Southern Straits 2013: Surprises including Fog, Code 0s, and the Easter Bunny

                            (All photos by Lin Parks.  Thanks Lin!)

Everybody who will listen to me knows that I like Southern Straits.  Occasionally I brag about the cowardly way we sailed directly from Pt. Atkinson to the bar in 2010--the fastest ride of our lives at that point!

Usually I then wax insufferable about the beautiful views and the close racing we have with our Canadian friends, the battles with Kiva, Mojo, Cinco de Mayo, and Rubato will not soon be forgotten.

And I never forget to mention how damned hard and frustrating this race can be.  

2013 was no exception.

Unfortunately, at the start we, um, didn't get off the starting line.  We mangled the start signals, and so ended up too far from the line in the light breeze to start with our fleet.  So we crossed about the same time that the next fleet did.  Those of you watching the tracker would have seen Kotuku in dead last.

We beat out past Point Atkinson into a building breeze, and before we knew it we were starting to trade tacks with our fleet again.  We had some big gainers tacking out, then the inside seemed favored.  Briefly.  Then the boats on the outside took off and left us inside.  We beat stubbornly up the north side of the Strait, finding gains against the fleet, but feeling like we were out in right field.  The wind was light, and the water was glassy.  But it was beautiful, and the mountains were glorious.  (OK, we were still in last place.)

This race has awesome re-starts.  The next one occurred in the dark at Balenas around 10:30PM.  After trading tacks with the very slippery Peterson 35 Windyfeat we slipped around the island just in front of Farrari with most of our fleet ahead of us, but only just.  Up went the spinnaker, gybe gybe gybe gybe gybe.  Staying in rivers of pressure gave us lots of passing lanes.  Kotuku is at her best in the dark I think, because about the time the sun came up at Halibut Bank, we were just putting the moves on the rest of our fleet, which had stalled out to the north of us.  We rounded in a big bunch, but got the Code 0 up.  And off we went.

The reaching legs were fun, fast, and rewarding.  By the time we got to Entrance Island we had legged out on a lot of the fleet (Code 0, blistering reach, good stuff!)  But the 5 boat pass that we pulled off at Entrance Island by slipping due north along the beach where I swear there was no breeze to be seen at all, now that was magical.  Soon we were dueling with Time Bandit, and M Power, both of whom were attempting to catch us after we had passed them at the mark rounding.  But we rounded ahead of them both at Halibut Bank, and that's where the race to the finish began.

(Night Runner, hot on our tail.  Taken from Cinco de Mayo, I think, who was passing on the outside)

The last leg has decided the race for the last couple of years, and this year was more of the same.  We were stuck trying to fend off Night Runner, who held the north coast, and Cinco de Mayo, Zulu, etc who went outside.  Let's just say the middle didn't pay.  As we got to the final few miles the boats on the outside slipped the worst of the negative tide, and had better breeze.  We watched as the fleet pinwheeled, outside boats marching to the finish with inside boats slowing, and eventually almost grinding to a halt.  

With our hopes almost dashed, we gybed out and followed Cinco.  Night Runner and Bravo Zulu were stuck inside, and Dominatrix was passing us on the outside but close.  Morale was down.  But I was pissed, and not going down without a fight.  Up went the jib, down came the jib, up went the A3.  Down came the A3, up went the jib.  Belay that!  Damn!  Up with the A3, breeze on, finally!  The finish was neck and neck, with Dominatrix nose to nose with us.  But the bigger sail carried the day, and our Red, White, and Blue spinnaker powered us across the line just ahead of them.  And there on the shore was our faithful support team, with little Savai, Talia, and Janna cawing and doing the Kotuku dance for all they were worth.  What a finish!

Results and details are here:  

http://southernstraits.ca/results/Straits2013Results.htm

2nd in class, 5th overall for the Medium Course.  Congratulations to Cinco de Mayo for sailing a great race.  As for us...Not bad for an old girl with an out of shape crew.  I feel good about the race and think we did a nice job of rallying back to be in it by the end.  Good work team!  (I am still wiped out, but happy.)

Thanks to Al, Ashley, and Eli for the help with the deliveries, and to Becca, John, Kevin and Alan for being rock star crew who made us look good, even when we weren't!  

Fun race, we'll be back...