Decembers Race w/ Holbrooks

Picture 1: (Click for large version) Many of the sailboats at the start. I couldn't capture them all.
Departure: 8:00am 12/1/2007
Return: 5:00pm
Weather conditions: Rain, snow, high winds, freezing cold
Boat: 40' CNC
Crew: 6 (Connie, Ron, Woody, Chris, Dave, ??)

Avast there matey's! That means listen up in pirate talk (By the way, "Talk Like a Pirate Day" is September 19th). This was the most extreme sailing experience I've had thus far in my career. I'd say it qualifies me to talk like a pirate, or at least write my own near death memoir.

The crew included Connie, Ron, myself, Dave B (yes, the one and only from the sailing club), Chris and another guy who didn't sail on the last race. I don't recall his name.


Picture 2: This has nothing to do with the race, but I enjoy taking pictures of the interesting sites. This is a cargo ship loading in Commencement bay.
I need to confess up front that I was hoping this would be an extreme experience so you can't feel too sorry for me. I purposely chose this as the next race because it was the longest (around Vashon Island) and involved the most boats (80). As the race approached, the forecast looked gloomier and gloomier as well which also worked into my calculations.

I'll skip the departure routine except for one honorable mention; my friend Dave B. from the Gig Harbor Sailing club was also crewing and so we carpooled to the race. The rest is the usual - meeting, leaving, parking, waiting, getting ready and casting off bilge. So, to the race...


Did I mention the weather? It was lousy. Very overcast and sprinkling with a forecast for snow. Ohhhh but what a glorious site to arrive at the starting point and to see all those sailboats getting ready to race. About 80 boats were milling about waiting for the start. I'd never seen so many boats. I think the picture will say more than I can.

Picture 3: Many boats milling about at the start line.
This time I was much more aware of the start, and I think the captain was satisfied with it. After the start he tried a different tack than the rest of the crowd to see if he could get to the wind first, but alas, it didn't work and we fell quite a bit behind. The nice thing about a 7 hour race like this is there is time to fix one's mistakes and we spent the next several hours working hard to gain our lost position...and we did. By the time we rounded the first mark at the point of Vashon, we were looking much better and feeling great about our performance. We were also quite cold. I should mention that we were all using spinnakers up to this point. As we rounded the point, we dropped the big sails and raised the Jibs, and that's when things got ugly.


One uses spinnakers when going downwind and the jib when working upwind; we were now working upwind which is a colder, wetter business altogether. And, the weather turned so foul. It started to snow! That's right snow! Big fat heavy white flakes smacked us in the face as we worked our way up wind. And now with the wind driving in our faces it was cold. I was soon soaked to the skin and quite cold. It had been about 5 hours at this point and I was starting to wish for the end. It was still beautiful though.

Picture 4: Behind us as we headed up Colvos Passage. I have no idea whose boat that is.

The cloud's were so low they touched the tops of the trees on Vashon; trees that were dusted white. If I hadn't been so cold, it would have been very pleasant. If only I could hang on...

And then it happened. A big mistake.

We decided to change to a smaller jib because the gusts of wind were alarming. While we were unpacking the smaller jib, the pilot turned us across the wind at the same moment a gust hit and we were knocked sideways.

I always tell my guests that "This boat will not tip over, but you can fall out. As long as you hang on tight, remember that the boat will right itself". Well today, I had my own advice served to me on a silver platter. The boat heeled over hard and I found myself standing on the lifelines with my feet under the rushing water while I hung to the boom for dear life. Others were tossed about the cockpit and had the same "deer in the headlights" look on their faces that I probably had on mine. Of course, my advice is correct, and the boat did right itself and we got back on track.

Picture 5: Chris, Ron & Dave (left to right) looking cold.

It took us a while though. The sail bag for the small jib had fallen off the boat and I'd used every last ounce of strength to hang on to one end of it so we wouldn't lose it. It took 3 of us to drag it back on the boat because it had filled with water. I was exhausted after this and extremely cold. I entered a sort of dazed state of mind. Several times I thought we were close to the finish when really it was only another point we had to pass.

By this time, we were last, but I didn't care. I just wanted to finish and get home and eventually we did. It was dark, but calm as we pulled into the dock.

And that was that. One of the greatest adventures I've had in many years.