| Rites of Spring Shorthanded Race |
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| Monday, 27 April 2009 15:57 |
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We came over to Berkeley from Richardson Bay Marina, Sausalito, so we had a nice long motor over in the beautiful morning sunshine. We passed the poor dead baby whale that was tied up to some buoys at the mouth of Richardson Bay on the way over, you don't see that everyday. Jen and I don't know the area where the race was held on Saturday very well - I've crewed with Pat Broderick a few times in the area, but never had to be responsible for finding the buoys. So our strategy was to "follow those Tuna's" !! Well, we missed our start..........don't ask..........anyway we started about 3 minutes after everyone else on a port tack and stayed there for quite a while (too long actually) getting used to the building winds and chop. Jennifer was navigator and overall do everything crew on Saturday, she has a fun personality was happy to be aboard Kelly as we brought up the rear of the Santana fleet! Our first challenge of the day, other than keeping the boat flat, was when the whisker pole just about went overboard. The release line on the pole (or whatever you call the line you pull to open the jaws) got wrapped around the cleat on the foredeck bouncing around in the chop opened the jaw that was holding onto the shrouds. She quickly and "elegantly" scooched under the boom backwards and grabbed it just as it was going over....held onto it and managed to release the wrap on the cleat and secure it back onto the shroud....whew! Just wondering, does a whisker pole float?? Our next challenge was on the beat up to Alcatraz.....I didn't realize Alcatraz herself was a mark....the traveler broke. Jennifer again gracefully got down off the rail and went to see what the problem was...then went below to the "extra parts box" to find something that would hold it together...went up to see if those parts would work...went below again to get another part...and back to the transom on the low side as water was pouring in over the rails and down her back in buckets. She fixed it!! We had a traveler for the second half of the race!! Amazing to me how those little rings that are so difficult to put on the pins can come out!! After we rounded Alcatraz and got out of the fog (winds around Alcatraz were 30 knots at the time we approached & rounded!)......A ferry appeared out of the fog as we were rounding Alcatraz on the west side.....that was scarey for a moment! We relaxed for a few minutes surfing the chop and then on to figuring out where we were to go next. Clipper Cove??? Were we reading the SI's & chart correctly??? Then when we saw Carlos and then Tschoup as we approached TI...we felt much better about our choice of direction. Anyway, we finished a challenging day for us and after the race - we had another two hour beat back to Sausalito, which included container ships and out of control cruisers..... Things I need to learn now that we are learning how to manage the boat in those winds. How to sail the bay - like reading the water with dying ebbs, building floods....things like that. Playing the traveler in gusts. Also, what does Jan mean when the cabin flexes going through chop....hmmmm........fixing stress cracks??? Yikes....... Sunday, we sailed Kelly to Stinson Beach with three other boats....what a contrast in weather! No fog. Maybe 10 knots of wind at times and 80 degress of warmth out there! Looking forward to the next race. |