Spinnaker Cup

This weekend was the Spinnaker Cup. The race starts on Friday around noon and heads out South to Monterey. The weather forecast indicated 20-30 knots downwind. We were both SO excited at the idea of a run under the perfect wind conditions for Elise. We are already making plans to come back beating and stopping in Santa Cruz and Half-Moon Bay...

Our day started with a high drama factor as Pumpkin the cat went missing. We looked for him for quite a while...fortunately he wasn't too far away and came back, scared and dusty only to disappear in his 'office' (bedroom closet) - we then rushed to the boat, hosted the main and rigged everything else on our way to the start line. We even finished some of the rigging under way.

However, past the gate, Nat asked 'where did the 20-30 knot breeze go? This feels more like sub-10" - To which Nathan replied 'and where is the downwind part of the race?

We continued on, decided to stay along the shore as we weren't actually sure that there would be a lot more wind offshore according to the weather forecast and there may not have been enough to give boats an advantage over the shortest distance to the finish. Of course, this is also a bit of a gamble. Around 6:30PM, we were barely reaching Pillar Point, even though our boat speed was pretty good...No wind and showers was on the menu for the night, so we decided to abandon the race...We hate this but this race was mainly for some offshore practice and continuing didn't seem to be the best use of our time that weekend. We pulled into Pillar Point Harbor and met up with other Spinnaker Cup dropouts, for the very same reason...In the end, Tom and Eliza and Nathan and I ended up celebrating our decision at a local restaurant. The following day, we realized that it had indeed rained...We left mid-morning for San Francisco and had a very pleasant spinnaker leg all the way to the Club...

Learning:
The new cleats (at an angle) to allow the driver to trim the kite from the driving seat worked beautifully.

The new cabin top cleats allowed us to cross-sheet when hoisting the spinnaker (and still keep the jib well trimmed)

We need to attach the bucket quite tightly to the boat...We lost our only toilet about a mile after Miles Rock. The head is way up there with the hull and sails in terms of importance...even if we favor usefulness over comfort. So please, if you do find a plastic bucket with a broken lanyard, return it to: 'Elise' @ only blue trailer on the Saint Francis YC docks.
- and I hate to pollute the ocean...I so much hope it will end up pretty soon on the lee shore and make someone's day.

We need to replace the plastic ties for the strobe more regularly. The ones at the top just broke and our strobe ended up in the water, flashing at very regular intervals: "help me", "help me", "help me". This gave us the opportunity to do some cool man overboard practice. In about a minute, we had turned around and stop head to wind next to the strobe (which we keep for the nightlife on the boat). It took three attempts though as it is very difficult to get a good grip on something that doesn't have much in the way of nice handles...Each time though, we went close to the object and Nathan could touch it. He perfected the technique, with the boat hook and became an expert at Strobe recovery, which will come in handy on a long-distance ocean race.

The mounted VHF works great and didn't let us down.

Very cool to bring a waterproof/cooling lunch box up on deck for the most immediate food needs.

Sitting on these nice blue waterproof cushions was a real delight after so many years on raw fiberglass...

I got sick for a few minutes just after Miles Rock for the following couple of reasons:
1) I started the race dehydrated
2) Hadn't had anything to eat for the past 5 hours.
Anyway, this was very temporary and I wasn't totally incapacitated during the nauseous stages :) I recovered quickly by just taking the helm again for a few minutes.
I then ate little bit by little bit and drank a lot of water (thinking about our ex-bucket...) and experienced no other problem. - and remember: I am assuming that I will get sick at some point during the Pac Cup. Also that it won't take long and that there is a lot that I can do to minimize that risk or the consequences.

I also heard that quite a few people got a little queasy on that day, and some really sick, so maybe there was something super special about this particular wave pattern. Not sure.

Apparently, the fastest boat on the course, a TP52 finished around 2 or 3AM (!!!) ad the 40 footers didn't get there before 10-11am the following day. I think that one Express (not double-handed division) finished in 36 hours!! Totally crazy...and a lot of DNFs...

More about what we did with the rest of the weekend in a couple of posts...