Double-handed Farallones

This has got to be the most frustrating race of the year for me ;-) We did not finish!!! The weather conditions were awesome. Nice swell and great training for me. I finally figured out, with Nathan's advice, how to make sure that these nasty little waves would not slow the boat down to a near stop (anything that has the word 'slow' in it sounds pretty annoying to me in a race).

Perfect wind conditions. Wind picking up in the afternoon, the 20-25-30 range promised. This is a range that Elise absolutely loves. Took a little while to settle down into a groove, but we were doing a pretty good job (I since talked to the Wetsu skipper and he said that we were sailing along the whole time, they couldn't get rid of us) at keeping up with the rest of the fleet. We were on the north side of the course, pretty nice navigation, basically, bang on the islands. After more upwind distance than what we did at the double-handed lightship, I was not feeling tired at all. I figured out a way to stay pretty relaxed so as not to use up a lot of energy just to stay in place in the waves (I must say that we weren't falling so badly so my butt was a lot less sore too). All in all, I was definitely becoming more used to the conditions, operating in a more efficient manner and truly thoroughly enjoying my time out there.

Except that as we were getting very very close to the mark (Nathan estimated about 30 minutes or so), I got seasick. Not sure why. Maybe because of the fact that I was a) jetlagged, b) tired as my flight had been delayed and took longer than usual, c) everything was last minute preparation despite the wonderful help from Nathan who did as much as he could on his own before I got back, including food shopping. As a result, I didn't even think about taking something against sea sickness which is something I normally do before an ocean race. I don't often get seasick but it is so easy to prevent in my case as one non-drowsy medication seems to be working great that there isn't much downside to taking it. Also perhaps drinking a heavy to digest orange juice wasn't the best move ever. I have definitely never been seasick on the bay. Feeling sick isn't so much what bothers me. I remember times when I was seasick but still trimming sails on the low side - and one time when I took a nap for a couple of hours and ended up totally fine after that... - and you get some respite from time to time and I can use this time to do stuff. Frankly, after cancer treatment, a little vomiting appears pretty benign. For weeks, I felt that I was permanently seasick without stepping on a boat :)
Also, something that works great for me if I get seasick is to just take the helm. So long as I hold it, I am pretty good. Only problem is that my weight shifts down which is annoying for speed if I need to stay on the low side. I am not sure if I have shared that with you yet but everything that contains the word 'slow' in a sailing race feels quite irritating to me.

So initially, I was just really annoyed because it was killing our speed. The problem this time around is that I was also feeling very very sleepy and much worse, I became very cold very quickly, as in within seconds. I wasn't wet underneath my foul weather gear (a little wet butt but really not much) and I wasn't cold sitting on the rail in the wind. I was wearing a synthetic base layer, a warm fleece and a spray top that was pretty effective in cutting off the wind. I was colder even when I got off the wind. The weirdest thing. I took the helm but I was still getting colder so I decided to pass it back to Nathan to stay off the wind. Everything seems to slow down in my body. I was even past shaking...I could see the islands and all I was thinking was "hang on, the minute we turn downwind, you'll get warm again - and I knew that the upwind movement in these conditions are the worst, downwind with speed and surf, sea sickness wasn't going a problem at all" - however, since I wasn't getting any warmer and I was feeling dangerously colder and colder, Nathan proposed to turn around...HALF AN HOUR SHY OF OUR MARK!!!

I was feeling SO sorry for Nathan, and SO SO SO frustrated. I was having a great time, the waves were a ton of fun, the wind was absolutely great, Elise was zipping along (OK, I didn't like to see this Santa Cruz 27 zoom past us but we were taking steps to remedy that situation), I was starting to fantasize over the 25 mile downwind with France...I couldn't think of a better way to do the Farallones. The only downside was that due to some miscommunication, the bottle of wine was in my apartment, not on the boat...

I just tried to get warm very quickly. The minute we turned around, it helped a lot of course as we were off the wind, traveling with it. I also wrapped myself up in Nathan's foul weather jacket and tried to lay down at the bottom of the cockpit (not a great move initially for sickness reason) to get to the warmest spot of the outside of the boat. Yet it took me nearly an hour I think to warm up. After the last bout of sickness, I started to feel fine also from that point of view (which I knew would be just fine from experience) and I was coming back to life. I did a bit of driving. We didn't set France because for a while Nathan was handling the boat alone and then I wasn't sure if I should mess around with small line jobs or not and I should really get this practice at the bow, as opposed to the driving downwind. In hindsight, it would probably have been just fine but I guess that I acted conservatively...

Still feeling sorry for Nathan, sorry for myself and generally hating Poseidon. That was a bit of a downer. I since learned that a ton of boats didn't finish, including Red Sky. Another Express 27 had a problem with their mainsail so they had to turn around too, and apparently one other person got really sick and incapacitated on another boat. Maybe the complex wave pattern on that day was particularly bad for a certain type of person?

The only good thing is that it is always good to break the seasickness taboo, and you can argue that it would be part of a training. It is a fact of a sailor's life. The people who absolutely never become seasick are rare. And it is super hard to predict. I have been in worse conditions without being sick (on similar size bumpy boats), and in much calmer conditions and sick...(and I usually never experience seasickness). Like I said, on the Pac Cup, I will plan on being sick at the beginning and take measures against it so I can still operate and hold my place.

Anyway, bitter pill for me to swallow, despite Nathan's good-humored response. So I need to get back out there pretty soon and tame the Farallones before the Pac Cup in similar conditions.