Umm, some highlights:
Big swells as soon as we left the safety of the Ft. L harbor, ok no big deal.
Decent wind out of the NE meaning set up for a fast reach with?
Rig the .6, hmm wind building and getting nosier for the start.
Ok, rig the .75 and have it ready, the three and main are up and wer'e moving quite nicely in the prestart.
Hmm, wind is building how about derigging the .75 and change to the 1.5 with 30 seconds to go.
Oh, look one of the tri-mirans has capsized, did I mention big swells and building breeze.
Forget about them, our start is going off, hoist the kite!
Kite up and drawing, douse the #3, ummm, you know what leave it up, it's a nice stable staysail and man we're going fast.
Can't shake free from the other sprit boats, two 109's and a Farr 395.
Hello Miami, good bye Miami.
Goodbye to the other sprit boats as well, they are losing their kites left and right and ours is flying well with the #3.
Wind and waves are growing as it's getting darker, wind is squaring up as we bend around the Keys.
Henry, Jeff and myself are driving and rotating with ever increasing speed. Trimmers and grinders are doing likewise.
Take the #3 down, it's too far aft.
The wind lightens for a while, 5 minute rule becomes a series of about 15 ten minute rules on changing to the .75 AP. Everytime we get close it fills in again.
Ok, let's finally change it. We don't have a regular bowperson and we don't like the looks of the other spin halyard so we'll go bare. No big deal, we're going to do 8 knots with main only for the minute it takes anyway.
.75 is up and drawing nicely, we need to do some jibes to stay out of the Stream.
Override develops after one gybe, we're working on it and puff hits, boat rounds up, no ease and no more .75.
Retrieve .75, now that was a bit of work and , put the 1.5 back up, ok all is good again.
The wind builds, it's pretty steady in the mid 20's with gusts to 30. Huge waves, HUGE, it's been blowing out of the E / NE for a week prior to the race and blowing pretty good day and night. We could tell we were in the stream as the waves got even bigger. For some reason the temp guage on the B&G's never really changes much. I wouldn't trust it for telling you where the Stream is in retrospect.
Regularly doing 15's and 16's with the occassional 17's.
I think it was about 3AM while I was driving and we hit 18.7
About a half hour later when Jeff Pearson was driving we hit the race high of 19.5.
Luiz said they hit 26 knots on the TP52!
More gybes, more rotation of crew. Drivers are so tired we're seeing things. Oh, maybe not, those are Dolphins.
The bow gets buried up to the bow hatch about 5 times, the last time a fish was flapping on the deck just in front of the cockpit.
BOOM, the halyard (the heavier one) blows and the kite comes down and fills with water. Shrimp city! Nine crew and I mean NINE as hard as they can pull crew are retrieving the 1.5. Put er down below and pack her again and put her back up on the lighter primary halyard.
Gybe some more, surf some more. Hey, do another body count make sure we still have 10.
We blow one gybe and wrap the kite around the headstay. It was a nice tight wrap, the kind where you're thinking we're going to finish that way or have to cut the kite down. With three 240 pounders on the bow (Me, Jeff and Charlie Elmer) we get it out.
More gybes, more surfing, more fun.
BOOM, the tack blows out of the 1.5!
Whatever is left of Charlie, Jeff, Me and the rest of the crew we managed to get it behind the main (with some effort as it was pretty well filled behind the boat flying on sheet and halyard as we're still surfing down LARGE swells with main alone doing 10's and 11's and then get it down.
Hmmm, now what? Code? .6? umm, I'm recommending the #3, ok, get it on deck.
Try wing and wing, waves too big, course too unsteady to hold it. Ok, sail slow gybe angles with jib and main for the next three hours and get to the sea bouy to make the turn and fetch the finish. Having the #3 up was actually a welcome relief for Henry, Jeff and I in terms of driving. The three of us were pretty well spent. Driving most of the night was like holding an angry tiger by the tail and for most of the night there was nothing to steer by, no moon, no stars, no stern lights. In those waves, with that kind of pressure it became a real challenge to steer by the compass, electronic or otherwise and the three of us were spent.
We cross the line at 8:50 AM. Fitth place - we beat the other sprit boats (109's and Farr), the Symmetrical kite boats all beat us. From Miami on it was deep and since we didn't have a full 1.5 to run with and it was a bit much to short gybe the reefs in those conditions at night we and the other A-sail boats likely spend far too much time bucking the stream. Proof of this is in our average speed. 160 miles in 20 hours = 8 knots over the ground. Other then the last three to four hours with the 3 we NEVER saw less then 9 knots and I'd say we were AVERAGING 12.
Oh well, we got the boat there and didn't break anything major that can't be fixed in time for the week. Get a well, rinse sails, rinse boat, rinse bow, dry out, swap B sails for A sails, eat, replace halyard clean up call Karl and Frank. As the .75 was in the KW race week picture, Henry had Frank call the loft and pick up the NM .75 before her left. Ahh, all is done, begin 72 hour drunk before returning home Sunday.
Did I mention Hip Kitty? Ah, a story for the future.........
Respectfully submitted to our friends and dock mates on the crew of Carinthia.
More to follow,
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