MAY 3, 2016: EAST TO NORTHWEST

MAY 3, 2016

WIND FROM THE EAST! OR IS IT NORTHWEST?

Sailflow was predicting Easterly breeze in the afternoon, so I was not surprised when I came to the harbor and saw the Easterly filling in.  We all filed out of the harbor and set up for an East wind course: start, Blacks, Mile, finish.  We gave a five minute horn and set up for the start.

We were fortunate to be first off the line right at the start buoy and lead the charge to Blacks in the moderate Easterly.  We were first around Blacks and started the long slog to Mile.  The line straight to Mile was not ideal.  There was little power in the sails to propel the boat and the waves on the bow did not help.  We hardened up on the East wind even though it was sailing away from Mile. Hardening up on the wind seemed to help our progress along with not taking the waves right on the bow.  This was a big gamble.  Would the wind fill in outside first or build inside closer to the beach?  It seemed like we were sitting in a hole of no wind as Pacific Spirit passed us to windward in the dying Easterly.  We continued on when finally we noticed a wind line just 200 yards ahead of us.  We were stuck in a transition zone once again.  Pacific Spirit hit the wind first, followed by us.  It was a northwesterly breeze that had filled in.  We saw up to 18 knots of breeze close to the mile buoy.

Pacific Spirit rounded mile comfortably ahead of us and took a line toward the harbor while we ran toward the mark.  We held our line further inside with our eye on the wind indicator to see if it would subside.  Pacific Spirit tacked out toward the start buoy several times.  Ultimately their tactics worked as we finally tacked toward the start mark we noticed that there was more wind outside.  Once again we were shown: “Always sail to where there is more wind!”

After we rounded we went out to witness Makani leading the charge ahead of Kicks, Aeolian and Sea Quake.

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice