Hazy Daze and the Race to St. Mikes

It’s always a tough decision for the Race Committee. Start the race on time and leave the fleet drifting aimlessly or wait and hope for some wind to materialize. Well on this day, after waiting for an hour, it became apparent that the wind forecasters had called it correctly - “light and variable” so the RC did the only thing they could and got the race underway.

Our start was not stellar, in fact, it was far from it. Somehow, we found ourselves about a boat length (or two) over the line at the start. And after crawling back to clear the line, I realized that we had left the heavy air batten in the top of our main. That meant on each tack we would have struggled to clear the main through the backstay. Why didn’t I notice that during the one hour delay??? We proceeded to lower the main and change the batten. After that we were finally on our way.

For those of you, who are already bored, skip to the last paragraph…

Meanwhile most of the fleet had moved out well beyond the starting line. We found ourselves well to the right and low on the fleet. At least we were moving and it wasn’t too long before we started to catch up to the slower Alberg 30’s and Cal 25’s ahead. It was about that time that I began to realize that sailing in the middle of the bay with the associated powerboat chop was not going to be fast and if there was any wind to be found, it was going to be along the shore line. So with one very slow tack to starboard, we started to make our way toward the Eastern shore. It was disheartening to cross well behind all of the other Catalina’s transoms, but we were on a mission.

It seemed to take forever. The zephyrs of wind would come from different directions teasing us into tacking only to find yet another windless hole. The only constant was the relentless boat chop. It seemed that every time we started to make some progress, another wave would hit our bow bringing Swell to a complete stop. In desperation, we put up our chute hoping that some amount of wind would get the boat moving once again. We were a trend-setter of sorts, because, shortly after our chute went up so did several others – including Pussycat’s. They were also headed our direction. At first there was nothing – no big surprise here. Soon though, another zephyr came through and completely spun the boat around 360 degrees. And after that the breeze actually held long enough to push us much closer to the Eastern shore.

By now, we had lost track of most the other Catalinas. Ducks and Finesse who were leading early on appeared to be long gone. Not only was it very hazy, but the bigger, faster boats had rolled through the fleet making it very difficult from a distance to identify other boats in our fleet. Anyway, we continued to plug along and there was one thing for certain – we owned the left side of the course! As we approached the shore line ripples began to appear on the waters surface. Eureka! Shortly thereafter, we were cruising along with speed. Swell’s depth sounder was not functioning (possibly a result of the dead battery) so we used the crab pots as our guide sailing into shore to the last pot and then out again to the channel’s edge. We did this three or four times, I think.

With each hitch, Bloody Point Light drew closer. I knew that no matter how strung out the fleet got, Bloody Point would bring us all back together again. Question was who was going to be the first. As we approached, clearly there were not too many boats around the light. Could Duck’s and Finesse be that far ahead? …And, what about the rest? Straining our eyes as we scanned the horizon, the question was finally answered. Both Ducks and Finesse were well behind. Only one boat, Red Rum was close. After we tacked to round Bloody Point Light, Red Rum was well to windward but slightly behind. Once again, we were helped by the fact that our depth sounder was out and we had no indication of how close we were to running aground. We stayed on starboard tack until we were close to G”1”, did a short tack and then back again around the mark with a “nice” lead over Red Rum.

How many miles to the next mark? As often happens on days like this and in particular days when Swell is leading (and sometimes Four Little Ducks) the wind began to fade as we continued to the shortened finish at R”2A”. As it turned out, we finished with Red Rum hot on our transom only a couple of boat lengths behind and Finesse and Ducks gaining rapidly to finish 3^rd and 4^th respectively.

Finally the race was over. So how long did it take and what was the distance? Unfortunately, it turned out to be a simple calculation – 11.5nm in just over 6 hours! No High Point victory this time, just the satisfaction of knowing that we toughed it out (just like the rest of the fleet) and somehow came out on top. About then reality set in. We still had a long motor ahead to St. Mikes and only had four beers onboard - damn!