San Juan 28

2011-06-05T21:39:00.000-07:00

SYSCO Spring Series Race 5 (Actually 4, because Race 2 was called.), June 2, 2011

The course was R-C-14-R due to the southwest wind at the planning stage, but the wind changed to westerly by the start. The starting line was setup east-west at R just off the Kaiser dry docks. The start was not awful. We did get over the line withing a minute of the start. We were accompanied by the usual suspects, Second Half and Brenda Lou. We started on port tack and managed a sort of broad reach but more close hauled to crab straight for C mark. The mark was set further south than it usually is in the summer due to the abundance of water. We were in a crowd of boats by the mark. The wind by the mark was lighter than on the Washington side. A note I should have made to myself. We rounded the mark about 3rd or 4th.

After the mark we set the boom out starboard and the pole out to port. I started the crab toward the mark. We were close the the marina but not within the 150 foot line. We were among three boats that took this route. Second Half and Brenda Lou were the other two. Second half had ducked in around the mark first coming to the mark on port tack. He set his pool to port, too. His lead varied from 3 to 7 boat lengths. But he was not heading toward the mark but a distance to the right of the mark. This distance grew as we approached Buoy 14, the mark. I had been crabbing to the mark the whole time and thus the extra distance Second Half had given himself to round the mark gave me enough lead to round the mark before him in third place. I was not aware that two of our fleet had already rounded the mark. They had taken the middle of the river course from C to 14. The had more wind and current, but the more wind was enough to get them around the mark before us. Current did not play as much a part when the river is this high and the wind was light and gusty.

Some more interesting things happened at 14. First there was this rain squall. It hit us about 10 boat lengths from the mark. Which greatly increased our speed. It hit us first, then hit Second Half, but the difference was another help in closing the gap. The second interesting event was a log floating down river. This log was some 50 feet long and full of snags. The timing of this log could not have been better for us. There was enough room for us to round the mark, but by the time Second Half rounded, he had to go around it. Which further lengthened my lead. The rain was now in our faces, but there was wind. Plus the current gave us a boost. We managed to maintain our lead to the committee boat and place third.

We were awarded second place for the series. Each race had its learning points.

2011-05-31T21:05:00.000-07:00

SYSCO Spring Series, 2011

This is already almost the last race of the season. I have not added to this blog. This entry is for the first four races.

Race 1, April 28, 2011.

Weather was overcast with a few sprinkles. Wind was light. The race was ambitious. The race committee delayed the races for 10 minutes, which made us start 5 minutes after 7. The wind was dying. It was about a 5 to 6 knot westerly wind to begin with. But was dying. The race was 14 – R – X – R – 14. We were early to the line, so we had to do a delaying maneuver and fell in behind 4 boats. We were on starboard tack. We waited to tack until we could make the mark in one tack. This meant coming to the mark on port with no rights. We watched the starboard tack boats and found a slot. We were behind two boats, Second Half and Avenger. The we set our new whisker pool and headed for X. But the wind was dying. We sailed to the end of the wind just off of Salty’s. We anchored. We waited about 15 minutes. It was cold. It was wet. We did the unforgivable and started the motor and and retired from the race. Just about that time Poncho came down from the already shortened race at X to the line of other boats still sailing or anchored. They counted those races and placed them in the race. Since we had retired, we were judged DNF.

Race 2, May 5, 2011.

The wind for this race was out of the east at about 4 to 5 knots and fading. Again the race committee delayed the race for 10 minutes. We started at 5 after 7. But the wind was so lite that we had to start amongst the previous fleet. We actually started about 10 minutes late because the wind was so light that it took that long to get to the starting line. Starboard tack would get us across the river, while port tack we actually made a little upstream, but not much. We crossed the start line many times. We just could not make any upstream headway. We keep encountering the RC boat. I made the comment more than once that the RC was sailing better than we were. It was anchored. We finally got smarter and started noticing the darker water and staying within that. We were making headway toward the X mark when Poncho came and terminated the race.

One interesting moment during the race was when we were crossing the start line on starboard tack one time, Second Half almost hit us. He was on port, thus I was the stand-on boat. I could not see him through our head sail, but my crew warned me about Second Half. I yelled “STARBOARD.” I heard an “OOPs” and the next thing I saw was Second Half’s stern about 2 feet from our port beam. We sailed on, but he was completely out of shape and heading down river, with the breeze.

Race 3, May 12, 2011

This was a short race, C – 2 – C. The race committee is learning. We started early and had to do a delaying maneuver, again. Timing has been bad this year. The RC keeps throwing in delays that shift the starts. We started on starboard tack with the fleet. but in bad air. There was room to tack to port and get out of the bad air. We sailed to the middle of the river, where we tacked to starboard and road the current there. We stayed in the middle until off the west entrance of Tomahawk Bay Marina. Back to port tack. We were able to make the mark ahead of the rest of the fleet by a boat length. We rounded the mark but lost about three boat lengths coming about. The whole fleet put out whisker poles to port. We managed to get in the lead, but being shadowed by the slower boats could not keep it. Avenger was doing great. Second Half and Estrela Del Mar were in second and third respectively. Second Half was edging in on the starboard finishing mark and edging out Estrala Del Mar. He did not give mark room to the other boat who called it. He was suppose to. He later withdrew from the race after finishing, which made us, who came in third, well actually fourth, second.

Race 4, May 26, 2011

Again a short race. The wind was from SSE. This made the race a cross river race. The course was R – C – R – C – R. We had fun before the race. The wind allowed us to hold position in the River with just our main. So we sat just outside the starting area and watched the other starts. The RC delayed the race due to a tug/barge in the channel just at the start of the first race. The started the first three races without a hitch. The delayed the fourth and our races because one of the earlier races was rounding R, the starting mark. This caused a lot of traffic. This also caused our timing to be changed. We were not synchronized well with our start timing. Our plan was to stall at a the starting line and then get under way a minute before the race starts. We were very close to the start line. I figured we had about a 30 second run to the line, once we started. The one minute warning went. So we waited what we thought was 30 seconds and started. We were at least 20 seconds late over the start. With a race this short, that makes a difference. Second Half took off like a rocket. We were with Avenger and Second Half for a while, but could not point as high as either of them. Second Half tacked early. We waited until we were well above the mark before tacking and made the mark on this next tack. No boats were near when we rounded the mark on port tack. The run to R was a close reach. We made that with inches to spare, too. We watched Second Half round the mark and loose 4 to 5 boat lengths getting around. I asked the crew to see if we could get around without loosing too much ground. We did better by only loosing 2 boat lengths. We did not stay on starboard tack as long this time thinking that the slower current by the mark might give us better speed, so we tacked earlier. We got to a line to tack to starboard from port tack and tacked. The wind was doing some fluky stuff, but we did make the mark with Tangera close by. Tangera is in the fleet that started just before us. Their course was longer. For this next leg, I sailed it like the second, but I should have sailed it like the fourth. I mean that instead of just doing the broad reach, we could have done a broader reach and get more speed by heading for the upstream committee boat. We did finish second, again. This time not because of any penalty.

The crew commented how they liked “parking” at the start line and watching the starts instead of sailing hard up and down the river. It was much more relaxing and educational watching the other starts. Plus we did have a good view of the Committee boat and flags.

2011-04-02T14:43:00.000-07:00

RCYC Frostbite Regatta, March 26, 2011

Aventura was entered in the forth start with 9 other boats. One boat was with another fleet, so raced himself. Crew was Bill, Dave, and myself. Dave was new to the boat. We left the pier about 10 to 11. Motored out of the marina. Set sail pretty fast. We chatted for a bit, but the crew wanted to get some practice in. Besides it was cold just standing there and doing nothing. Dave started to jump up and down to stay warm. We practiced a few coming abouts. The first was alright, but obviously done by three people who had never worked together. The next tacks were better. Not until we had started the race did the we start working together with one tailing the line and the other wenching it up and me bringing the boat about slow enough for them to get the sail trimmed. I tried to make sure the tacks were slow enough to allow them to pull in the sheet, but we had not moved the spinnaker or topping lift line aft to the mast. These lines are snapped to the down haul pad eye about 18 inches in front of the mast. So the head sail would snag on them as we went through the wind.

The start was confusion. We were the 4th start, but it did not seem like the timing was right. I thought they would start in order, they did. But they seemed to be five minutes slow. None of us had a good idea of when the start was. I did not get the time we crossed the start line, but it must have been a whole 5 to 10 minutes after the actual start. The wind did some strange stuff right at the start and it seemed we could not get to the start line. We must have tacked 4 times before the start.

The port tack would take us across the river while the starboard tack would take us sort of up river, but not much more upstream than port tack. The race course was R-A-C-14-R. We started at R and headed for A. A is off the first coffer dam upstream from the 42nd Street boat ramp. Lining out the race on Google, says it was a 4 mile race. Aventura's handicap is 195. This will be important latter.

It seemed to take us forever to get to A. There were two interesting encounters. The first was with Bob, a Martin 24. We were close passing in front of them on a port tack while they were on the starboard tack. They were trying their best to make me tack, by almost luffing their sails. They yelled that they would protest, but nothing came of it. No contact. No damage. No proof. The second interesting encounter was with one of the larger boats in the flying sails fleet. They were on starboard tack, we, again on port. This time my crew noticed the boat. I could not see it, as it was behind the sails. They both said it looks like we should tack. So we did. Which was nice, because we came up 1 1/2 boat lengths lee and abreast the boat on starboard tack. This would have been a very unfortunate encounter if my crew had not spoken up.

Rounding Mark A, the windward mark, was another study in river racing. As we approached we watch another boat misjudge the current and take a short tack to get back up to the mark to round it. We took Aventura in as far as we could to get the mark well passed amidships so we would not have to take that same short take the boat ahead of us did. The closer to the mark we got the more it looked like we would not make it. The current right at mark A was strong. We inched up to the mark. The more I tried to go up river, the slower we got. The faster I approached the mark, the more downstream we went. I found the balance and rounded the mark. Dave had to watch the mark to see if we cleared. He said we cleared it with about an inch to spare. I have to believe him, as the mark did not move as we rounded it. It would have moved a bit, it did not. If we had struck it, we would have been disqualified.

We ran down to Mark C, the first downwind mark. This leg went pretty fast as it was downwind and with the current. I noticed a couple of big boats sort of in a wind hole near the marina at the mark. But I was paying too much attention to sailing and keeping the boat going. The wind was light and fluky by the mark. We rounded the mark with out too much problem. But getting upstream to the third mark, Buoy 14, seemed to be a bit of a struggle. We rounded Buoy 14 with lots of room to spare. That is one mark I don't want to tangle with.

We finished the race in 1:36:47. La Dolce Vita, the boat I use to crew on was behind us at 1:37:13 or 26 second behind us. My handicap as stated earlier is 195. La Dolce Vitas is 205. Race was 4 miles long so I had to give him 40 second. So he beat me by 13 second. He placed 3rd, we placed 4th.

Still putting a crew together for the Spring Series. Bill and Chuck and now it looks like Steve, as Dave has not answered my emails.

I did not get a track of the race. I get confused by the switches in the SeaClear Software. I need more practice with it.

2010-08-29T11:19:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we had house company. That usually means we ask them if they would like to go for a day sail. We asked. She accepted. We sailed.

We started the sail normally. We motored out of the marina. It was a great day. Wind out of the west at about 6-8 knots. So we turned up stream and I unfurled the head sail. Sailed up river for about 4 miles or about an hour. Turned around and gently sailed upwind and downstream back to the marina. Where it happened. I started to roll up the head sail. I got stuck. But instead of doing the smart thing I put the line on the winch and cranked some more. Where upon is just got tighter. It go so tight I could not release it. So I untied the sheets and rolled the sail up by wrapping it around the forestay. It was not pretty, but the sail was stowed. We motored back into the slip and docked with style. I checked the roller furling and decided to just cut the line and fix it later when I had some time.

Another guest came this weekend. He said sure he would help me fix the roller furling and then we could sail. I knew I would have to buy line, but I did not know what else I needed. We went to the boat and looked at the furling. It looked good at the bottom. Things seemed to be free and bearings looked good. No part was broken. I got the binoculars out and inspected the top of the furling. It looked like it was OK. What could be stopping the furling from furling.

Then the "Oh Sh....t" (some people might use the word "epiphany", but ...) moment happened. I saw the spinnaker halyard had wrapped around the sail preventing any further rolling. I freed the halyard and the sail rolled up just fine.

I am writing this in the hopes it helps fellow sailors. Look around and up when furling your head sail. It will save you the $33.00 for the new line.

I hope you got a laugh out of this post. I can laugh, now.

2010-06-11T10:24:00.000-07:00

SYSCO Summer Series, Race 1, June 10, 2010

This was a no show for Aventura. The skipper, me, had a heart attack last Saturday. This attack was quite disconcerting. I had one 3 years ago, but that was attributed to high cholesterol. This one was just a clot at the stent that was put in at that time.

As I said in the previous post, my sail's leech hem had come undone about the level of the spreaders. I took it the Waagmeester's Banks Sails where I bought the sail. He mended the sail. He found lots of little places where the thread was broken, but no where the thread was weak from UV damage. He summized that the sail was flogged a lot.

On to last Saturday, I went up the mast with Bill spotting me. I use ascenders and one of my jib sheets to go up the mast. This gives me control of where I want to be without loading the spotter with all the work. I found some bare threads at the spreaders. The spreaders are mounted to the mast with long through bolts. Each bolt had about 1/4 inch of threads sticking out. The rubbers at the ends of the spreaders were cracked, but relatively smooth. Next time I will have to replace them.

I went up to the top of the mast and inspected the head. Everything seems fine there. On the way down, though, I had to stop a couple of times to rest. I had not been up the mast for years and thought, "Wow, this is more strenuous than I thought." I got down and took off the gear and was really thirsty. So I went below to get a drink of water.

That's when the chest pains started. I took about a minute to realize these were heart pains. I told Bill, I was having a heart attack. Please call 911. I laid down and put me feet up. Bill came down below and got cushions under my legs. I asked for aspirin, then realized the 911 call had not been done. Bill was still trying to find the aspirin. I asked again to please call 911. We can get the aspirin after that. He did. I ended up giving him the address to the marina and our slip number. Meanwhile, I was starting to go into shock with cold sweats. Bill gave me an aspirin and then I directed him to go meet the EMT's. I could hear the siren.

Bill brought the EMT's and Firement down to the boat. They managed to get three of them in the cabin with me. They had a hard time connecting the 12 lead because I was so wet with sweat. They finally got my vitals and the EKG. Yep, I was having a heart attack. The only problem was to get me to the gurney. They gave me some nitro. That relieved the pain slightly. I ended up climbing out of the cabin and over the side of the boat and walked to the gurney and sat down. They did not strap me in, because one of the EMT's stated if we fell in for any reason I should not be strapped to something that does not float.

This all started about 11:30 AM. By 12:30 PM I was in the operating room. By 1:30 PM, I was in CCU. Very fast and efficient. Thanks, Good Samaritan and Dr's Schroeder and Rosenbaum.

So that is why we did not race this week. Maybe next.

2010-05-29T09:46:00.000-07:00

SYSCO Spring Series, Race 5, May 27,2010

Great start. Everyone in the crew knew the time to the start. Bill made up a page with the starting times and flags. He wants to work on it some more. There were a few flags he left off. I gave Bill my watch that has a count down timer. We were close to the committee boat when they started the start sequence. The race starts were delayed due to the late arrival of the committee boat. But we caught the start of timing accurately and was able to keep track of the starts much better than last race.

The race was just double the first of the series, C-2-C-2-C. We have been running down the middle of the river on these races. We discovered earlier that staying in the middle was the way to get to the windward mark the fastest. It worked until the problem happened. First we rounded up because we were over powered. The track shows a bright green round up between to faster blue sections. Then the real problem happened when we were to tack to the mark. Aventura's head sail's leech hem unravelled at the spreader. The leech line caught the spreader and the sail hung so that it would not come across. We tried to tack again after getting out of irons and regaining speed. It hung again. Finally we had to head down wind to clear the sail from the spreader. By then the rest of the fleet had caught us. Second Half rounded the windward mark first.

We approached the mark on port tack. We had room between boats. We went into a broad reach across the river to the Oregon side. Then put up the pole for a little while. We took the pole down and lost ground on Second Half. We rounded the down wind mark and went into a port close hauled tack. We went to the middle of the river again.

We did better on this tacking through the wind because we did not play around. We dipped down wind to free the sail immediately. That seemed to work, but it made for a much slower going through the wind. The boat was handling great otherwise. The crew worked as a team. We tacked at B mark to the port, again using the downwind dip. On this port tack we made the pylons west of the concrete wall. As we came to our starboard tack the Hunter 34 tacked in front of us establishing her line. We had to yield mark room.

We rounded the last windward mark together and set our pole to port. We ran downwind, up river together until the finish line. We placed second in this race.

We finished second in the series in finishes and second in the series for PHRF handicapping.

I called the sail loft Friday. He said he could get it sown by the next race if I bring the sail in on Tuesday. I am. I hope he can. Otherwise I will sail with my other Neil Pride head sail. It is probably a faster sail, anyway.

2010-05-22T13:26:00.000-07:00

SYSCO Spring Series Race 4, May 20, 2010

This race was from 14-A-U-A-U-14. When the race was posted the winds were 6 to 8 knots out of the East. But when the race started, they were 3 to 4 knots out of the east. So it took forever to get by the committee boat without hitting others. The fast fleet was still trying to start when our start went. But that was compounded by our not knowing the starting time. I did not pick up the count when I should and really did not pick it up at all. We finally started when I realized there were no more flags flying on the committee boat. Not good.

Early sailing helps sort out the wind direction sometimes. I had the chart running from the slip and noted that one the port tack we crossed the river while on the starboard tack we went up the river. So the thing to do was to start on the starboard tack. But we waited too long as stated in the above paragraph. We crossed the start line a full 5 to 7 minutes after the start. This was better than some of the bigger boats who were still trying to start when we finally broke free. It took is six short tacks to start.

When we finally started we took a longer tack to the center of the river until the mark was well abaft the beam before tacking back to port. We had to look for the mark, which was not there. It had drifted downstream and only got back to almost its proper place when we needed it. Poncho reset it. They also indicated that it was the mark. Again we had to do two short tacks because the wind shift kept backing us.

When we made our first windward mark, we were playing with Vim again. They do seem to get in our way a lot. Looking at our track it shows that the wind was shifting southerly as the evening progressed. We used a long port tack to gain up river distance and waited until the mark was again well abaft beam before tacking to it. But with the wind shifting slightly more we tacked too soon and had to do a starboard tack to the mark which again we misjudged or were scared by the shoalling shore. We tacked at 10 foot depth. We did not quite make the mark and had to do two short tacks again.

The run downwind to Mark U was quick and fun. The crew put up the pole and we zoomed down to the mark. By the time we got to U the wind was falling and still shifting south. We rounded the mark and went into a port tack and started straight for the mark. The wind kept shifting and falling. Until we put out the anchor. This is the second race in a row we have had to use that tactic. I don't like it, but I would rather to that than drift downstream and loose valuable ground when the wind dies. The wind died due to the rain squall that hit us. So we sat for 10 minutes. The wind picked up and we sailed some more. Then the wind died again. Again we anchored. But this time it was for only a few minutes. My crew was working pretty hard hauling anchor. We started sailing some more. Very slowly. Making less than two knots over the ground.

Poncho came out about this time. And went to Cepheron, who was upstream from us. They must have told them they were shortening the course, because they turned around and headed for the finish line. Poncho then came to us and told us that as soon as Cepheron went by we could head for the finish line. She did. We did, too.

Upon reviewing the race, we agreed that our timing the start needs work. I did a horrible job this time. We were too far from the committee boat to watch the flags without binoculars. I was the only one aboard responsible to the timing of the start. I had done OK for the three previous starts but this time I lost track of time. So we decided to designate another crew to keep track of the start time. This will leave me more time to consider strategy.

The race start timing is simple for one race but we have 5 starts. The first signal is at 6:30 and is the 5 minute warning for the first start, which could be any of the five starts. The start is identified by a number pennant which is raised at the 5 minute warning. The start order is determined by the race committee on the committee boat. It could be any of the five starts. They even could combine starts if they wish. It's all in the signaling of the flags. Our fifth start is a yellow-blue pennant. The usual order is 1 to 5. The next warning is the 4 minute warning and the preparatory flag is raised. At one minute before the start the horn blows and the preparatory flag is dropped. The start number flag is lowered at the start time. The next start flag is raised at this time. The cycle starts over again. The preparatory flag is raised at the 4 minute warning and dropped at the one minute warning. This progresses until all starts are completed.

2010-05-15T13:06:00.000-07:00

Thursday, May 14, 2010, No Race.

We did assemble at the boat, or at least one of the crew, Bill, and myself sailed Thursday. The day was warm. The wind light out of the NNW at 5 knots. This is the perfect wind to try my spinnaker for the first time since I had the boat.

Finding all the lines and connecting them was the first challenge.The second challenge was to implement them. We motored out of the marina, as usual. We decided to raise the main. I figured it would be nice to have to shadow the spinnaker when we had to take it down and raise it.

Two years ago in the rain an early spring sail with Steve Poland was the only other experience I have with a spinnaker. I took pictures and tried to pay attention, but the only thing I remember was trim the sail so the luff (which ever edge is the furthest upwind) just stops curling in. That's about all we did all the way up past buoy 14 and almost to buoy 18.

It only took me 6 years to fly the spinnaker. We bought the boat in 2004. The sail sat in my garage all this time. I think I will leave it on the boat. But I must get lighter sheets for it. The down haul for the spinnaker needs a block to attach to the padeye before the mast.

While rummaging for the lines, I found two lines with blocks tied to one end. The blocks are small one inch diameter blocks. The line attached is 3/8" diameter of about 20 feet in length. I wonder what they were made up for?

2010-05-08T09:08:00.000-07:00

Thursday, May 6, 2010, SYSCO Spring Series

This was the longest non-race I have every been in. There was a first in this race for our boat and probably for the fleet. We anchored. The winds were light and variable, but mostly from the north west. Our race was C-2-B-C. This was a change from the straight down river to the windward mark and back to the finish. We actually had a triangle course.

We were about ten seconds early on the start and went over, but all we had to do was tuck back behind the start line and continue on. The track shows the dip. We stayed mainly in the deep center of the river on the windward leg. By dipping back behind the line, the pack caught up to us and we essentially started in the middle of the pack. The winds faded near the windward mark. The "fast" fleet ahead of us were slowly drifting downstream while valiantly trying to sail upstream. This sort of gave us a clue that the wind was very weak. We essentially drifted round the mark, but at least in first position.

We anchored when we realized we were not going upstream to hold our position as best we could. We sat there only about 5-10 minutes, then the breeze came back. We headed over to the Oregon side to take advantage of the shallow water current and to get away from the pack.

The downwind leg was sailed essentially wing on wing, but instead of setting the spinnaker pole the crew chose to use the boat hook to hold out the sail. This allowed us to go to a broad reach when the shifts of the wind direction allowed us. We played with Bill Sanborn's Upstart for a while. But along toward the committee boat the wind died. At the end we were being over taken by Vim our "arch rival". The closer we got to the finish line the lighter the wind became. Until we were within 3 boat lengths of the line and the wind died entirely. The sun was almost down. It was the time of dusk when wind dies and the world holds its breath. We anchored for the second time in this "race". We sat. There was a breath of air after about 15 minutes and we tried to sail only to loose ground. We anchored again. About 9:25 or 2 1/2 hours after the start of the race, the race committee called the race. If either Vim or Aventura had finished the race we would have been the only finishers and the race would count. But since no one finished in our fleet, the race does not count.

I am still conflicted about using the boat hook as a whisker pole. It is good because it allows quick changes of the head sail down wind. The spinnaker pole is just too unwieldy for quick changes. It is good in a blow, but takes two to set it with any speed. Next item for the boat is a whisker pole.

2010-05-01T10:28:00.000-07:00

Thursday, April 29th SYSCO Spring Series Race

This was one for the story books. A couple of misadventures that make for great tales for cruising and racing budies happened this evening. At least we made it out of the slip without problems. I did forget to check for water in the exhaust, but we did by the end of the fairway and there was plenty. We actually arrived at the boat 10 minutes early and Bill was waiting in the cockpit. We got the boat ready in short order, ate our sandwiches and was off by 5:30.

The wind was about 11 knots. The river was rough and since we have not had that much experience with this level of wind we sailed. We actually went upstream under main only and was doing hull speed. We were all bundled in jackets and I always insist on everyone wearing PFDs. We were so early Poncho and the committee boat was not even out yet.

After a practice rounding of 14, we decided to reef the main. I know, racers don't reef, but tonight since we had time and we needed the experience, we reefed. We actually started with reefed main and head sail only unfurled to 100%. It is a 135 sail, so that means the head sail's clew was just back to the mast. She sailed well. We were still doing hull speed.

The committee boat showed and we went by it once under main only, but it was before the come-by-me flag was up. We circled around when the come-by-me came out and discovered our course, C-2-C-B-C. The race committee added a leeward mark and another windward mark to our race from last week.

Since we were going to 2 which is more to the Washington side of the river, I discarded the port tack start and joined the crowd on starboard tack start. The crowd would probably hug the mark away from the committee boat. They did, but we were behind them. We watched a couple of the lead boats being forced to turn around and restart. They were forced above the mark. They almost looked like they were rounding up, but upon reflection, they were forced above the mark due to leeward boats forcing them above it.

The wind was calming down, but we still had our reefed main. We let out the head sail. We tacked to port. The wind was calming even more now. The white caps were gone. So we shook our our reefed main. Tacked to starboard at the Washington shore. We waited until the concrete wall on the Washington shore was abeam until we tacked to port again. We were crossed by Vim. I just had to ask him how he did it? His boat is a fast little one.

About that time, a tug with 4 barges coming upriver from I-5 bridge tooted its horn. Most of the fleet was heading to the first windward mark and right in its way upriver. More toots. We decided discretion is the better part of racing a tug. Sail boats are bad enough. So I told the crew we were going to do two short tacks. This would mean instead of approaching the windward mark on starboard tack with rights, we would approach the mark on port tack without any rights. But it worked out. We were second around the mark. The tug and barges were part of my strategy. They worked for us. (right!?!?!). I am going to ask a tug to come through each race about that time. The tug will make the race more interesting.

We rounded the mark and went to a starboard broad reach over to the Oregon shore like the big boys do in their races. This takes advantage of the lesser current in the shallow waters. We turned and put up the pole to port when the line with C mark was right for wing on wing. I might go a little more over to the Oregon side next time. Looking at the plot of the course I turned early.

We rounded the leeward mark without incident and went to a starboard tack. We stayed on the starboard tack for a short time and went to port tack staying in the deeper water and thus the favoring current. Again looking a plot of our race, it looks like a port tack at the mark, staying on that until the mark was abeam would have given us better current. I don't remember the wind at this time. We tacked to starboard tack when the mark was abeam, but the wind had headed us and we tacked early. Thus we had to add two short tacks, again. The crew must like them. On the final coming about of the evening, one of the crew stepped on the tiller splitting it. As long as it stayed in the rudder head I could steer.

We rounded the windward mark and had problems broaching. The tiller could not be raised high enough to keep the main from dragging us around on the jib. We put the pole out to port again. I managed to keep the tiller in place. This set us up for a protest from Vim.

Vim was leeward and to starboard. I was busy keeping the tiller in place, when I hear a hale saying "We are leeward. Give me room." By this time I had overtaken Vim. He was overlapped and had rights. If I steered to port my head sail would have been out of shape. I had the room. So far no results have been posted so I don't know if Vim filed a protest.

By then I had lost all track of the race, being very busy with the tiller situation. We crossed the line in second place behind Second Half. But just barely. We traded places with him from the last race. I finished first last race next to the committee boat. He finished first this race next to the committee boat. I was the one by the mark this time.

After the race I started the motor and the crew stowed the sails. We made it back to the slip without mishap. This was really a good race. Especially for the story value.

Here's the plot of the race. It looks like they moved the finish marker and committee boat a little between the start and the finish.

2010-04-24T10:25:00.000-07:00

Thursday, April 22, 2010, marks the first for us. We came in first out of 6 boats. We race in the Cruising-S fleet of nine boats. Two started, but did not finish. One did not come by the committee boat.

Nice to get back out on the river to race. Of course we had to have at least one misadventure, this is sailing. Again it was while leaving the slip. I backed out of the slip without mishap, but did notice I back out in front of another boater. But he was well away from us and if I would just get moving down the fairway, I would not have been in his way at all, but . . . . Instead of putting the engine in forward to turn and go down the fairway, I put the boat in reverse. The tiller being put to starboard made the boat just back up faster until I realized we were in reverse and weren't going the way I wanted. We bumped into the boat across the fairway from us. We did get away from the boat after the crew fended us off. Instead of just leaving we went back to the boat. The only thing I could see was that his outboard motor had flopped over. Aventura did have a scuff mark from the motor. Later, Warren from Second Half inspected the motor and put it straight. He said he would talk to Mike the owner of the boat and tell him what happened. But It looked like there was no damage and that I would not have to buy the boat.

After that, we went out to find the race. The winds were very light, less than 5 knots. We went ahead and put up the sails and started up river to find the committee boat. There was already a mark placed just out of the entrance to Tomahawk Bay Marina. This is "T" mark. "B" mark was set at the coffer dam at the east end of Tomahawk Island. Poncho was down at Buoy 14. We sailed until 6:10 and then restarted the motor. By then the come-by-me flag was up. We fell in line and got our race sheet to discover we were in the fifth start. I had to reset my count down timer from 20 minutes to 25 minutes.

We discussed tactics. The wind was building. Our race was 14-T-14. Simple short race. I wanted to stay in the center of the river to use the faster current there while going down steam to the windward mark. One possibility was to start on the port tack, but then we would have to dodge traffic at the start. So we joined the rest of the boats on starboard tack at the start. One boat went over early and had to go back. We crossed the line about 4th and at its middle. We sailed over to McCuddy's and tacked to port tack. We dodged the starboard tack boats without incident. Crossed the river and tack to starboard tack, but had not gained enough downstream to make the mark on that tack. So we tacked again about mid river to port tack. We did not have any traffic. We were essentially following Shamrock the whole course. Everyone bunched up at the windward mark. We round fourth and were surprised when the three leaders were blanketed by our sails. They slowed down while we stayed in clear air and actually passed them. We put the spinnaker pole up to port and headed for the committee boat. The other three leaders headed for Buoy 14 which meant they were in the middle and the stronger current. We stayed in the 20 foot depth and slower current. We inched our way ahead of the rest. About a quarter of mile before the finish line, we hit the zone where we get tricked into thinking the wind is dying. There is a zone in the river where the wind from the gorge and the wind from the ocean meet. The sails luff when the boat catches the wind. Sometimes it's enough to fool the skipper into changing sails, thus loosing some momentum only to have to change the sails back. We held our position long enough to cross the finish line first.

Shouts and high fives all around. Not bad for the first race.

We actually had a knot meter this trip. This is only the third head for Aventura. The first one was not working when we bought her. There was a new one in the box that came with her. It was newer and had a different connector for its transducer so it was not just a simple replacement. We installed the new transducer and ran the wire to the meter and installed it. It worked for two seasons, then quit. I repaired it once. Then it quit again. Last year Chuck won a $100 gift certificate at the awards dinner. He gave it to the boat. I used it to by another analog knot meter. This meter had the old connector with it. I plugged the old transducer that was still lying in the fore peak into the newer used meter and it worked. So it is installed now. Still needs calibrating, though. Because when we were doing 5 knots or better it was reading only 3 knots.

While sitting around back at the slip celebrating our win, we toasted our beers with "The only way to go now is down." We all laughed flush with our victory.

Here's the plot of the race. Looks like we need to work on tacking.

Thanks, crew: Chuck, Bill, and KD

2010-04-17T10:32:00.000-07:00

Picked up the boat from Schooner Creek Boat Works on April 1, 2010. She looked very happy to have a clean bottom and waxed sides. The greased prop helped. I noticed immediately the difference when the engine turned off. There was vary little drag and her carry was much more. Very nice.

We held our practice sail this Thursday, April 15th. We had our misadventures. Really only two. The crew, Bill, Chuck, KD, and myself are adjusting to each other. Bill and KD made a good cockpit team with Bill leading the pair. Chuck took to the foredeck to avoid the chaos of the cockpit. The San Juan 28 has a small cockpit for a 28 foot boat. Four people can sit cosily in it, but sailing gets it quit crowded very fast.

The first misadventure was when the port jib sheet overran itself on the wench. At least it happened at practice. We were able to use a fid and pry the sheet over the wench to get a loop free. Once that happened, we were able to get another loop and then free the line. But not after having the several hundred boats out there pass us in the non-race (just kidding).

The second misadventure was suddenly presented us by a long loud toot from a tug. Those barges on the river are ever present and sneak up on the unaware quite silently. We had just practiced rounding the upwind mark at buoy 2. We were headed over to the Oregon side when after just settling in to a broad reach, the toot happened. The tug with 4 barges was about 500 ft downstream and coming at us pretty fast. So we turned tail and ran back to above the buoy for another practice rounding the mark. Discretion being the better part of being run over by a barge.

The practice weather could not have been better. There was the normal evening breeze of 5 knots from the west. There were a few other boats out there practising or at least enjoying the evening. The wind died about 7:40 so we were out there about two quick hours. We then retired to the marina where we enjoyed a round of beers to celebrate the beginning of another racing season.

Thanks, crew to a great evening. I am looking forward to the season even more than before.

2010-03-07T09:37:00.000-08:00

February 28, 2010

We opened the engine cooling water seacock this afternoon to start the engine. I ran the engine on the starter for about 15 seconds with the decompression levers set to build up oil pressure. Then closed the levers and started the engine. We dropped the mooring lines only to discover we forgot to disconnect the shore power. I disconnected the power. Engaged the forward gear and took off from the mooring.

We took the boat over to Schooner Creek Boat Works. Aventura is getting a bottom job and waxing the hull. We motored over without incident and left the boat.

It seemed like such a simple manoeuvre , but it was great getting back on the river. The weather could not have been more cooperative. It was 59 degrees F. Sun was out.

March 6, 2010

This weekend we went to the boat and I greased the propeller. It is a two bladed feathering propeller made by Bianchi of Italy. I also added a zinc.

We went to West Marine to get the new zinc after I looked at the old one to check for size. So for the $13 zinc, I spent $210. I could not pass up the Lifesling and two new shinny blue Taylor Made 8"X30" bumpers.

Hannah's vacuuming now so I need to stop loligaging about and mow the lawn before the rains this week.

2009-08-29T13:47:00.000-07:00

Thursday, August 27, 2009 OCSA Summer Evening Series, Race 6.

I had not registered for the series as I was coming off an operation in early July. But I figured I could go out there and join the fun. The wind was late. It did not arrive until 7:00.

The crew this race was Warren. He crewed on La Dolce Vita last year and this is the first time he sailed this year. He was a little rusty. As evident a little later in the race.

When the wind arrived it came up to 8 knots. We shook out our reef in the main from the last sail and raised it fully. Did not do anything with the cunningham. The wind was light enough for full sail.

The start was confusing due the the delay in starting. We went over the line with a horn, but it turned out to be the one minute warning horn. We turned around and restarted a little late, but still in contention. We had turned around and instead of being on a starboard tack we were on a port tack, but in clear air. We did have to avoid a few starboard tacking boats but they did not impead our progress. We tacked early on the Washington side and continued on starboard tack until the concrete wall was abeam. We tacked over to port and started our climb to the wall. About then Dew Drop Inn was on starboard tack and coming from starboard. I just barely would have cleared his bow. He as a matter of tactic decided to turn to clear me by a boat length and yelled "Protest." I had to do a 360 to clear the protest. Meanwhile Warren had overrun the starboard jib sheet. The sail was tight and gave us no slack to be able to clear the overrun. I turned the boat upstream to get clear space to take time to clear the overrun. I moved the jib car aft to give us some slack but it was still not enough. We could not pull the line out of the overrun either. So I got my rigging knife and cut the sheet at the sail. I had kept the sheet as one length and connected it at the sail with just a loop which I had run the sheets through. It was too tight to untie. So cutting the sheet enabled me to tie two bowlines to fasten the sheets to the sail. I will have to go back and reeve the ends of the sheets and adjust the knots so the sheets are even. They need to be even so when the head sail is rolled up, they both become taught at the same time.

By the time the winch was cleared and sheet retied the sun had set. We were so far out of the running and since we really weren't in the race anyway, we retired to the marina. It was a really good night of sailing even if the sailing part was only 50 minutes.

After the boat was moored, I went below to check the track on my netbook only to discover I had not turned the tracking on. DARN. I also discovered the "C" key was missing. After we put the boat away, I came down to the cabin and turned on the cabin lights to look for the key. I found it and continued looking for the "spring". Finally found the spring, a little white plastic thingy that was almost invisible in the dim cabin lights. I tried to put the key back, but the light was too bad to do that, so I put the pieces in my coin pocket to try it again the next day. (The next day at work I had a much better light and only took about 10 minutes to finally. In the end once figuring out how the "spring" (which really was just a hinge) and the key fit together a simple sliding to the left action on the keyboard snapped the key in place. What a relief.

The boat had water in side again. There were a couple of times the rail was under water so I am going to have to investigate caulking the rail. It is either that or taking the toe rails off the boat and resetting them. That would entail taking the 100 screws out and a lot of time.

2009-07-05T08:56:00.000-07:00

Thursday, July 2, 2009, SYSCO Summer Series, Crusing Class, Race 5

Nice warm evening. Crew was KD and Chuck. Winds were about 10 to 15 at start and settled down to below 10 by finish. All out of the same direction north north west. The course was C-2-B-2-C.

Started the race on starboard tack. Again we were in heavy traffic. Cepheron always seems to be on my lee. She kept pushing me to luff. (At a discussion after the race at the closing celebration barbecue I had a discussion with Andre. He told me that I should be able to point very well with my San Juan. I need to tighten up the back stay adjuster. Next time. . . ). So we fell behind her and continued until we tacked to port and crossed the river. We tacked at the Washington side to starboard and then tacked again when the concrete wall was abeam. We made the mark after tacking to starboard about 5 boat lengths from the mark. We avoided a few starboard tack boats with little penalty.

Rounding the mark we went into a port wing on wing. Chuck set the pole to starboard. We headed directly for B mark. Some of the bigger boats head over to the Oregon side and then reach up to the mark. One of these races, I will do that. But for now I can't seem to get it out of my head to head straight to the leeward mark. My thinking is that the fastest course between to points is a straight line. About 3/4 of the distance to the mark the wind started to back wind the head sail, coming around to almost a beam reach. We dropped the pole well in advance of the mark.

Rounding the leeward we went straight to a starboard tack from a port broad reach. I noticed all the other boats going to a port tack after the mark. They were redoing the start of the race when they did not have to. I went to the starboard tack because the leeward mark was set a distance from the leeward shore. This distance was enough for me to continue on starboard tack until the concrete wall was abeam again. We tack to port and started crossing the river. Since we had gained a few boat lengths on the fleet we encounter a few boats on starboard tack and had to maneaver around them. We lost a few seconds, but had gained a few minutes on the fleet because of the previous maneaver.

Rounding the buoy 2, the windward mark, we went back to the port wing on wing and headed straight to the finish mark. We stayed to the mark side of the finish as it gave us a better point of sail.

Some Monday morning quarter backing: On the C-2 leg of a race with north north west winds, I am not going to wait until the Washington side to tack. The middle is much better ground to be in when tacking down river. The current is faster. So next time I am going to tack at the middle of the river. If the wind heads to the north a little, I would stay on the starboard starting tack as long as possible.

Results are in: Aventura came in 6 on the handicapped scoring and 10 on finish scoring for the Cruise-f fleet.

We now I am taking time off to have an operation. A part of my body decided to become cancerous, so I am having it taken out. Probably will not race the next series. Maybe something in August.

2009-06-27T09:42:00.000-07:00

Thursday, June 25, 2009 SYSCO Summer Series, Cruising Class, Race 4

Crew this week consisted of Bill, KD, and his son Hanoor. The wind was a little above the normal 6 to 10 knots of the previous the races. It was from the north west at buoy 2 but north north west at buoy 14.

The race was C-2-14-B-C. A little longer than some races which attests to the wind speed for this race.

Although I brought my netbook and booted it and turned on the GPS and connected it to the netbook, I got distracted and did not start my SeaClear nor my track, so I don't have data like I do on my other races. I miss it.

We started with the pack. The horn went off when we were 2 boat lengths from starting C mark. We were on starboard tack in traffic. We tacked after Cepheron moved in front of us from leeward. The father-son team was new to trimming the head sail. We tacked and lost some while they learned the process. Meanwhile we were still in traffic. Another boat was leeward and was requesting room because he had a boat to leeward who was pushing him. We tacked at the levy to starboard and then went down river until the concrete wall was abeam. Traffic was thinning and we were coming clear. We tacked to port and had to dodge one boat on starboard tack. Then we were clear to go to the wall where we tacked to starboard ourselves and then made the mark. On rounding we went to port tack broad reach with the boom to starboard. We sailed that way for a quarter mile when we jibbed over to the middle of the river. We then jibbed back to port broad reach at the middle of the river. On hindsight, we turned up river too soon and should have gone further over to the Oregon side. The wind fluctuated and started coming more from astern so I asked Bill to put up the pole. We just got the pole up and the wind veered north and started to back wind the head sail. Down came the pole. We had a nice beam reach for a quarter mile. The big boys were all rounding buoy 14 and we had to sail through them to the mark. We went to starboard tack after the leeward mark to make B mark. I kept her high so that we could make the mark on starboard tack, which we did. We rounded the mark and kept her on port broad reach to the finish.

By the end of the race the father son team was working better together. Bill was very good with the main. I asked him to stay in the cabin opening and that worked well. I did not have to step around him when tacking. He seemed comfortable with that.

I am going to have to take the cunningham lines, I rigged, off the sail. They get in the way for when we need to de-power the fully battened main. I have asked twice now of two different people if they could put the pin in the cunningham grommet. Bill noted the grommet is set back and would not allow the sail to be pinned at the base of the boom. I am going to have to look at the situation and see what can be done. The cunningham is suppose to take the depth out of the main, so the cunningham hole should be set aft a bit to pull the sail flatter.

2009-06-20T15:46:00.000-07:00

Thursday, June 18, 2009 SYSCO Summer Series, Race 3.

It wasn't. I did have 4 other team members show up. We raised the main. Motored to the committee boat. Anchored and sat until 7:45. The motored back to the marina. Nice time. Good conversation.
Second time I have used my anchor.

2009-06-13T13:42:00.000-07:00

Thursday, June 11, 2009 SYSCO Summer Series, Race 2

No crew showed up. I did the race single handed. Winds were light to moderate, ranging from 4 to 8 knots. The course was C - 2 - 14 - C. I started on starboard tack. I had a late start, about 1 minute. I tacked at the coffer dam at the east end of Tomahawk Island. Just before the next tack the wind headed me when I was on port tack. Looking at the plot of the race, the heading did not help with speed. Once I tacked, I actually went faster. Note to self: tack sooner near the Washington shore. Starboard tack was short. I tacked when I had the concrete wall abeam. Then another short starboard tack to round the mark. I set the main to starboard and engaged the autohelm. I set the pole to port and went wing on wing ab out a mile. Then I dropped my pole. The wind was back winding the head sail occasionally and would come abeam occasionally. So I sailed a broad reach for about a half mile. I then jibbed toward the center of the river. I joined up with Dew Drop Inn who had remained wing on wing and heading straight for 14. I rounded 14 and took a starboard tack to the finish.

Two unusual sightings this race:

A peregrine falcon circled about 60 feet above my mast 2/3 thirds down the down wind leg of the race. She/He was a beautiful bird.

When going by the committee boat (CB), I followed a 20 footer being helmed by a woman, who kept looking back at me with an apprehensive look. I kept clear of her. I was back about 6 feet from her stern. We were going less than a knot COG. She passed the committee boat and I was trying to get my course when everyone on the CB yelled at me to stop. The 20 foot sail boat had not cleared the CB and the current had washed her up on the bow of the CB. When they yelled I put Aventura hard astern, which kicked my stern to port and pointed me out and away from all the carnage. I took a short loop around to get the last letter of the course as I was distracted by all the commotion. When I joined the line again, I was about 5 boat lengths away from the CB. I noticed the sail boat was just clearing the stern of the CB. A gentleman had jumped aboard and taken the rudder off the stern, which made the boat swing on the line that had been attached to the CB.

Another item of interest for me was that I had a GPS chart plotter aboard, finally. I have an ASUS EEEPC 1000HD. I reloaded the Linux distribution from the XANDROS to the Debian EEEPC 5.0.1. Bill said he is using SeaClear software successfully, so I down loaded it and loaded it to the netbook and my desktop. I had to install wine, version 1.0.1-1 on the netbook. I also downloaded all the NOAA charts, but I really worked on chart # 18531 Columbia River Vancouver to Bonneville. I used gimp, version 2.6.6 on my desktop which is loaded with the Fedora 9 Linux Distribution. I also loaded SeaClear on that, too and my wine version on the desktop is 1.1.14. I chopped up the chart into 3 pieces. I then chopped the top part in two. I used the MapCal executable to calibrate and convert the chart to the SeaClear's WCI format. I then transfered the chart to my netbook. The one trick I had to do to my wine installation is to link dos devices. In the ~/.wine/dosdevices directory link com1 to /dev/ttyUSB0 and com2 to /dev/ttyUSB1.

My GPS device is a Lowrance IFinder. I set the com port to 9600 baud and format to NEMA. I have a data cable that has a 12 volt power plug and a D9 serial terminal. I have a serial to USB converter. I also used a USB extension so I could put the netbook in a safe place. The IFinder is mounted just inside the cabin on the starboard hand gripe panel.

Everything worked just fine. I started recording my track just after I got my main up or about 6:00. I had 10% battery life in the netbook when I turned it off at about 9. Normally the system has a five hour battery life, but this GPS charting must be taxing. Since this was the first time ever for a track, I took the defaults and just turned it on. The points are too sparse. So this morning, I reread the manual and discovered the place to change the settings. Now I should have a better plot next week.

2009-06-06T12:47:00.000-07:00

Thursday June 2, 2009, SYSCO Summer Series Race 1

It wasn't. There was a humongous wind, lightening, and thunder storm blowing through Portland between 4 PM and 5:30 PM. Remnants were still here at 6:15.

We drove from Hillsboro unsuspecting that any real storm was about. When we reached the St. Johns neighbourhood, the wind started up furiously. All sorts of dust and debris were being blown from the south east. Very strange weather pattern for Portland.

We got to the boat and all was well. One boat in the marina had a head sail unfurl. Mine was OK. Bill was in his boat. We retired to inside the cabin. We decided to go ahead and eat dinner and have a beer. No race committee boat would brave these conditions to set up the race. After dinner we drove home. That was it for the race.

2009-05-31T19:58:00.000-07:00

Thursday May 28, 2009 SYSCO Spring Series, Cruising-S class

Race course was long: 14-2-R-2-X-14

We had two no shows in crew. They did say they weren't coming before hand. Chuck did show up. Thanks Chuck. While we were eating our sandwiches, I noticed a boat coming in a few slips away and helped the guy dock. He thanked me and on a whim, I asked him if he would like to crew on the race. This can be very scary to pick up crew off the dock. You don't know what you get. Of course, I have put all my crew together that way. It really did work out. Bill is his name. He owns the O'Day 25 3 slips away from us in Tomahawk Bay Marina. We got under way without incident.

The wind was not quite the roar it was last week. But it was forecast as 10 knots. So I wanted to put in the cunningham. Did not want to reef. I had rigged a “jiffy” reefing into the cunningham. The line got in the way. We ended up tying the line to the clamshell cleats' frame on top of the cabin. We sailed to the committee boat. It only took 20 minutes from buoy 2 to 14 with the main sail only. We got the course and made a few runs on the start to gauge timing. On

We nailed the start. We were in the middle of the start line in clear air. Some of the big boys tried to crowd the buoy for the start and missed the mark and had to go around. We stayed on starboard tack for about a quarter mile, then tacked to port. Came up to the barge and tacked again. Most of the other boats had to tack 5 times to get to the mark, too. We ran down river until the concrete wall was abeam and tacked to port again. We rounded the mark and set the pole to port. Sailed broad reach to R. We were grossly over sailed and surfed along. We has let out the head sail all the way. At one time we were passing larger boats. We got overlapped with Cepheron a 33' C&C within 5 boat lengths of the mark and we were windward. He claimed leeward rights and I corrected him that he may have leeward rights but I have mark room rights and he must allow me room to round the mark. Which we did just as a J24 was coming up port tack. I gave him just enough room and rounded the mark and headed toward mid-channel on starboard tack. We tacked for the concrete wall on port tack. We tacked to starboard when the mark came abeam. We made the mark handily, but jibbed wildly and spun around until we were heading in the wrong direction. We got ourselves straightened out but not before letting a lot of boats get ahead of us. We do have to work on our windward roundings. We tried broad reaching for a little but it kept us too close to the Washington side. We could not go over the finish/start line during this leg so we headed for the Oregon side of the river where we jibbed under control this time. We tried broad reaching again but the head sail was being shadowed and loosing power. We set the pole again on the same side of as the boom. This did alright, but I am not going to do that set again. I think the wing on wing set is faster. We were even caught and passed by La Dolce Vida. We rounded the leeward mark, X, and stayed on port tack until the committee boat was abeam. We tacked and finished the race.

Things to remember:
Putting the cunningham in the main sail was good. The boat went just as fast but was much calmer.
We reefed the head sail 75% but after the first rounding we let it out. Since the second and third upwind legs were short, we just left it out.
The wind at Buoy 14 seems less strong than at Buoy 2. It also shifted westward.

Things to repair this weekend:
Boom Kicker. Replaced the 7mm pop rivets with heli-coils, and 1/4-20 SS screws. Added anti-seize compound to help prevent corrosion.
Discovered a very obvious leak at the chain plates. Big problem with the San Juans. The plates come up through a hole cut in the deck. So whenever there is stress put on the plates the deck moves and the caulking separates. I found some very flexible all-weather caulking at Home Depot. I took out a gallon of water from under the port side settee. Maybe the boat may stay dry this Thursday. Might not be a good test. The winds are forecast at 6 to 7 knots.
The mounting on the battery monitor needed fixing.
The propane tank holder had worked its way out of its harness. I put that back.

Things to fix:
The not knot meter.

2009-05-24T07:21:00.000-07:00

Thursday's Cruising Class Race on May 21, 2009

Nice wind this evening. It was up a couple of knots. Somewhere above 10.

We got out there a little late. Raised the main with no troubles (used the main halyard the first time, this time). Then the boom kicker decided to part from the mast. The base of the kicker was pop riveted to the mast. Six 1/4 inch pop rivets held the kicker. It just gently popped off. Todd, Rick, and Chuck quickly rigged the boom vang directly on to the mast step and the original vang fitting on the boom. They tied a short extension to the vang line because it was no longer long enough to go to the clam cleat on the cabin top.

Right after taking care of that little incident, we roll out the jib and one of the lazy jax lines fouls the jib sheet. Not a great start to the evening. We sailed past the committee boat after rolling in the head sail. The course is C B 14 B C. The wind is out of the west north west at, as I said earlier, about 10 knots and rising.

We made a run to 14 for a practice rounding and then tacked back to past the starting line. We made the middle of the coffer dam. We also reefed the head sail. Discovered that the cleat for the head sail will not hold the line and jury rigged a knot to another cleat. Something else I need to fix. Since B is further north, our strategy was to immediately tack to the middle of the river and head to the mark.

Rick procured a $3 program for his ipod to time race starts. It's a count down timer. He programmed it earlier to start timing at the first warning. This timing is always troublesome to new racers. I remember having problems keeping it straight when I crewed the first couple of years. Rick had the same problem this evening. We had a discussion on start timing and even ran a practice run on the starting mark.

Started on time.	Start sequence is (min):
6:30 first warning	20
6:31 four minute warning for the first race	19
6:34 one minute warning for the first race.	16
6:35 start of first race.	15
6:36 four minute warning for the second race.	14
6:39 one minute warning for the second race	11
6:40 start of second race	10
6:41 four minute warning for the third race.	9
6:44 one minute warning for the third race.	6
6:45 start of third race.	5
6:46 four minute warning for the fourth race. ( Usually us )	4
6:49 one minute warning for the fourth race.	1
6:50 start of the fourth race.	0

He added another 5 minute interval or started his clock late. So he interpolated the start time. We were about 10 second early. But I ran the start line until I heard the buzzer. At least I thought I ran the line. Once the race started we tacked to the middle of the river. The rest of the fleet was late to the mark and we were clear of them. We were third boat to the mark, which is saying something when we are one of the "s" fleet. We went into a starboard broad reach and were in the big boys. The eventually caught up and passed us, but not with some close sailing. One boat passed me and kept getting in my way. Once past he my bow was behind his beam, he felt he could ignore me as he thought I was now overtaking him. The rules do state that a boat is approaching from behind 22.5 degrees a beam, but I still think that it is only when the boat is going faster than the leading boat which was passing all along. Anyway once I was clear of his stern I moved over to blanket him and kept on sailing. We stayed on the port tack after rounding the mark until the middle of the river and then took the starboard tack to the mark. We were surprised by Barcode again who made it to the windward mark ahead of us. We rounded the mark and jibed to a port broad reach and finished behind Dew Drop Inn and Barcode.

After the race we checked in with the committee boat to see if we had crossed the starting line early. They said we had. But a bottle of rum might undo it. We were crestfallen. I even told coworkers the next day that we had been disqualified, but upon checking the standings we were again third and with no mention of our supposed transgression. Somebody just wanted some rum.

Things we would do differently:
1. Come to starboard tack off the leeward mark and try to make the windward mark on this wind. The wind was clocking northward and was very strong. Seeing Barcode make the mark on his starboard tack. I did not need the extra speed from the middle of the river as it made us overpowered in this strong wind. We could have luffed to make the mark and not waste the tacking to the middle of the river.
2. We are still learning the timing of the start. We were a little early, but it worked out.
3. We should have rigged the mainsail's cunningham in this wind. Remind me when I say "Should we reef", we should at least rig the cunningham. That takes only a foot off the main, but moves the center of effort forward so we can keep course better in the puffs.

I thank the team as they work hard during the race. Now to go to the boat and fix the kicker. Always something on this old boat.

2009-05-16T08:05:00.000-07:00

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Results are not up, but we did finish tied with Dew Drop Inn. DDI is in our class.

We added a new crew member, Todd. He bought Rick's 23' San Juan. We had 4 crew this evening. The added crew helped on setting the pole, but made the cockpit crowded during mark rounding and coming about. More on that later. I divided up the roles after asking the crew if they had preferences. Rick on the foredeck. Chuck as grinder. Todd as trailer. Myself on the helm. The race was C-2-C-2-C with a northwest wind that averaged 6-8 knots.

Rick used his phone blackberry for timing this evening and we had a much better start. We were no more than 20 seconds behind the horn. But Second Half was to our leeward and kept us from getting in the groove by keeping us luffing. We sailed this way for quite a while until Second Half pulled out in front of us by a half boat length and I could get the boat back into its groove. (Note to self, check rules to see if I had to luff or could have stay on the course in this situation.) We made time on the others and tacked for the concrete wall that marks a great place to tack to starboard for the windward mark, buoy 2. We rounded the mark and went into a port board reach that would lull into a beam reach. We headed directly to the leeward mark, C. After a quarter mile we put up the pole to starboard to widen the gap between the main and head sail. This seemed to help in speed. The wind would gust to broad reach and lull to a beam reach. We decided to stay on port tack after rounding the mark and go out to the middle of the river and take advantage of the midstream current. The wind was starting to die off a bit, but still very nice. Again we tacked to the concrete wall. Tacked again to the mark where we had our mishap.

Rounding the mark, I got the tiller fouled with line and could not turn. We added about 3 boat lengths downstream to the race while I freed the tiller and finally turned. We set the pole as we did the first downwind leg and headed directly for the mark. That's when Dew Drop Inn caught up to us and we finished in a dead heat.

I don't think setting the pole on the same side as the boom bought us anything. I am going to set the pole opposite side as the boom. It was close to the broad reach, but not quite.

The placement of the crew during rounding or other activity when there are 4 crew is important. The foredeck/main sheet trimer needs to be out of the cockpit and standing on the engine cover in the cabin. This allows enough room for the helmsman to cross between the winches and cabin and still gives him access to the mainsheet. The grinder and trailer or at the back of the cockpit. The grinder is at the leeward winch releasing the leeward sheet while the trailer is on the windward sheet at the start of the tack. The call for "Ready to come about" is given. The coming about is not started until the skipper hers everyones "Ready". "Helms alee" and the helmsman puts the helm to leeward. He moves over to the future windward side to be able to see the telltales. The grinder holds the gib sheet long enought to allow the sail to back wind a bit, then releases and guides the line. The trailer hauls in the line. Meanwhile the foredeck/main sheet man makes sure the main is in place. The helmsman is in the best position to lock the traveler. The grinder moves over with the winch and makes the final adjustments. Finally we are on the other tack.

2009-05-03T11:34:00.000-07:00

SYSCO Spring Series Race Number 2, April 30, 2009

This race was started late. Although the wind was invited to attend at 6:30, it decided not to appear until 7:00. Our race started at 7:20. Again we lined up for a starboard tack across the line at the committee boat end. We timed that but after watching the first start, we decided to start on a port tack from the other side of the river, or on the mark side of the starting line.

We had a better idea of the start time this time, but still go too far down stream and down wind from the start. We were about 1 minute 30 seconds late on our start, but everyone else was too. Still would like to get better starts. We could go upstream on the port tack, but were limited on on our distance due to the 150' out of bounds area in front of the marina. We had to tack to starboard. On starboard tack all we could do was cross the river. We went about to half way across then tacked to port. We were planning on only doing one more tack to reach the windward mark, Buoy 14. I estimate we tacked two boat lengths too soon on this tack. This would have given us room to make the mark, but again we tacked to avoid the out of bounds area and were about ½ boat length of making the mark. We came to within 2 feet of the mark and did not touch. We had to do another tack to port in order to gain distance to come about again and head for the leeward mark. But time caught up with us. Poncho came around with the checker finish flag and called the race just as the sun was going down over the west hills at 8:00 PM.

The team did great work coming about. They were getting tired toward the end and were not as snappy as at the beginning.

Things I would do different: Stay closer to starting line when wind is with the current. It is much easier to idle on one spot and then start than continue to run at the line from a distance. I would continue on the port tack across the river more. That would have given us more cushion in avoiding the out of bounds area near the marinas.

2009-04-25T08:56:00.000-07:00

Thursday, April 23, 2009, SYSCO Spring Series, Cruising Class

This was the first race of the SYSCO Spring Series, Team Aventura's first race as my boat, too.

Introducing the team:
Skipper, me
trailer, topping lift, Chuck
foredeck and grinder, Rick

We all arrived early, 4:50 PM. Traffic from Hillsboro was light. I pick up Chuck at the Orenco Station. He was able to get his meeting finished early. He has a 3:00 PM meeting scheduled Thursdays and most meetings are scheduled for an hour and usually fill the time. This getting done early is a good sign.

When we arrived at the boat, I found I had left the running lights on. I hope I did not confuse my fellow boaters. I hope none of them took evasive actions to avoid the docked boat underway. Rick the other team member had already dropped of the sandwiches, but was not at the boat.

After sandwiches and all the excitement of getting underway, we were out on the water by 5:15. Wind was about 6-8 knots. So we wanted to sail. We got the sail cover off and started to haul the main sail, but the main halyard would not budge. We even put it on the winch and still not budge. We disconnect the shackle from the sail and tried snapping the line in and out to free it at the sheave. We decided to go back to the mooring and go up the mast to free the line. I had just turned the boat around and was looking around, contemplating going up the mast when I noticed the main halyard still shackled to the starboard outer shroud. The "Ahah" moment and the palm on the forehead slap. "Hey, guys, you used the topping lift instead of the main halyard." After head shaking and switching the lines, the main went up normally. The rest of the night will go much more easily now that we have made our first mistake of many.

We sail down to the committee boat (CB). By the time we arrived at the CB, they were handing out rosters. We got in line and got it. Our boat was not on the roster. I told the team I had been contacted by SYSCO Race Captain, and I was told I would be able to race. We circled around again, because we were so busy getting the roster, we did not observe the race board to get the course, which turned out to be C-B-14-R-B-C. Nice course.

Next order of business was to get our start lined up. I needed to practice a run at the start and figure out timing. We found a spot by lining up on marks ashore on both sides of the river and I spotted the I-5 bridge tower and the shore. We took a run at the start and timed it at 1:45 minutes. Ok, that's how we will start. I explained the flags on the CB at little, but not nearly enough. The races start in 5 minute intervals with the cruising class starting in the 4th start at 6:40. We had setup to do the standard starboard tack start on the north end of the starting line. We milled around waiting for the race. I assign one crew to watch for boats and the other to do the timing. The first and second races start. They looked like normal starts, except one poor soul had got entangled on the north mark in the first start.

About the start of the second race, I noticed a barge coming down stream. In fact, its timing was going to place it at our line up point of where we practiced. Well, so much for practicing. Then our timer accidently hit a button on the stopwatch and stopped the timing. We had to rely on my gestimate using my wrist watch. We got over in the crowd milling up for the start of our race. The problem with the river is that the current is always down stream. The wind is usually upstream. This night was no exception. So to line up facing down stream in reasonable shape to get to the start without sailing over the starting line before the horn is the problem.

We started OK. We were about 5 boat lengths from the line at the horn. We were in company and started on starboard tack. We headed for the North Channel. We were above Cirrius II, we gained on her by blanketing her wind. We tacked nicely to line up about 7 to 8 boat lengths from B to establish overlap on starboard tack. We were leeward and we could make the mark and claim "mark room". We rounded the mark amongst traffic and threaded our way between boats. We set the pole to port on a starboard tack wing on wing. We headed straight up river to the downwind mark of Buoy 14. We managed to stay in clear air and gain on boats.

Approaching 14, we got Rick up on the foredeck and instructed him to take the pole off the mast and hold it out to get ready to let the sail go. We signaled that and rounded the mark with at least 5 feed to spare. We headed to the Washington side on port tack. Could not make the mark on the next tack and thus headed some more on starboard tack. But when I got to where I wanted to tack, there was a boat two boat lengths astern and two boatlengths to windward. Both of us were on starboard tack, but to get to the mark we had to go to port tack in front of the other boat. We were gaining a bit, but would not be able to tack before the mark. The other boat would have to tack, too to make the mark. Instead of waiting for the other boat to tack, we tacked. The other boat did the right thing, (Thank you other boat) and tacked to avoid collision. He asked if we were going to take our penalty 360. I did not hesitate and said yes. Looked around and we were clear of any boats and promply pushed the pulled the tiller windward. The boat spun on its keel. We did not change the sail set. We at first gained speed when we spun downwind and then rounding up lost speed until the head sail back winded and pulled the bow to port tack. We lost maybe 30 seconds on that maneuver. We were back on our course and ready to tack to the mark. Looking around I discovered the other boat on a port tack also, but heading away from the mark in the wrong and not closing in the mark. We had gained boat lengths on that boat with this maneuver.

We rounded mark R but did not have to change course that much to head to mark B, our next to last mark. That mark is not as clear in because there was less traffic. We set the pole to port again to run to the finish line. We finished sixth or seventh and were the first less than 30' boat across the line. I thanked and bowed to the committe boat. Rang the ships bell. High fives all around. Good job team.

Rethinking the race, the down wind mark at 14 could have been handled better. If be used that like the start, we could have come about on starboard tack and eliminated an additional tack and the fortunate penalty.

2009-03-29T12:01:00.000-07:00

I am back and the racing season is too. I participated as crew in the SYSCO Frost Bite Regatta. It was good to be with last years skipper and crew. The regatta never got started. We left the marina about 10:15 and motored until 12:45 when the committee boat did three blasts of their horn and took down the orange and blue flags. The rain was pretty light, but steady. The wind was non-existent.

I met the diver yesterday at 9. He inspected the zinc on the propeller shaft and said it was in good shape so we did not replace it. He then cleaned the bottom of Aventura. She had 3 inches of growth at the waterline on the sunny side of the boat.

I got the bottom cleaned because I have found 3 more team member who have committed to the SYSCO Spring Racing Series. We will be doing the Thursday night cruising class races. We will be practising April 9th and meeting for the first time. Should be very interesting.

2008-10-20T21:15:00.000-07:00

Saturday, October 18th.

Two or three weeks ago, our slip neighbor mentioned a cruise. He said that the Hunter Club was going to go to Coon Island for the weekend of the 18th and 19th. Hannah said that sounded great. Of course this was on one of those beautiful October days when the sun shines and the wind was light. It was warm with just a hint of the coming rains and cold weather lingering in the shadows.

Fast forward to Friday the 17th. Our group at work was awarded a 1/2 day off about three weeks ago. We could take the time off when ever we could arrange coverage, so. The 17th was like the day the trip was announced. Hannah and I had talked and she was willing. I was able to find coverage and took the afternoon off. I did the grocery shopping for the week and the trip. Since Hannah could not take the day off, I figured we could get an early start and join the cruise midway. No problem.

I awake Saturday and move into action. I said I wanted to be underway by 11. This would give us plenty of time to get to the Island. I figured on motoring the whole way as Hannah is not into really sailing. I wanted plenty of sunlight cushion so that we could get to the island in daylight. About 10:00 I have everything ready to pack in the car. I ask Hannah if she is ready and she announces that she will be ready by 11 or 11:30. I am taken aback. Well, OK, that takes a little of the cushion away, but OK. So we finally get the car packed, the cat medicated, and the dog loaded and are underway to the marina at 11:15.

The drive takes 25 minutes. But we need to have lunch. So we stop at the Taco Bell on Hayden Island. While turning into the Bell, we notice quite a few people walking from the Red Lion. We thought we were ahead of the group, but upon parking and walking to the Bell, we find the line just inside the door is about 20 people. We don't want to wait for that and get back into the car. But now we need to fix lunch at the dock, because we can't cook or fix lunch underway. So we fix soup and sandwich and eat lunch. Time is ticking.

Lunch is finished. I clean up the dishes. Finally, I can start the engine. I take care of the bow, spring, and stern lines. I push the boat out. All this time a 10 knot breeze is blowing. The last time we took out in a breeze this strong, I had to back out of the fairway. I did not want to do that this time. So I take some extra tugs and get forward of the shrouds. Normally I would have stepped aboard at the shrouds, but this time I tried to step aboard and the first stanchion. I got part way and got stuck. Hannah drops the tiller and comes to my aid, but my sized defeats any efforts she does. I finally move my hand to where I could get leverage and lift myself aboard. But not after the boat encounters our slipmate. (Sorry, Scott) I get up and move over to fend off the boat. No damage, just damage to my pride.

Great we are underway. Two thirds down the fairway, we pass a power boater who is standing in his cabin looking aft as we pass his stern. He yells out that it is not a good day to travel for power boats, but an excellent day for sail boaters. I smile. Hannah dives below and gets her felt hat, gloves and heavy coat. I check my watch, 12:30. Only 1 1/2 hours later than I wanted. If the trip truly takes us the estimated 4 hours, then that would put us there at 4:30. That is if we don't run into anything unexpected like the railroad bridge taking 1/2 hour to open.

We turn out of the marina and I see another San Juan 28, close hauled on a starboard tack heading straight for her berth in Hayden Bay Marina. Sanity is a beautifully maintained 28. She looked grand, but the point of sail meant that I could not sail to the bridge. I would have to motor. The wind was colder than it had been earlier in the marina. I saw another sailboat on a port tack close hauled crossing the river. This meant that sailing would be arduous. I got this bad feeling that this trip would be a slogg. Besides, the bumpers were still hanging from port side.

I looked again at the 28. And then looked at the other sail boats. I got this bad feeling about the trip. That's when I turned the boat back into the marina, docked. We went for a walk on the newly opened beach east of the marina. After 1/2 an hour we went back to the boat. Unpacked her, loaded the car and drove home. There will be another season. More trips. Sunny days.

Sunday we went to the Art Museum to view the pictures of the Columbia, which turned out to be pictures of the gorge and not of the entire Columbia. Old pictures at that. I am standing there looking at a picture when a man approached me and asked, "Didn't I see you leave the Tomahawk Bay Marina, yesterday?" I had to say, yes, and it was too windy for me, even.

2008-09-07T09:11:00.000-07:00

Sailed Saturday. Wind was up to 15 knots out of the west northwest. Only rolled out the head sail and zoomed up the river. Invited a friend along who just took over the helm and guided us to buoy 14 and then we turned around and came right back. We were only gone for an hour.

Discovered battery 1 will not start the engine. Need to replace that one, now. I replaced battery 2 this spring. It worked.

2008-08-30T16:59:00.000-07:00

The Vacation

Week One

Cruise to Learn

Saturday: Day one elementary keel boat. When I booked this week, I thought it included meals and was suppose to be an easy week of learning to sail and cruise a 30-40 foot sloop. What we got was quite different. The first two days of the week were grueling. We were grouped with 20-somethings who had great energy. I am in my sixties and my wife in her fifties. We just did not have the energy needed to keep up with the course. The first day we did 10 to 15 man-overboard operations which entailed dropping a bumper, then going into a beam reach, once everyone was assigned a role, we would come about and go into a broad reach to get downwind of the bumper, then harden up to a close reach and stall the boat to come to a stop slightly upwind from the bumper.

Actually, the class was very thorough. We started with just the main and sailed all points of sail. Then added the head sail. I have been sailing for quite a while, but a suggestion to feel the wind on my face was completely new to me. I was very mechanical in sail adjustment and used the tell tales to determine the direction of the boat, but did not fully appreciate the other wind direction clues. Looking at the water was one, the wind on the face and ears are another, the windex at the top of the mast is another, the luffing of sails yet another.

We were ready to go home on Saturday night. Both of us were bone weary. But after a night's sleep, we tried another day. The second day was almost a grueling as the first, but just as illuminating. We were sailing in very light air. A sailboat race just a mile away was on hold due to lack of wind, but we were sailing. Carl Richardson, our instructor, showed us how to adjust the sails to make them work better in light air. When the wind came up after lunch, he showed us how to flatten the sails to de-power them for the higher wind speeds. After the two days of sailing we were bushed. The twenty somethings were still ready to go. We were bushed, again. Carl made us take the test, anyway. Both of us passed.

The rest of the week was dedicated to two courses for us, the Coastal Cruising Standard (ASA 103) and Bareboat Chartering Standard (ASA 104). The week was a voyage from False Creek, Vancouver, BC, to Desolation Sound and back to Powell River. There were three days of 33 miles each, the fourth day was only 10 miles, and the final day was another 30 miler back to Powell River with a flight back to Vancouver. Another couple joined us for this part of the class, Darren and Banu. Darrin is a engineer contractor working for Boeing. Banu was from Turkey, Darren from England.

The first anchorage was in Smuggler Cove. After anchoring, Carl took Darin and me to the marina store a mile away in the dinghy. He bought fishing gear and beer. The “girls” fixed dinner. We took turns fixing meals. Carl had his idea of a balanced diet. Breakfast was yogurt and fruit. Lunch was turkey and cheese wraps. Dinners were more varied. We had told him that we did not eat red meat, but he brought two dinners of red meat. Hannah and I managed to substitute turkey and chicken for the red meat main dishes which made more for the other three.

Beside the usual instructions we had some additional lessons to learn on this trip. The first day's addition lessen was to keep more than just one boat length between you and any crab float. I was at the helm and thought I had at least a boat length, but I managed to get a float tangled in the propeller. Darrin, our savior, dove in the water and freed the float that was looped around the propeller. The second lesson was that leaky propane hose connections are not fixed with fancy tape. We ended up getting a replacement at Powell River on the third day. We had to get a taxi to the propane supplier and obtain a new hose with an adapter. We had presence of mind to ask the attendant to goop the adapter, but not ask her to tighten the adapter to the hose end. Back at the boat, I discovered that the adjustable wrenches we had were too wide to fit between the adapter and connector, thus preventing me from getting a good purchase on the hose to tighten the adapter to the hose. I jury rigged a large crimper to tighten the hose to the adapter. I checked everything with a soap solution to be sure it did not leak. The third lesson is never, never let go of the main halyard. The line is heavy enough inside the mast to raise the halyard out of reach. Again, Darrin to the rescue. Carl and I raised him in the bosun's chair to bring down the halyard. Of course this last incident happened on our way into Powell River about an hour before our flight was due to leave. We made the flight in plenty of time.

Friday night to Sunday Afternoon

We had dinner at Granville Isle in Vancouver and then drove to Bellingham Friday night. We stayed there for two nights in order to recuperate. Both of us were just to tired to shop and go to Friday Harbor to pick up our charter on Saturday. We visited our cousins and had a lunch with them on Saturday and they were very kind and fixed us breakfast on Sunday. We shopped at the Co-op and Trader Joes in Bellingham for our two week charter on Trofast.

Week Two:

We made the ferry at 3:00 on Sunday and arrived at Friday Harbor a little after 4:00. Trofast was moored in the marina next to the ferry terminal. We did a little checking on the boat that evening and made dinner that night on the boat. What a pleasure to get back to our kind of food. Salad, fish or fowl, a vegetable or corn or potato or rice, and a salad. We discovered packets of precooked rice at Trader Joes that are perfect for a boat. Just heat and serve the rice, no boiling, no ½ hour to fix. Plus the packets do not require refrigeration before opening. Monday, we made the manager and her helper take us for a check out cruise. That was when we discovered the main sail needed repair. We also noticed that there was a fresh water leak in the hoses to the heads sink. This caused the pressure pump to cycle every 8 minutes. Mike, the hired hand, spent the morning fixing that leak and did a very nice job. He even fixed a related leak in the hot water line that was caused by it rubbing up against the exhaust manifold. He tied the hoses back so they would not be able to do that again. They also took the main sail to the sail loft for repair. It would not be back until 10:00 AM Tuesday morning. We had dinner out at the Downriggers. It was just above Trofast.

Tuesday

It rained. We stayed in port and read. We went for a walk in the evening when the rain broke and happened upon the community theater where a four piece group from New England was playing. We went and had a very pleasant evening.

Wednesday and Thursday

We motored to Jones Island early so that we could get a mooring ball. We also were given a crab trap and I obtained a license for $35. We bought some bait for $6 Tuesday in Friday Harbor. Since it was Wednesday, I could set the trap, which I did. I set the trap just outside of North Cove a bit. We dinghied into shore and hiked the island, very pretty and pleasant hike.

The lesson today was that leaks can occur on a poorly maintained boat. Trofast had a bad leak which I noticed before we left but the problem did not register with me until we got to Jones Island. The automatic bilge pump was pumping about a cup of seawater every 30 seconds. I first thought it to be the packing gland. I looked at it and it was dripping a drop of water every ½ second. I searched the tool box for tools to adjust the gland and could not find any working tool. I found one monkey wrench which had been left in the bilge. It was salted up and rusted to an unusable state. I went up to the cockpit and looked around for a fellow sailor. The universe was kind to me and about that time another Catalina 34 was nosing around North Cove for a mooring. I hailed the skipper and asked if he had tools to adjust the packing gland. He said he had and would come over right after he anchored. He did. We adjusted the gland so that it did no leak when stationary. It dripped a drop every 45 seconds when I put the boat in reverse. Perfect. I offered the man a beer which he accepted. We sat in the cockpit and chatted for a little when he said that he knew me. We had worked together in the Bremerton Naval Shipyard and told me his name. Sure enough. He had been my manager for a couple of years about 25 years ago. I had not recognized him, but he had me. We talked about old times and new times. He said he was a failure at retirement. He went out and got a part time job and had to interrupt his cruising and go on a business trip the following week.

After he left, we went down inside and Hannah could still hear water running. I opened the bilge and say water running from the starboard aft. I opened the access under the galley sink and water as streaming over the water heater. Getting lower to see above the water heater, I saw that the hose to the galley sink had parted from the sink drain fixture. Someone had used duct tape to secure the hose to the fixture. The hose had parted from the fixture and fallen below the water line and was letting sea water in at an alarming rate. I closed the thru-hull and studied the problem. On my earlier search for tools I noticed a large hose clamp in the tool box. I disconnected the drain fixture from the sinks. This was simple as only hand fasteners are used. The hose would fit into the fixture with a very snug fit, but there was nothing holding the hose in but that pressure. I put a slit in the drain fixture so that the clamp would deform the end to capture the hose. I clamped the hose and tried to put back the knife drawer which allowed easy access to the drain. The clamp interfered with the drawer. I rotated the clamp to give clearance and the drawer went in with no interference from the clamp. I opened the thru-hull and was finished with that repair.

That evening sitting in the cockpit I got a message on my cell. The coverage was very spotty in the anchorage. I could get a signal only on the stern and only when the boat was oriented in a particular direction. I tried calling back the party. We had asked them the previous week if they would like to join us for an afternoon sail. The party had a four seat twin engine plane and would like to fly his wife and another couple up to join us in an afternoon of sailing. We had stayed at the couple's house on our way up to Vancover, the Thursday before this vacation. After much maneuvering we finally got contact the next day and made arrangements to meet them in Friday Harbor on Friday afternoon.

It rained again on Thursday, so we spent the day reading and watching nature.

Friday

I dinghied out to the crap trap and pulled it up. I had caught a big starfish. It spanned 18”. I threw it overboard with the bait. I hope it enjoyed it. The state of Washington has a great scam going for it. $34 for a non-resident license, $5 for bait, and not having to provide any crabs. We did not see anyone bring in any crab on this trip. We did talk to a few people who said they caught crab, but that and fish stories are not dissimilar.

We made it back to Friday Harbor by 11:00. The group arrived about 12:45. The airport is walking distance to the marina. They walked down from the airport. We had obtained sandwiches. They brought some snacks and beer. So we got underway almost immediately. We sailed toward Jones Island and back. Winds were light. The sun was peeking around clouds, which made the day warm enough to be comfortable but not hot. Very nice sail. We got back to Friday Harbor about 5:15 and went to dinner at Vinnie's which is up the hill and back off spring street. Good food. We walked back to the airport and watched them take off. Nice day.

Saturday

We had been living on Trofast for a week, now and went over to the pumpout station. There was a big power boat using the pumpout. They said they were taking quite a while because the pumper was very slow. They suggested using the portable pumpout. I went and got it. But it did not work the way I thought it would and I had the valves in the wrong setting. It sort of exploded. But it did not get stuff all over. It just blew a circuit breaker. The power boat finished and we were able to pump out the tank. The pumpout would turn off after a few minutes, but all we had to do was cycle it. More on the tank later.

The power boat took its time to get started. After we had pumped out tank and was ready to get away, the power boar decided to get underway, too. So we waited for them. They finally moved and then it was our turn. We followed them out of the marina, until they stopped right in the marina's outlet. They seemed to be getting mooring instructions from a dock hand. They sat there blocking the outlet for a good five minutes. They finally moved.

We got out of the marina and headed for Stuart Island. We motored all the way. We went to Prevost Harbor. It was late, but there was plenty of room to anchor, but we choose a “Mooring Spar”. That's when we decided to go to the landing. Hannah had things to do. I got impatient and thought I would get into the dinghy. This would have been my 6th or 7th time, so I was not worried about going in. Well, I did. I tried a different way of entering the dinghy which was unfortunately incorrect. I fell in with my pack on my back. The automatic inflating PFD did. The pack I was wearing, instead of having it on the boat to be handed down to me to place in the boat once I was in it, got wet. The digital camera was in the pack. It did not get submerged, but did get damp. It has not worked since. Dumb move on my part. We decided to stay on the boat the rest of the day.

Sunday

We had to charge the battery using the engine. This meant running the engine for about an hour or until the charging started cycling. About that time I noticed a mooring ball much closer to the dinghy landing, so we moved to that. After the batteries were fully charged, we took great care in getting into the dinghy this time, and made a safe ride to the pier. We walked over to Reid Harbor and chatted with some nice folks from Seattle. We told them about my mishap the day before and the first thing they said was: “Do not turn the camera on until it is completely dry.” Too late, we had already turned on the camera.

We walked to Turning Point Lighthouse. The walk includes 150 steps, a couple of county gravel roads, and a couple of chests full of t-shirts, shirts, hats, and vests. The payment for which is done by honor system. Each garment has an envelop and price. We were instructed to mail a check or go to their website to pay for the items we took. We did.

The lighthouse was a collection of 100 year old buildings. The original lens was long since removed and replaced with a modern one that was not as interesting as some I have seen. I did notice all the cameras about. We were told they were monitored by Homeland Security.

Monday

I arranged for a slip at Dear Harbor. We hoped we could get a rearming kit for my PFD, but we were out of luck on that. The one inconvenience Trofast afforded us here, was that the power cord supplied with the 34' boat was only 30' long. Since we were bow in, we had to borrow a 50' cord.

Deer Harbor has a quaint little store at the marina. You can get beer, some staples, and a meal. We landed about noon, so we walked up to the Deer Harbor Inn only to find out it did not open until 4 PM. We trudged back to the marina and fixed ourselves lunch. We took it easy until dinner when we walked back up to the inn. The deck was full so we elected to eat inside which had a peculiar smell about it. We selected a window seat and asked if we could open the window, but it was painted shut. After five or ten minutes we no longer noticed the odor. We ordered seafood salad. It came after a long wait and was on the skimpy side. We were told that the salad included bread, which never came. We asked for bread when she delivered the salads, the waitress said she would bring some. We ate the salads slowly because we wanted some bread with them and we had all evening. The waitress came to clear the dishes and asked if everything was alright. We told her about the missing bread. She said she would look into it. She came back with an offer for desert on the house instead because the bread was hard as a brick. We had the berry cobbler. Still it would have been nice to have bread with our salad and the portion large enough for a dinner. After all the salad cost $17 each.

Tuesday

We rose early to get our laundry done and bought breakfast at the cafe on the dock. About 10 we got underway. The evening before we were chatting with the skipper next to us and watched this particularly artful docking and we both graded the docking on a scale of one to ten. So that skipper gave us a 4 for our maneuvering this morning. I thanked him and continued on our way to Sucia. Everything was going fine. I handed the helm over to Hannah while I straightened up the lines. Hannah screams we are on fire. I came aft from the bow where I was working and discovered the engine room steaming. Hannah thought we were on fire and was trying to remember where the fire extinguishers were. I told her to stop the engine. She turned off the ignition. I pulled the fuel stop. I had a good idea what was wrong immediately. I check the thru-hull for the fresh water cooling and sure enough, when I check the strainer that morning, I had not reopened the valve. I opened it. I figured that the best way to cool the engine was to restart it. I did. I check to see that water was coming out. It was. The engine cooled right down and we continued on to Sucia through Presidents Channel.

We actually got two tacks of close hauled sailing in this day. This turned out to be the only sailing Hannah and I did on the trip. The tide was set against us and after two tacks were where back in the same place. We turned the engine back on and headed to Sucia. We poked our bow into Fossil Bay. It was full and only had 12 feet in it. That would probably be enough, since it was low tide, but we would have had to anchor very far out from the landing. We continued on to Echo Bay. There we found another mooring spar.

A little time after mooring on the spar, I noticed the dinghy painter going under the stern of the boat. I pulled it to bring the dinghy closer to the stern, but it did not come. It was fouled in between the rudder and hull. How it got there is a mystery still, but it took a while to figure out where it actually was fouled. My first thought was the propeller. I spent some time tugging in the painter, but could not free it. Until I asked Hannah to turn the wheel. I had her turn it to a stop. The line floated free. No tugging was required.

Hannah was very upset by the day's travel. She just could not calm down after all the movement and adventures, the closed thru-hull, the sailing, and the final straw, the painter stuck in the rudder. Again I reiterated that we would not be doing this type of vacation/trip again.

Wednesday

We started the engine to charge the batteries and noticed two free mooring balls which were closer to the beach. We got underway to get to a mooring ball. Just then I noticed another boat heading to the same mooring ball. We raced to the mooring ball. We won. They went to the other ball that was a little further from the beach. I felt good that we got the ball we wanted, but bad about being so selfish. I think mooring ball races happen a lot in the San Juans.

We dinghied to the beach and hiked to Coronet Bay. We soaked our feet in the bay and watched small fish and a large bug in the water. Teenagers were all over the place having fun with kayaks and swimming. We walked back and sat and watched the goings on in Shallow Bay in the afternoon. Then dinghied back to the boat. That evening we watched the Lady Wasington and the Cheftain anchor. They Lady Washington sent a dory of crew ashore to sleep. The ship's crew took the dory back to the boat. They set sail for part of the trip. The rest of there journey, they rowed.

Food was getting low. We were surprised at how the frozen food kept in the refrigerator. It thawed the first couple of days, but kept fresh. We got a bag of ice when we had the group sailing on the Friday. It stayed icy for quite a while. Milk stayed fresh the whole two weeks.

Thursday

We got under way at 9:30 for Rosario. Rounding Lawrence Point on Orcas Island, I could not discern exactly where Obstruction Pass was, so I got a bearing from the chart and headed that way. After almost an hour, we were right off the pass. Bearings work great. We had reserved a 50' slip and arrived there at about 1:00 PM. Boat handlers met us and were of great assistance. They even asked for our trash. Blew us away.

We wandered around the resort and made reservations for dinner after the organ recital. We swam in the adult pool. Rosario's has two pools, one for families (kids), and one for adults with a bar. Quite nice.

Christopher Peacock gives a great one hour show. He does it four times a week. The resort is quite unusual with its memorabilia. He gives some background on the resort. The ship model of the battleship that was never built was quite well done. Dinner service at the restaurant was slow, like the service at Deer Harbor. We kept hearing that the people on the island run on island time. When we got the food, it was good. The crab cakes were huge and delicious. The salad was from a bag.

Friday

We had decided to go back to Friday Harbor and get the boat checked in early Friday evening, and take the 8:10 AM ferry out to Anacortes so we could visit Hannah's sister for lunch and get home at a decent hour. I checked the engine making sure the water inlet thru-hull was open after I check the strainer. I went to start the engine. It sort of started and then bogged down and quit. No amount of throttle or turning would start the engine. The fuel gage showed almost half a tank of diesel still left in the tank. The fuel shutoff was pushed all the way in. So I enlisted a knowledgeable boater to try his luck. He did not have any more luck with this engine. I called the Charter company and told them what happened and they said they would send a mechanic. Just phoning the charter company was not too bad. I used the resorts phone, but getting information from them was a different story. My cell did not have coverage in the marina, neither did Hannah's. We had to walk to the other side of the resort to get coverage on Hannah's analog AT&T service. My digital phone did not work. We had to call our house setter and Hannah's sister and tell her the change in plans. We did not hear from the charter company again. After two hours of nothing, I called the charter company from the resort's phone and got one of the hired help who related that they found a mechanic but he was not going to be able to make until late Friday afternoon. I gave her the phone number of the marina's harbor master who I had been keeping appraised of my situation and told her that since I did not have cell coverage in the marina, please tell the harbor master when the mechanic would be able to make it.

We made the best of the situation. The weather was nice and we lulled around waiting for the mechanic. Another two hours passed and still no word. I called the charter company again. This time I got the manager at Friday Harbor who finally told me that the mechanic was not going to be able to make it until Saturday.

Our food had run out, so we decided to try another one of the three restaurants at the marina. We ended up getting fish tacos at the bar at the head of the marina. Good food.

As we were walking to the restaurant, we passed a couple that reminded me of an old friend that I had lost touch with over 20 years ago. I turned after they passed and called out his name. They stopped. Turned around and said, “Yes.” We were both very happy to see each other. We had small sail boats together and he was a coworker. His family even went to the same church as I did. We made arrangement to meet later that evening.

We ate the meal and then went over for a great evening of reminiscing and jokes. He had chartered a Catalina 30 with his wife, brother, and a friend of the brother. They would not have been here this time of year, but the brother had taken a job driving school bus and so could not go their normal time of chartering in September. This was the first year they had chartered in August. We exchanged email addresses and hope to connect again when he is visiting Portland, again. We never would have connected without the engine failing as it did.

Saturday

Woke up, ate breakfast. We cooked the last of the eggs. We had talked the marina store manager into selling us just 6 eggs instead of a dozen the first day we were at Rosario. Hannah fixed the first three Friday and then finished them today. We went for a walk and waited until the mechanic showed up, which he did about 10. He spent about ten minutes looking the engine over and then asked me the most peculiar question: “Where have you gone with this engine?” I told him Friday Harbor to Jones and back. Friday Harbor to Stuart Island, then Deer Harbor and then to Sucia. We came here to Rosario from Sucia. He was amazed. He said this engine should not have run as long as it did. The lift pump had been removed from the fuel circuit so the injector pump was getting fuel only by gravity feed from the tank. When the tank emptied to half full the gravity feed pressure was insufficient to provide fuel to the injector pump. We were lucky to get to where we had and that the engine failed to start when it did. Otherwise we could have been in a real pickle when it stalled. The lift pump was still on board and in place. The inlet had been piped to the outlet and the fuel line from the tank had been redirectled to the fuel filter, thus bypassing the lift pump.

The mechanic took about an hour to make sure the existing lift pump was working. He cleaned the strainer in the pump, which he found clogged. He thought that this was the cause of the mechanic bypassing the pump in the first place.

Of course the weather was doing something, too. Friday was beautiful. Saturday had high wind warnings and rain for the Northern Inland waters from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM. With the engine fixed we were anxious to get back to Friday Harbor to get the boat checked in so we could resume our plans and catch the 8:10 AM ferry to Anacortes, now on Sunday. After consulting with the harbormaster Frank Joseph, we decided to go the two hours to Friday Harbor. We filled up the fuel tank at noon, just to be sure we would have fuel, and proceeded to Friday Harbor. All we got was rain about ¾ of the way there.

We moored at the harbor and went to the Doctor's Office for dinner. We wanted some chicken soup. They made the best home made chicken soup. I also had a hot vegetarian sandwich. Then we got ice creams. I got Rocky Road and Hannah got peach. We packed the car and was already for the ferry in the morning.

Sunday

We caught the ferry at 8:10 AM. The “sailing” vacation was over. We stopped by Hannah's sister's for lunch which she provided very nicely. We were home to the dog and cat by 5:20 PM.

2008-07-13T09:57:00.001-07:00

Another boat sent a request for additional crew. Well, actually crew. Terry has Quicksilver, a 26' sloop. I waited until Thursday night to offer my service, but he had not waited and already had arranged a crew.

I crewed on Emmanuel, again. Scott, Penny, Michael, and Jackie are a team. They are inlaws. They work well together. I feel the fifth wheel on their boat.

The race started the same as two weeks ago. The course was similar. Everything was going as usual. I changed my tactics on being the starboard trimmer. I stayed in position and trimmed the sail. That seems to be what the boat wants. Going to the high side on this Catalina does not seem to help the helm that much. Mike trails for me and I trail for Mike on the winches. Works nicely.

The problem on the boat is that Penny is nominal captain. She relies on Scott a lot for advise. But Scott would really like Penny to take charge when she is captain. Coming up to the fourth and last mark before the finish line, we were in good shape. Scott thought we were leading in our class. Scott retires to the foredeck to manage the pole. He left me in charge of the main. We keep our lead up to the mark, but Scott had trouble dropping the pool. It's relatively new to the boat. Nice pool, but does not allow quick disconnection from the sail. Scott has to retract the pole to get to the clip at the sail. He could not get the pool off the mast fitting. Meanwhile we go past the mark and have boats to avoid and have to turn up into the wind. The sail catches the wind and drives the pole vertical catching Scott's hand between it and the mast. Mike goes to Scott's assistance. The wind does not allow Scott and Mike to free the pool for quite a while (really is was only a minute or two, but that seems an eternity in racing). Meanwhile we are still heading up river with Penny very concerned with what is going on on the foredeck. We encounter some J24's, who have choice words for us because we were not observing their right of ways. Finally Scott and Mike free the pole and we turn back down river toward the finish line. We finish, but last.

Scott really felt bad after the race. His hand hurt and his ego was hurt. All he was doing was trying to get every last inch of wind out of the downwind leg before dousing the pole.

This will be the last blog for a while. Hannah and I are taking off for a Cruise to Learn week and the cruising for two weeks. We are going to Vancouver, BC, for the first week and then charter a Catalina 34 for 2 weeks in the San Juans.

See you in five weeks.

Ken

2008-07-04T16:52:00.000-07:00

Thursday, of course was July 3rd, day before the Holiday. So. . . . No racing. Have not been out to the boat, yet. Going tonight after dinner. Sleeping on her. Be back tomorrow. Next race is next Thursday. See you then.

2008-06-29T11:08:00.000-07:00

Thursday race was on Emanuel. Something about that boat that gets to me. This is the second time I crewed on her and the second time I either fell or got hurt. It happens after the racing while we are getting back to the marina. This time the wind was up and the heal of the boat go me off balance and I fell in the cockpit. Hit my knees. Got a bruise, but I get bruises easily since I am taking aspirin and plavix.

The race had an interesting start. The start line was wider than the finish line, but not by much. There were 12 boats starting in our class and they all bunched up at the mark end of the start line. One boat had to have is way and caused one boat to do a 360 to avoid a colision. Either that same boat or another got the mark tangled in between her rudder and keel and was immobile for quite a few minutes. We had started our run quite late and was not in the bunch of boats, which made both the skipper and her husband quite happy. We managed to come in third, again. The fleet seems to have sorted itself out. Steve on Dew Drop Inn kept trying to blanket our wind, but we managed to stay out of his dirty air for quite some time. Then we pulled ahead of him after the second mark.

About the boat bumping two weeks ago, I heard that one boat got a mangled bow pulpit out of the encounter. Racing can be fun and expensive.

2008-06-19T20:15:00.000-07:00

This Thursday racing was a bust. I got caught in a meeting until 5:15 and had left my cell phone home so could not contact anyone (because their numbers are in the cell phone.) The trip to the marina normally takes 1 hour and since it was an hour later, probably add an additional 1/2 hour. That would put me there at 6:45. Start time for our division is 6:50. So, I drove home. Next week. . . .

2008-06-14T12:14:00.000-07:00

This Thursday I switched boats because Scott of La Dolce Vida was out of town. Something about not trusting his crew to race his boat for him made me go over to my other neighbor who also races. Scott and Penny graciously let me crew for them. The race was in light airs and we did not finish last, which means it was a good race.

There was couple of incidents after the race that made the evening abnormal. After the race we were congratulating each other on staying aboard and not finishing last, when the skipper turned the boat back toward the marina. I was standing on the port cockpit seat when the boom. Remember the boom? Well it did what all booms do when you swing into the wind. It swung. Hit me right up by my left eye. Everything would have been cool except I wear glasses. The boom pushed the edge of the lense into the distal part of my left eye leaving a small gash. I am taking aspirin and when I bleed, I bleed profusely. It looked a lot worse than it really was. The skipper got all upset and had to get her first aid kit. She was so happy she could use it. We stemmed the bleeding. While she was doing this, she handed the wheel over to an inexperienced crew member who was diligently watching the depth meter and continuing on the course she was given. The sun in her eyes did not allow her to see the coffer dam at the east end of Hayden Island. Just a hundred yard off the dam, Scott noticed we were heading for it. He ran back to the wheel and spun us around gunning the little diesel so we cleared the dam just fine.

Meanwhile, the injured sat with ice on the eye and a bandaid on the wound and did not have to put away the boat. Kind of nice. Then they even fed me after the race. As I say: "It just doesn't get any better than this."

2008-06-08T20:28:00.000-07:00

Finally got a good start on Thursday's race. We nailed it. We were the first boat over the line after the horn. We made it second to the first mark. Then the reach to the second mark. All the boats in our class were behind us. The wind was coming out of the southwest at about 10 to 15 knots. I was trimming the head sail. We were scooting along doing just fine. Then I trimmed the head sail for more power. About that time a gust hit us. The main sail handler did not let it go fast enough and we rounded up. This let the rest of the boats catch us. We all rounded the mark about the same time. We continued the the third mark, the starting line bouy. Instead of rounding tightly like the rest of the fleet, we continued downstream, as the forth mark had not come abeam even though we were already close hauled. We figured to continue on this tack and only have to do one tack to the mark while those that had rounded the mark tightly would have to do two. We made it to the mark first in our class again, only to be becalmed at the mark about two boat lengths away from the mark. The next 10 minutes we lost ground and gained it but never quit making the mark. We were in the wind shadow of the trees at the end of Tomahawk Island. By the time we rounded the mark, we were the last boat. So this year it is either a good start or a good finish, not both. At least we have something to work for. All we have to do now is to have both a good start and a good finish.

2008-05-31T09:44:00.000-07:00

Thursday this week was a no race day. Just as well, there was no wind. So I left work early and went to the boat, anyway. I have been wanting to clean up the port lazerette. I pulled everything out of it. I rediscovered some water guns, Four 5 inch bumpers, a fish net, an anchor float, a 250' anchor rode, 30' chain, davis anchor, a 5 gallon bucket and a dead battery. I left the lines in that are hanging on hooks with a bungy retainer. This is nice. It would be better if the hooks and bungy were on the lid to the lazerette. That way the lines would be up and out of the way when the lid was opened. But it was this way when I bought the boat. After I retire and don't have anything better to do, I might move the thing to the lid.

The dead house battery has been giving me problems all season. It would get to voltage, but after even the slightest load, it would drop to 9.5 volts. I did find a loose connection on it earlier in the season, so I tightened it and gave the battery another chance. That did not work. It is a 24 month battery and it is 25 months since I bought it. Time to buy another battery. I like to have two batteries aboard. Just in case one goes dead, like this one did. The starting battery is a 60 month, it has another two years. I guess I will get another 60-month for the house, now. This will at least stagger them for replacements.

Racing next week.

Ken

2008-05-24T09:02:00.000-07:00

I just rediscovered this blog I set up last year, or was it the year before.

I have a San Juan 28, Hull Number 11. It is 30 year old this year. So she is half my age. I enjoy sailing and I enjoy sailing her. She seems to find the wind on the Columbia suites her just fine. We have ghosted past many other boats when they were "sailing".

I crew on a Hunter 30 on Thursday night races on the Columbia river, between the I-5 and I-205 bridges near Portland, OR. The racing is fun and low key, but it is fun to win, too. The race last week was something to chat about. Let me say that we did not have the best of starts. We would have been last over the start line, except another boat had kindly crossed it early and had to return to it to start over. At least we weren't last, now. We struggled and sailed and caught up and passed to of the smaller boats on the first three legs. The fourth leg was downwind and upstream. The wind was dying off to about 3 to 4 knots. Just enough for us to make way over the bottom upstream. We set our whisker pole and hoped for the best. It came. We were inching our way up the middle of the river. The middle of the river had the greatest current, but at least it had enough wind to over come the current. We noticed the fleet had taken to the Oregon side of the river to take advantage of the slacker current by the shore, but what they had not figured upon was the slacker wind by the shore. The boats were bunching up near the third mark. In fact, there were a few coming back to us. They were facing upstream, but slowly sailing backward downstream. That was very nice of them. From our vantage point in the rear we were able to observe their plight and remain upwind and to the center of the river. Our boat kept closing on the fleet. We managed to pass a 33 foot Hunter. Once clear we laid a course directly for the mark, but to the middle of the river from the now stationary fleet. We got the inside position on the mark as about 8 boats tried to round it at the same time. We inched by the mark, dropped our whisker pole while turning down stream. We hardened our sails and made a bee line to the finish. By the time I stowed the pole and cleared lines we were 100 yards in front of the next boat. We may have started at the back of the pack, but now we came in first in our class. High fives were pressed all around. Big smiles and great shaking of heads were to be observed.

At least this race gave us something to brag about. Isn't that what's racing is all about?

Ken of Aventura,
Portland, OR