The ride thru the pass offered some more excitement this year, although not for us, but for the SJ24 and the SJ7.7. After watching those guys do some cool turns under the bridge we saw the mighty Perry 65, ICON, emerge from the North. This boat is very impressive, over 12' draft, rating minus 69 and they were there doing some tune up for Van Isle. Needless to say, they were the ones to beat. The start was the same as every year, except this year we managed to get away even cleaner that I could have ever hoped.
We drifted/sailed across the line with no room to spare up against the pin (set west of the committee boat) and managed to take off like a rocket. We started to pull away from the boats trying to fight for clear air and to make it across the starting line in the southerly flowing current (some boats were west of the pin at the gun and took a very long time to get around the pin). Within minutes we seemed to pull miles away and ICON was no where to be seen.
So, I had to call the shore support crew who were watching us to share my school girl giggles as we pulled further and further away.
After about 30 minutes, the fleet started to move and the Perry, the Cal 40, and the J-30 started to come on strong.
ICON passed us 45 minutes into the race, meaning they had just spotted us 45 minutes! Maybe we did have a shot at beating them! Turns out, they had some difficulty feathering the prop at the start and some other minor issues, but once they sorted those out, this was the last we saw of them, they passed us like we were standing still.
So now that we didn't have any close action to watch and sail against, Joey decided to get some action of his own!
After blazing past port townsend and staying away from the swirling vortex of death, the Cal 40 and their massive mast head kite passed us. We managed to surf their quarter wake from a very long time and once down to possesion point, decided to part ways for an hour, only to converge about 15' off their transom.
Well we manged to make it past the convergence zone without too much pain and off we were sailing in a north westerly with the M1 at about 5.5 knots. We left the rest of the boats at possesion as they were not lucky enough to get into the wind we managed to ride in a receeding line. I actually felt sorry for all of them. The amazing thing was to pass the clinton ferry landing in daylight! Before dinner!! Holy crap! What is round whidbey without a dark ferry dodging session? I didn't know what to do with myself!
So we could not see any sails behind us and we could not see ICON, we decided to just tack when we hit land. And that is exactly what we did. Whenever we saw another boat, we would tack to cross paths with it to check it out and wave at the tourists. Kevin managed to offend some power boaters with his close proximity and we all were on the look out for the killer sea monster that attacked us last year.
Doug also final realized that sun screen was more than just a precaution, it was actually a good idea. His head paid the price.
All in All, we managed to get to snaklem at around 11pm sailing in a 22 knot westerly with the H1 up at a slight reach making 8 knots VMG at Oak Harbor, but like a switch, it shut off and we sat for 4 hours. We watched our opportunity to beat ICON slip away and as we sat with the sails down drifiting south in over 200' of water, we watched mast lights get closer in the night. We finally manged to sail in under a very light westerly and finished at 3:43 am, second boat across the line. Only 5 of the 25 boats finished, but what a ride it was for us! We'll be back again next year!
After about 30 minutes, the fleet started to move and the Perry, the Cal 40, and the J-30 started to come on strong.
ICON passed us 45 minutes into the race, meaning they had just spotted us 45 minutes! Maybe we did have a shot at beating them! Turns out, they had some difficulty feathering the prop at the start and some other minor issues, but once they sorted those out, this was the last we saw of them, they passed us like we were standing still.
So now that we didn't have any close action to watch and sail against, Joey decided to get some action of his own!
After blazing past port townsend and staying away from the swirling vortex of death, the Cal 40 and their massive mast head kite passed us. We managed to surf their quarter wake from a very long time and once down to possesion point, decided to part ways for an hour, only to converge about 15' off their transom.
We had a great westerly fill in and gave the new noisey kite a try. It was aptly named the "ditch witch" because we could dig very deep with it. For all of you sailing with older kites, I would highly recommend checking out some of the new technology in materails and shapes, it makes a HUGE difference!
Well we manged to make it past the convergence zone without too much pain and off we were sailing in a north westerly with the M1 at about 5.5 knots. We left the rest of the boats at possesion as they were not lucky enough to get into the wind we managed to ride in a receeding line. I actually felt sorry for all of them. The amazing thing was to pass the clinton ferry landing in daylight! Before dinner!! Holy crap! What is round whidbey without a dark ferry dodging session? I didn't know what to do with myself!
So we could not see any sails behind us and we could not see ICON, we decided to just tack when we hit land. And that is exactly what we did. Whenever we saw another boat, we would tack to cross paths with it to check it out and wave at the tourists. Kevin managed to offend some power boaters with his close proximity and we all were on the look out for the killer sea monster that attacked us last year.
Doug also final realized that sun screen was more than just a precaution, it was actually a good idea. His head paid the price.
All in All, we managed to get to snaklem at around 11pm sailing in a 22 knot westerly with the H1 up at a slight reach making 8 knots VMG at Oak Harbor, but like a switch, it shut off and we sat for 4 hours. We watched our opportunity to beat ICON slip away and as we sat with the sails down drifiting south in over 200' of water, we watched mast lights get closer in the night. We finally manged to sail in under a very light westerly and finished at 3:43 am, second boat across the line. Only 5 of the 25 boats finished, but what a ride it was for us! We'll be back again next year!
