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2003 Annapolis to Newport Regatta Cont.
Then a looming oversight was realized. Since the start of the race it was obvious to all who paid attention that the #2 reef line was not rigged through the sail, although it was rigged through the boom. Now we needed it and had to rig it. Not easy given the conditions. The main had to be lowered to be able to reach the eyelet in the luff to feed the reef line through. During the hoist back up the wind caught the reef line and pulled the working end into the boom. It took another 15 minutes to rig blocks at the clew and tack to run the reef line external to the boom. When that was done, the boat was finally well balanced and we continued to truck up the coast. by mid afternoon the sea was 8 to 10 feet and the wind was blowing 25 knots.
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Tuesday morning on the 2 to 6 AM watch the winds started to moderate and came down to 18 to 20 knots and then declined further after that. Dawn brought the sights of Atlantic City, NJ into view. Winds went down to 6 to 10 knots. By 10:00 AM AC was still barely visible. As we continued north the winds continued to move clockwise, from Northeast to East, then to Southeast. We were still on the same starboard tack from the Chesapeake sea buoy, so we were continuously lifted enabling us to parallel the coast. We passed about 20 miles east of Ambrose light.
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Tuesday night--Off the Long Island coast , 6 to 10 knot winds were OK. From 10:00 pm to 2:00 AM the winds went forward and lightened forcing us into a beat. Ride the lifts and tack on the headers. We tacked from Shineconk to Fire Island. Eventually the wind went back far enough aft so that we could fetch Montauk. On our off watch the wind went forward again and we were forced again to beat. When we came back on deck we were scolded by the skipper for not taking everything to weather. Shortly thereafter the wind went aft far enough to set the chute so we woke up the skipper to ask permission to do so. Following the last orders to take everything to weather would point us to the Azores. The ride was short-lived however, the wind went forward again and we rode the chute into the beach and dropped it for the #1. By Wednesday morning the wind backed again and the ride turned into a screaming power reach. We were overpowered reaching with the 1.75 oz. spinnaker up, pole on the head stay. We rode this 25-28 knot breeze through Block Island Sound to 5 miles from the finish.
Then the wind crapped out again. We peeled to the 0.5 oz. chute and crawled through the finish 9 minutes behind the #1 boat in our division, Valkyrie, and 20 minutes ahead of the #3 boat in our division another Cal 40 named Nicole. We got the "2" spot. Fourth place overall in the PHRF fleet.
Thanks to Gary for some of the images