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It was excruciating at times. One point I was on the bow in the dark, the skipper not steering down at all to slow us, and trying to pull the spinnaker back on deck where I honestly thought if this blows off again and I’m inside inside of it, even if im tethered I am probably going to drown. Which was a very surreal moment. But it was kind of like, in the moment, what are you going to do? You can’t just quit and give up. So yeah I did learn a lot about myself in the process! Side note-- sitting here on my computer, coffee and dog nearby, girlfriend gardening outside, it really makes you appreciate the simple things in life.

Beating out to the mark in Neah Bay was lumpy. We didn’t reef the main so were heeled over a fair amount and the swells were decent 10’ at least would be my guess. This was in 25-30kts too. The period was also a factor I’m sure, because you never really had a second to level out before the next one hit. In all fairness I got seasick once after I spent 10 mins below checking on our incapacitated sailor and eating my sandwich. Came back up top and we were heeled over enough that I was able give the fish their lunch without getting anything on the boat.

The multihull was interesting. The only multihull that made it was a fairly massive cat. The smaller tris all turned around near Race Rocks on the way out. If you look at the DNFs nearly all of them turned around when they got to the strait. I think they decided it just wasn’t worth it. We were I think, other than one other, the only DNF to round the mark. The other DNF that rounded anchored in Port Angeles for some reason.

The skipper is a different story. One of the other crew wrote a letter to the race committee telling them he wasn’t qualified to be taking people out. We only found out around 3am that our VHF wasn’t working, neither were our nav lights. When I was pulling in the spinnaker I was wondering why I wasn’t seeing any glowing in the sail and realized. We were in the shipping lanes at that point too. Not a great feeling? Our steaming and anchor lights worked though. We had a hand held and they were announcing traffic but our skipper turned it off. I asked to turn it back on so we could know what traffic was coming our way and he kind of put me down saying “what do you want to keep hearing the same thing over and over? We will see the ships before it’s a problem.” Idiotic response in my opinion to a safety concern.

All that to say it was a really enlivening experience and I am glad I did it. Would be great to sail together some day! Now that I know I can take the clipper up there relatively easily I would definitely do it again. And same for you-- if you’re ever down here I have a couple boats I know with skippers that are actual competent people.

It was HORRIBLE! But I learned a lot. I put a new reply up top with the details.

Thats awesome this got you back out there!

Final Review-- bring extra shoes and more foul weather gear!

Ultimately we rounded the mark but suffered equipment failure around 3AM when our spinnaker wrapped around the forestay. 3/5 of the crew was too sick to help so I was on bow trying to lower a stuck spinnaker. Pain in the ass, got it down after about 30 mins of putting my entire weight into it. Just as it gets on deck im trying to collect it all and it blows overboard. Still have it connected to the lines but couldn’t pull it up. Had to spend another 45 mins untangling the forestay mess and was eventually able to pull it out of the water around 4am. Not relaunching at this point because I am exhausted and still not getting any help. Skipper loses his bearings and nav chart isnt working. We have the main out but the skipper doesn’t steer well and the boom (19’ boom) comes swinging across the boat. The traveller lines knock out the nav station, a few feet form my head. At this point it’s decided we have to lower the main and motor back because skipper has lost it. He doesn’t know where he’s going. We have alt charts going on an iPad and he wont steer towards Victoria, and we are directly out in the straight from race rocks. I take over driving because I am sure the skipper is starting to just lose his train of thought. steer us towards victoria and we motor from 5am till about 9am and arrive. scary experience. next time I will never do a race with a new skipper without doing at least one practice session. and not going to do another overnight race without someone I know is capable. I had a lot of fun. Also fear. 2/5 of the crew was sick the entire time. one guy went below 30 mins into the race and was never able to get back up. so we were down to 4/5 crew. One guy was not able to really keep it together for more than 30 mins at a time.

I can’t wait to do another one on a competent boat.

Yes. And when I say “started to understand everything” I mean a very small percentage of stuff that goes into sailing well. But enough to start to know what to look for on trimming, hoisting and dousing, the basics. oh and traffic, right of way, trying to read the water. :) I like your idea about saying aloud what’s going to happen. We get new people on our boat and when one of them is in foredeck (its a 38’ Tartan) I always have them first listen to what’s going to happen and what you’ll be doing, what I’ll be doing, and what everything should look like.

There is a certain amount of ego I’ve seen from a few experienced people where they just expect everything to be known by everyone without talking, and get frustrated when you ask questions. I’ve left those boats behind for that exact reason. If all the Canucks are as nice as you are, then the boat will be a breeze (half the crew is coming from Vancouver!) Good call about the videos. I’ll get on that. Thanks again for all the info. I do actually feel better about the race!

I guess I didn’t do a very good job explaining my hesitancy? I’ve been sailing for the past 4 years only. I’ve bounced around a few boats trying to learn more and each time it always seemed like such a steep learning curve and I never really understood what was going on. This past year I feel like I’ve actually started to understand everything. The only issue is my current boat doesn’t use spinnaker pole and instead we use an asym. Typically I run the foredeck on that boat but unfortunately it means when it comes to symmetric spinnakers and poles I feel like im going to be just as clueless as day one. I told the skipper as much, and the other 4 crew are heavily experienced, so I’m sure I will learn I just feel like for 24 hours im going to be like a deer in headlights.

Today is my last day to prep, ferry is at 7am tomorrow!

Cool! I do plenty of racing out here in the Puget Sound so I guess I understand what you mean now about the start line being chaos. Thanks for the info. Definitely bringing plenty of sunscreen. If I come up with anything I’ll make sure to send ya a message. Thanks again for the info! I’ll be on Sauvage.

Oh thanks a lot for the tips on hat/gloves. Will pack an extra set. Right now I’ve got some fruit, veggies, sandwiches, and beef jerky.

I am not familiar with the start process- but our skipper has done this race several times before so I am just going to trust him on that! But good to know about the tactics.

I am not sure if I’ll be able to rest or sleep just from the adrenaline! We will see.

That’s awesome you did so well in your races, congrats on that. I am hoping we do well the boat is fairly large, 40ft and we have a crew of 5. Right now the plan is huge the American side out and then after Neah Bay follow Canadian coast.

Paramount*

I’m visiting London currently. I saw this post and went there and saw it. Thank you!

Their outage map says it is down