Just incredible day. The best, most amazing, challenging, awesome day of sailing in history! And that is not hyperbole.

It started at 4:30 with an early departure off the dock to have time to steam through Seymour Narrows before the end of slack. I have an unreasonable fear of those narrows, what with 15 knots of current and the spectre of Ripple Rock haunting my nightmares… needless to say i provided a comfortable margin to make our way through. [Ripple Rock Explosion]

Anyways we made it through the narrows and to the start line in Deepwater Bay.  There was a little breeze in the channel, but inside Deepwater bay it was completely, glassy calm.  And of course the Legendary Boomerang is a light air drifter par excellence…  So the start was a bit of a challenge.  The pin end was quite preferred because the drift out to the channel, and the current therein, was much shorter.

We struggled a bit to get lined up and ended up in the middle of the line…bummer, because it took us probably an hour to get out of the bay.

Picture this.

50 feet in front of boat you can see the river of current flowing north.

1 by snails-pace 1, the boats drop into the current.  They are pushed north, the current pushing the boat creates apparent wind, they ghost along for a couple hundred yards into the breeze and they’re OFF.  And you in Legendary Boomerang are creeping forward by inch and inch and inch in NO WIND.  Ugh.

The first TP52 to get clear is 2 miles down the course already.

UGH.

Then we drop in.

We get the apparent wind up, and then into the real breeze.

Woot.

The Chase was on.  We sailed in the bottom half of Division 3 boats, keeping in touch with Image and the Navy Boats (Tuna and Goldcrest).  Gusto was there and Discernment and just out of reach was Paragon. 

It was a fun, stiff sail up Discovery Passage and the lower part of Johnstone Strait, everyone held serve mostly.  We played tag with Image and Gusto.  The scenery was unbelievable.  Snow covered mountains and sunny skies, just epicly perfect.

Oxomoxo, Wraith, Back Bay and Flow had escaped the rest of us, and were quickly approaching the finish line.

Then, within the site of the finish line, literally just around the next point, we all ran into a stiff current.  The current was running 4 knots+ close (very VERY close) in shore then 5 or 6 or maybe 7 knots just a hundred yards off shore.   Wraith, Oxomoxo and Flow slid on through, but Back Bay and Paragon got badly swept back in the current.  It was crazy to watch. 

We saw them get spat out the back and knew we had to stay in tight.  The Legendary Boomerang started to short tack up the shore.  We saw the tail of Oxomoxo as she was able to squeeze on through up the shore to freedom and across the line and thought to ourselves, “that’s the way, we gotta try it.”  Three of us were within 100 feet, short tacking up the shore: Gusto, Discernment and Boomerang.  Tack in, tack out.  We went as close as 20 feet to the shore before tacking and then went no further than 100 yards (maybe more like 75 yards) out, and then back.  If you went further, you were doomed.  You could see the current river, you watched as the other boats slid back and fell way behind.

Back and forth: 5 tacks, 10 tacks, 20. 

Out 75 yards then into the shore.  I’m on the bow now calling the tacks so we stay clear, but I take it deep into shore.  John, who’s on the helm, yells at me that he doesn’t like this.  The other two boats are tacking with us.  We take the lead, we lose it.  We tack and tack and tack.  I take it closer, I feel I could spit and hit the shore we’re so close.

We’re almost through, the same course as Oxomoxo.  Gusto looks like she’s through, Discernment maybe too….

And then…

A massive upheaval of current bubbles up right in front of us and kicks us out.  Its over… we tack away, just a bit to get clear of the mayhem.  Then tack back in with a bit of room.  Gusto DOES make it.  But we watch Discernment get kicked back behind us.  By now all the other Division 3 boats had collected here.

What do we do?!

Paragon finds a slot.

She drops onto the outward (starboard) tack, but this time she finds a slot.  A slot in the tack vis-a-vis the current that allows her to make headway towards the finish line. …barely…

The subtraction math is probably Boatspeed = 5.75 knots, Current against = 5.5 knots, forward progress = .25 knots.

Legendary Boomerang drops into the slot, then Tuna, then GoldCrest.  Almost everyone.

We all begin to race for the line.

At .25 knots.

But wait there are two boats with different strategies racing towards the line at the same time. 

5 in the middle following Paragon.

1 still trying the shore tack plan – Image.

And 1 on the far FAR side of the channel making her way towards the line there – Back Bay.  (who had been swept out away much earlier and chose to get to the other side looking for better current conditions.)

Image poked through and was yards from the line and then got pushed back again.  We all kept our steady .25 knots towards the line.  Back Bay looked to be doing a bit better.

Then Tuna finished, then Paragon finished.

Image poked through again and this time she made it and squeaked past the committee boat.  (dangit!)

Then Legendary Boomerang finished!  W00t!

And the others plugged their way across as well.

Holy smokes what a leg!

Crazy day of no wind, great wind, powerful current, great boat handling and sailing in challenging conditions.  Just Epic!