For the 4th year Sam once again signed us up for the Shaw Island classic at the end of our boating vacation in the San Juan and Gulf Islands. Each year there has been very little wind but the day before it was blowing pretty well. Heading back from Succia on Friday we had quite a bit of wind and it looked like that it might continue for Saturday. The forecasts were predicting 10+ knots of wind so maybe this year would be the one we weren't trying frantically trying finish before the deadline.
Turns out we are once again hoping next year brings winds since they had completely died by the noon start. As in previous years boats were drifting to the starting line and it took many almost an hour just to get across the line. It was a huge tide change and the currents weren't in our favor for the first part of the race. But if we could get through the currents and go counter clockwise around Shaw we would be good for the second half of the race.
The problem with that thinking was that we never actually got to the halfway point. In fact we never made much progress at all. Boats starting calling the committee boat around 1:30 to quit which was the earliest ever. The reason? In addition to no wind we had plenty of rain. I can't even count the number of times the boom filled with water and dumped. Sam was on his second set of foul weather gear by 2:30. It wasn't the best day of sailing we ever had.
We did see Friday Harbor from every angle. We floated by it, drifted back by it, saw it from far away, up close, almost got close to getting past it and then drifted back by it once more. After several times of this over the course of almost 4 hours Sam decided to call it a day. I had suggested since we were drifting back maybe we should just try to go around the other way - after all we were headed in that direction. Both Sam and dad told me we wouldn't make it and I pointed out it didn't seem like we were going to make it this way but they didn't give in.
Getting back for the awards ceremony we wondered if there would even be any awards but there were. The fastest time, fastest corrected time, and first in class all belonged to one boat - the only one that finished. And of course the only boat to finish had tried to go the way we went and turned around when they drifted back. As I heard this I gave Sam the "I told you so look" and let him know he really should have listened to me.
The skipper then told the story of how he finished the race when none of us had even gotten close. Turns out it was a bit of a wild ride with 10 feet of depth when he drew 7, dodging docks and buoys, and hugging the shoreline and then hoping he had enough wind to head out when the depth was too shallow. It sounded like a bit of a harrowing experience and suddenly I wasn't too angry we hadn't gone the other way. It was a bit more of a race than I had been looking to participate in. While I am competitive that seemed a bit more than I could handle even if it would have meant a wind.
I still think the only reason Sam called it a day was that he didn't have a third full set of foul weather gear and we were running out of places to put it so it could eventually dry out. I am pretty sure it was almost a week before some of it did dry out. The only good news is that I didn't ever have to say once during the race that we were leaning over too far or to let out the sails a bit. In fact for once I was actually hoping for wind, much more wind which isn't something I think has happened much before.
Of course Sunday once again we had plenty of wind just in time for the trip home. And then I was complaining about the boat leaning over too far which is normal except we didn't even have the sails up.
