Westsail 32 Tortuga - 2025 Singlehanded Drakes Bay Race скачать в хорошем качестве

Westsail 32 Tortuga - 2025 Singlehanded Drakes Bay Race

Tortuga sailed in the Drakes Bay Race this past weekend. The forecast was looking promising for Saturday with NNW winds in the mid to high teens and 10-14knots for the return on Sunday. It was breeze on at the start and with the well timed ebb, the fleet was swept out in the misty fog. Tortuga started out with a reefed main & staysail and I hoisted the small jib once across the start line. It was a bit sloppy around Point Bonita with the clash of ebb and wind. The breeze lighten up once out and towards Bolinas/Duxbury. There was a break in the grey skies around 2pm with some sun and the wind jumped into the low 20s. Tortuga put in a 2nd reef in the main and tacked out away from shore hoping to make up for the initial slow going. About 20min after that burst of sunshine and breeze a fog bank from the North enveloped us and our speed dropped from 6.5 to 3 knots within 15 minutes. I shook out all the reefs and was back to trying to point in the light breeze and swell. By 3pm the wind had completely died and I was rolling around with slatting sails in dense fog. At that point I was contemplating just motoring the remaining way up to Drakes Bay which would have been about 3 hours or turn and head back to SF. Although the cut off for the race was 10pm, I didn’t want to arrive at Drakes Bay at night in the fog with a bunch of anchored boats trying to find the finish line. I opted to turnaround and retire. The motor sail back to the bay was super quick and I got the full benefit of the flood doing 7.5-8knots and hitting 9knots once approaching the bridge. The fog was so thick I couldn’t see any reference points on land. There was one small fishing boat trolling along slowly that ghosted past about a hundred feet away. He didn’t show up on AIS so I was glad I was keeping a close watch as I came in. I didn’t see the bridge until I was almost directly under it. I was back in the bay around 5pm so I was happy with my decision. I heard from other racers that the weather on Sunday ended up being really really light for the most part of the day, so I would have rolled around in the fog all day on Sunday and had to battled an ebb trying to get back into the bay Sunday evening. I made up for an unsuccessful weekend race attempt by having a beautiful sail to Angel Island and afternoon with family on Sunday. Maybe I’ll have better luck in the upcoming Half Moon Bay race in September!