Armchair Long Pac

[Philpott]

There was a little bit of breeze @ the start and everybody got off well: no laggards. Mouton Noir looked like it was trying to block Racer X - looked like a great dane trying to bump a small laborador aside, but the lab just ran around it. Everybody looked good, well trimmed sails, nobody slow to start. Tortuga stayed inside the harbor to escape the current, then came out impressively fast. Greg came into the Club's guest dock about fifteen minutes before his start with no sails up. We thought for sure he would just raise 'em in a minute the way he usually does, but he only stopped by to drop off his tracker, then motored out to sail a bit with the fleet. Mas! cancelled early in the morning via email, so that leaves just Mouton Noir and Racer X in the doublehanded fleet. Jim Quanci in his signature watchcap raised his jib just below the Golden Gate yacht club deck so we could admire the way he does it (efficiently, thoroughly). I drove out to the Cliff House but by the time I got there only two boats (white sails) were sailing past Land's End - all the rest were already out of sight. Shortly afterward the drizzle was so heavy that the Marin Headlands were obscured as well as all things boatish. So I ordered crab cakes.

 

[Philpott]

Christine Weaver took lots of photos from the ground, Kristen Sotebier took photos from the deck and Jonathan Gutoff was on the Golden Gate Bridge. Just so people know to look. During the Farallones Christine and Jonathan made a point of photographing each boat. Lest we forget, they shared SSS Race Chair duties for two years not so long ago.

 

[Philpott]

If you want to know what I think (and you might not except that it's late at night and you have insomnia and you're a person who will read just about anything about sailing and sailors), Temerity has a pretty good chance of winning this race. I wrote this before and I haven't forgotten it: "Last Saturday on the way back from the Farallones it was dark and gusting to 25 knots. .... David, had his crisp new spinnaker up. Temerity has a tiller, which he was gripping like a whaleboater. He was grinning from ear to ear, but he also kept up this low moan: 'Whoooooaaaaah!' " The other possibilities: Lightspeed: There hasn't been the slightest hint of a right turn in this race. Rick is on target. Domino has a brand new rudder and David is determined. Nina's skipper, Robert, has been in races to Japan and New Zealand. Sam on Southernaire has done our Transpac and sailed to South America thirty years ago for fun. Sam and Robert are in stealth mode. Neither has a tracker on his boat, neither can be discounted. Mike is new to our club, but he has had Jacqueline for 16 years. Familiarity with one's boat is a big part of any race. And who can forget that great photograph from Pressure Drop of Chris on Ventus "drag-racing" toward the gate at the end of the SSS Farallones race in May of this year? He's clearly a force to be reckoned with. This has been so much fun to watch!

 

[Philpott]

Mike Cunningham is still out there as I write this. It is 9:50pm Tuesday night. He has until tomorrow/ Wednesday night at 24:00 hours to finish. I have no doubt that he will do so, but at enormous physical cost. After meandering around in that light air for five days now, he must be exhausted. The race committee has not heard from him since this morning, and has been unable to raise him by radio. And now the wind is becoming a challenge. According to NOAA's National Data Buoy Center, the wave height is 6.6 @ 8 second intervals at Buoy 46026 (see for yourself: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=46026) Those are Singlehanded Farallones 2015 conditions. Roller coaster ride conditions. By MarineTraffic.com reckoning, Jacqueline is sailing 5.3 knots 45.2 nm out from the Golden Gate Yacht Club. That is still 9 hours away. If anyone is available between 6 and 7am tomorrow morning, you might consider going by the club and welcoming Mike home. Completion of this race is a remarkable achievement for all five of the finishers. Finishing fifth under these weather conditions, after a week of slow sailing, might prove to be the most difficult of all. Mike is new to this club, but not to his boat, which he has owned for 16 years. What a splendid addition he is to our membership.

 

[Philpott]

The wind has picked up and Jacqueline is now going 7.6 knots. At this rate Mike should finish in 6 hours - at about 4:30 am Wednesday morning. Nathalie Criou and George Lythcot have joined Jan Brewer and Charlie Jeremias at the GGYC. When I was there early this morning there were bags of chips and dip and piles of cookies. Currently they are reputed to be eating some kind of dessert as they wait for Jacqueline to finish. It's a tough job, race committee, but somebody has to do it, and these four intrepid individuals don't flinch from the challenge.

 

[255grizzly]

So cool to be able to track this race!

I have really enjoyed watching the race and reading the chatter - I hope the SSS will be doing more of this! Thanks to the RC for putting this all together (the lack of wind notwithstanding)!

 

[255grizzly]

Btw, Tracker at 949am shows Jacqueline still a fair ways out there, doing 1.6 kts. Wind must have died?

 

[BobJ]

It's currently blowing 12-16 kts at Buoy 12 (where he is) and AIS shows him going 2 kts. Perhaps he's getting some rest before coming into the coast.

 

[pogen]

It's currently blowing 12-16 kts at Buoy 12 (where he is) and AIS shows him going 2 kts. Perhaps he's getting some rest before coming into the coast.

Conditions at 46012 as of
(9:50 am PDT)
1650 GMT on 07/15/2015
:Wind Direction (WDIR): NW ( 320 deg true )
Wind Speed (WSPD): 11.7 kts
5-day plot - Wind Gust Wind Gust (GST): 15.5 kts

Conditions at 46026 as of
(9:50 am PDT)
1650 GMT on 07/15/2015:
Wind Direction (WDIR): SSE ( 160 deg true )
Wind Speed (WSPD): 5.8 kts

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=46026

 

[Gamayun]

It's currently blowing 12-16 kts at Buoy 12 (where he is) and AIS shows him going 2 kts. Perhaps he's getting some rest before coming into the coast.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I need to ask him if he was hove to and how it worked for him. He has a Freedom 32 with self tending jib (mine is an F38) and I've been wondering about this.

Since he's halfway between SF Bay and Half Moon Bay, if someone gets a chance to talk to him and if he would like to bail out, I can give him a credit for a slip in Pillar Point Harbor for the night. I'll be here until about 1800 today, so if it's later that that, I could gather up some forces to help him get in. Though my money is he finishes on time

 

[BobJ]

Edit at 1545: Almost at Land's End:

http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:393065/zoom:10

 

[Philpott]

Jacqueline finished @ 18:02:19 Wednesday, well within the finish time for the race. This time was a bit later than the race committee expected. Of course, everyone finished later than the race committee expected. After six days Jan and her large coterie of volunteers became exhausted by the wait and finally called in the B team. Well, they called me and I called Brian, so I guess that made it the B+ team.

I found Jan sitting in a lawn chair outside the Golden Gate Yacht Club @ 10:45 am. After almost a week supervising the troops she wanted to go sleep in her own bed. So she left and I took over the RC responsibilities: first I read a book in my car with the vhf radio tuned to channel 69. Then I looked through the binoculars. Then I drank my thermos of coffee and looked toward the bridge through the binoculars. Then I read part of another book. Then I looked through the binocs again. Then I waited and waited. Then I called Brian. Brian came and we drove out to Lands End and set up his goofy antenna and tried to raise Mike on the radio. When we reached him, this is what Mike said: "Due to a navigational error I am not where I said I was." Huh. We didn't ask what he meant, because we know that all will become clear sometime in the future. Once we knew that Mike hadn't drowned, our supervisory responsibilities discharged, we shrugged and decided to walk to the Cliff House and have lunch. Crab cakes and ahi tartare consumed, we drove back to the parking lot near the Golden Gate Yacht Club where - again - we looked toward the bridge through the binoculars. We tuned the vhf radio to channel 69. the we looked through the binocs. Then we waited and waited some more for Jacqueline to appear on the horizon. Which she did, still with Mike aboard. Thank goodness.

Congratulations, sailors, you tenacious five. And that's a wrap.

 

[mike cunningham]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I need to ask him if he was hove to and how it worked for him. He has a Freedom 32 with self tending jib (mine is an F38) and I've been wondering about this.

Since he's halfway between SF Bay and Half Moon Bay, if someone gets a chance to talk to him and if he would like to bail out, I can give him a credit for a slip in Pillar Point Harbor for the night. I'll be here until about 1800 today, so if it's later that that, I could gather up some forces to help him get in. Though my money is he finishes on time

I spent some time practicing heaving to on Jacqueline. It is definitely doable, kind of magical too. With our self tacking jib you have to set up a preventer on the wishbone. That is the downside. You have to go forward to set it up and in most circumstances where you really wanted to heave to: weather, severe fatigue, you probably would not be that keen to go forward. After my latest adventure I might re-look at this. I would have been far better off just heaving to than allowing myself to self destruct fatigue wise.