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East to the Islands

Posted 7 months, 27 days ago

East to the Islands
THe following report comes courtesy of Derek Bouwer * How to knurl in 2 knots of breeze. Sunday the 13th of January's St Croix Race, dawned with a "a grey mist on the sea’s face and a grey dawn breaking" (J Masefield) and rain, did I mention rain? The course was Harbour start, Brenton to Starboard and the finish through the transit of the control tower and the light on the break water to seaward. Great! That’s a piece of cake! Cup of coffee single up and leave but don’t forget the rain! Struan dawdled up and down the start line, rather easy, as Wattoo not taking part had headed for the harbour entrance, Tikalox II was to leeward and we’re bigger than Unmbaleki so they had to get out of our way (Joking, Johan, it was the rain!). Off we went in 9 knots of South Easterly out the harbour with Tikkiebox showing a clean pair of heels, Umbaleki to weather and heading higher than Brenton, into the rain. Well, "there are times in the affairs of men if not taken in the flood" yada, yada, yada, fishpaste..... Flood? Wind? Rain? So the wind dies, no it does not die, so much as hangs around tantalising you to hang in and keep you interested like watching the breeze play with a girl's mini, but, IT DON'T MOVE NO BOAT! Even a gorilla can sail in 20+ knots of wind but it takes finesse on a big boat to keep it moving in any thing under 5 knots, being neither a gorilla, nor having said finesse, Struan had to contend with knurdling. There we sat all to leeward. The log reads 0.0 knots and thank goodness the GPS says we got 0.8 knots current in the right direction. mmmm did I mention the rain? Westerly? Yes! The Wind’s coming from the west and we get the boat moving. Tikalox II is moving, soon the tiny ripples of way are gurgling merrily! I’m happy, the crews happy and the West dies. Damn, the log reads 0.0 once more, but the current is still to the good though, not to forget the rain! All to leeward once more with crew sick of my inane boat chatter. "OK, so if there’s no wind at 14:00 we’ll go home"? "Are we all in agreement?" YES! But wait! (I do not have to mention the rain it had given it a break by now) but wait! What are those? Yes! You know those little tendrils of South Easter? So we knurdle the boat into one and once again the way is merrily gurgling down the hull and we’re heading for Brenton! 13:30 and we’re only half way there! The wind holds and the rain, she, rains! Rounded Brenton behind both Umbaleki and Tikalox II at 15:30 (The last race we were cracking the first cold ones on the deck already!) We a headed for home 240° Magnetic. Great! One tack back! On the way home we reached the blinding speed of 7 knots in an 18 Knot puff which was to be our top speed of the day. Then the wind got more west in it allowing us to clip along at 5 plus knots, the wind eased to the East so we eased the sails to keep the speed and the heading. The wind now backed with more west in it and started dying. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! We finished with the wind down to 9 and the log on 3.3 knots. By this time Umbaleki and Tikalox II where tying up, with the thoughts of a few cold ones, dancing in their heads. "Never in the course of human endeavor has so much been done in so short a time" as putting Struan to bed! Almost packed away by the time we tied up, I haven’t mentioned the rain which threatened but stayed away for most of the afternoon! Frustrating at times? Yes! Wet at times? Yes! Would I do it again? Yes! A great way to end a vacation by spending 7 hours 49 minutes on the water you betya! * With only MINOR edits by Yours Truly! Full Story »

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