the biggest air is reserved for the short handed transit runs.  

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