This year’s running of the Doublehanded Farallones race was initially cancelled due to forecast high winds and a sea state with big swells at 8 seconds apart. Wisely, the race was rescheduled for June 18 and I must say that I like this new date – much longer daylight and warmer weather!
Our day started early, pushing off the dock in Sausalito at 6:30am to make sure we had plenty of time to get to the starting area off Baker Beach for a planned 8:20am start. Winds were light, as can be expected this early in the morning, but with just enough breeze to send off the first two fleets. The breeze proceeded to lighten and we struggled against a 0.5 knot flood current to get back to the starting area. The RC postponed our start time for 25 minutes until the wind built enough to start the next two divisions, which included us.
We started on a port tack close to the committee boat with our #1 up and had just enough way on to clear the committee boat. Snafu elected to start at the other end of the line, which was set pin high. Even though the pin was favored from a distance perspective, our strategy was to get to the remaining ebb in the middle as soon as possible and favor the north as we exited land’s end. Our strategy worked because we quickly built a lead on Snafu.
Accelerando in freshening breeze on the way to Bonita (Photo courtesy of H2O Shots)
Puffin, also ready for Pac Cup (Photo courtesy of H2O Shots)
(Photo courtesy of H2O shots)
By the time we got to Pt. Bonita, wind speed increased quickly to the point that we needed to change down to the #3 jib. Once the sail change was complete, we tacked on to starboard and headed toward SE Farallon.
The wind speed and direction were fairly consistent all the way to the Rock Pile. Winds were in the mid-teens with gusts to 20. However, the sea state was bumpy and made it challenging to keep consistent boat speed. With the ebb push, we made it to the SF Entrance Buoy in two hours.
Unfortunately, the wind never clocked enough to fetch the north side of the islands. After almost four hours on starboard tack, we came in just to the south. This year’s rules allowed us to round in either direction, and since we needed to tack to get up and around SE Farallon, we decided to leave it to starboard. It didn’t make sense to us to sail up to the north end of the island and then back down to the south thereby leaving the island to port – didn’t find any benefit in the extra miles sailed.
We were amazed that we were around the island by 1:45pm. This is also where we encountered Snafu coming at us: they were just beginning to leave the Rock Pile to port. After our brief encounter, we set the kite and aimed for the north side of the SF entrance channel. It was a comfortable beam reach back to the Gate, every once in a while surfing on a swell. At about 4pm, the wind switch kicked on. Winds built into the low 20s with higher gusts. We were just north of the SF Entrance Buoy at this point. This marked the beginning of the e-ticket ride we came for. We started surfing more and more, easily hitting 12, 13 and 14 knots. Just the conditions that the Moore excels in!
Gusts continued to get stronger as we approached Pt. Bonita. We could now feel the boat lurch as the puffs hit us. We were laser focused on staying under the kite and not wiping out. We ripped coming into the Gate, hitting a few 17s with a top speed of 17.8 kts! We also punched through one swell that sent a two-inch sheet of green water across the deck.
As we closed in on the bridge, we could see that the water was flatter inside the Bay, so we delayed our gybe and waited for a “light” spot to complete our maneuver. The gybe was completed without much excitement and we were off again on a flat-water plane to the finish, a slow 13 kts in flat water. We finished at 4:45pm, which is the earliest ever for me in this race on a Moore.
Mooretician finishing in style (Photo Courtesy of Slackwater_SF)
Now that the race was over, it was time to get the kite down and enjoy a cold beer. After eight hours of sailing, we deserved it!
All in all, it was a beautiful day. For those familiar with my sailing attire (or lack thereof), yes, I completed the entire trip in shorts. That’s how warm it was. Of course, they were soaking wet when we finished. LOL. This year’s sail in from the approach buoy is on my top 10 list of all-time best sailing experiences. For those of you who missed it, this was one for the books!
The first entry of the wrapped kite parade (Photo courtesy of Slackwater_SF)
Just leave the darned pole up (Photo courtesy of Slackwater_SF)
Pac Cup practice includes kite untangling (Photo courtesy of Slackwater_SF)