The First 24 Hours
We had a great send off from Victoria Harbour with friends and family seeing us off. There were a few teary eyes and heavy hearts, both on the boat and ashore as we pulled away from the Causeway Floats in front of the Empress Hotel.
We were fortunate to have Edward & Jane Karadontis escort us out to the start line with some of our family members aboard their beautiful Sabre 36. The weather at the start couldn't have been better with a 15-20kt westerly blowing and a strong ebb tide to push us along. At the starting gun we trimmed in the sails, were at the line and off we went on our 2,300 mile journey to Maui.
The sail out the Strait of Juan de Fuca was an excellent way to kick things off with constant winds from the West in excess of 20 knots pushing the boat as fast as she could go up wind with the occasional reef. Shortly after the start Turnagain, along with Turicum and Passepartout, begun to break away from the other boats in our early start (the remaining ten boats start on Saturday). The day was spent jockeying for first place up the straight through Race Rocks and all the way to the tip of the Olympic peninsula. After over 12 hours we were still gladly diving and dodging one another as we closely swapped tacks with Turicum and Passepartout.
As evening approached, Darin prepared the first of many excellent meals (beef fajitas). I am happy to say that despite rolly-polly sea conditions we are all still holding our food down! During dinner Travis asserted his dominance as captain by cleaning up our dinner time game of 80's trivia, hosted by Ty. Travis' knowledge of Don Johnson movies is second to none.
After dinner, as we rounded the tip of the Olympic peninsula and took our first steps into the Pacific, the team soaked in a wonderful sunset with a small group of sea lions harping at us from astern. As night took hold and the temperature dropped, the wind bobbed around us as we struggled to get around the Cape Flattery bell bouy, our sole mark between Victoria and Maui. Shortly after rounding, the wind picked up for an hour and we had our first run under spinnaker with only the stars to navigate by. After an hour of screaming downwind the falling temperature took the steam out of our thermal breeze and left us with little do aside from bob around watching the navigation lights of our competitors in similar conditions at unknown distances, also waiting for more breeze.
We spent the night on 4 hour watches listening to a mix of Adam and Ty's music (U2's Joshua Tree right now), trying to keep the boat moving and spirits high as we charge towards Maui. We are having a blast and keeping busy with Steve Corcoran walking us through hoisting and dousing each sail in our inventory as we try to lock in a solution to our wind problem.
We are seeing lots of wildlife including: orcas, humpback whales, dolphins, great white sharks (possibly just a menacing looking dogfish), seals, sea lions, and millions of floating jelly fish with sails on them.
It's Friday morning now, time to turn the computer back over to pulling weather data. As we get into Tuna territory the focus is shifting from sail changes to getting the hooks baited. Stay posted for results from the first daily Turnagain Tuna Derby! <queue banjo music>
Check back for more news later today!
Happy Birthday to Ty's daughter Daylie ( July 2nd) and Jason's Daughter Katherine (July 3rd).
Miss you all already,
The boys on Turnagain
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