I really did have the best intention of including a photo on this page of yesterday’s race but was so busy at the helm, trimming the sails, changing sails, and calling tactics that shooting a photo was simply not an option.
Anacortes Yacht Club’s sailboat race around Smith Island (30.15 nm) turned out to be one of the best races in some time! The early weather forecast was for light (0-5 kts) winds but that changed as the day approached. The wind speed at Smith Island was 25 kts at 0700. Only nine boats started, with most boats choosing to start late rather than risk an OCS due to a large ebb. We started with a full main and #1 genoa but changed to our #3 and reefed main as the wind built. Since the wind was blowing against the ebbing current the seas stacked up and made going S wet and rough. We noted most boats heading SW with the current so we took a 2 minute tack toward Burrows Is which made our next tack a direct port heading to Smith.
The sun came out and everyone on our boat was thoroughly enjoying ourselves. We were seeing 18-24 kts apparent, some 30 kt gusts, while sailing to weather. There is a huge kelp field S & W of the island but I noted that the current was with us (so the kelp was lying parallel to our travel route) & we decided to go through it, inside the huge submerged rock on the W. Unfortunately my GPS batteries died just as we neared that area, causing a bit of concern! After a reboot, we rounded approximately 200′ inside of the rock. We were the first in fleet to round Minor island so we were inclined to sail conservatively with the same sail plan. However, noting that several boats were making up the space between us, we shook out the reef and hoisted our .75 oz kite. We stayed an extra distance from Burrows, hoping to lure Emoyeni into that historically dead air but they didn’t bite. We finished in 5:38, first in fleet, and corrected out to third overall. Today I find that my body is telling me that the boat bumped me in many places. Ibuprofen was for breakfast.
