NHYC Race To Cabo San Lucas

One of the mantras of a cruiser is to write your schedule in sand because the weather dictates departure dates.  Not so for racing sailors.

The class before us jockeying around the start line.

We were scheduled to depart Newport Beach on Sunday, March 17th and regardless of the weather, the race would begin.  However, at the last minute our race start was moved up to Saturday and the only other boat in our class bowed out of the race.  We believe the forecasted lack of wind was the reason for their withdrawal.

We had “six souls” on board TTR for the race and we divided into two groups of three for watches.  Although most race boats seem to keep a four hours watch schedule, we asked our crew to take one 6 hour watch each night and two three hour watches during the day. 

I don’t know if everyone liked that rotation, but it has worked for Frank and me when we are passaging without others on board because we get one longer period of sleep which helps us feel rested.   

Gino looks on as Rogan goes up the mast.

Early in the race, Rogan went up the mast of TTR to make certain all the lines and sails looked good and that the hardware was nicely tightened.

Gino, James and I took the first night watch from 7 pm to 1 am and Frank, Rogan and Kristen took the 1am to 7 am shift.

Moonrise was beautiful at the start of my evening watches.

I’m not sure who had the bad mojo on our watch, but on several nights the wind dropped from reasonable to almost nothing. Our instruments actually read “0.0” for several minutes at a time before jumping all the way to 1knot.  You know the wind is light when you are excited to see 3 knots of true wind speed.

Though I would have enjoyed better winds during our watch, I learned a lot from Gino and James as they discussed tactics to optimize the conditions. 

Gino used a flash light to check sail trim at night and I was able to watch the path of his light and try to learn by observing the areas he checked and the changes he made based on his observations.

Wide open sunset at sea.

From my perspective it seemed like each night about 15 minutes before our watch ended, the wind would improve, we would set the sail trim, then Frank’s shift would take over the helm.

Once Frank’s group took over the watch, very few adjustments were made to the sails for the next few hours! That makes for an easy watch, if a little uninteresting.

Looking at the speeds and miles covered you would think Frank, Rogan and Kristen were the heroes on board, but my watch was really helpful for four reasons: 1. I had a lot of sail raising and trimming practice, 2. The watch went quickly because we were constantly changing sails and trim 3. I learned a lot by listening and observing Gino and 4. It was easier to sleep during our off watch time because Frank’s group hardly had to adjust the sails while we were sleeping!

Gino toasting sunset with a touch of merlot.

We managed to be very comfortable on TTR during the race and we all sat down to dinner each night.  I am pretty certain this is the first time Gino had a glass of wine while ‘racing’  and I know that was true for Rogan.

Thanks for this pic of Frank, Gino!

Most race boats don’t grill hamburgers during the race! But comfort and speed blend well on Ticket To Ride.

Happy birthday, Gino!

We had the added pleasure of celebrating Gino’s birthday during the race. Laura Morrelli snuck a tiramisu on board before we left and we all enjoyed the treat.

For those who are interested in the numbers here are a few and I am including our log so you can see just how light the wind was and our notes during the race.

Nautical Miles: About 900 (sorry forgot to note that)  Official Duration: 5 days 17 hours 47 minutes  Average speed: 6.5k  Max speed: 24.3k  Sea Conditions: very mild.

By far our most common sail configuration was the mainsail and reacher. 

Reacher, jib and mainsail at one time.

One night Gino, James and I added the staysail to try and maximize the tiny puffs of wind. That configuration lasted several hours.

We also had one day when the wind and waves piped up so we dropped the reacher and flew the jib; we had a great time at the helm as we practiced surfing TTR down the waves.

A bright moon reflecting off the water and boom.

We were really fortunate that the moon was waxing and the skies were clear so night time was well illuminated. 

As we sailed south, the water temperature increased slightly and we knew it was getting warmer when we began seeing flying fish.

One afternoon Kristen spotted something floating in the water and thought it might be a log.

In the pic, the seal’s flipper is down again.

It turned out to be a seal floating on its’ back with a flipper pointed up acting a bit like a sail.  The seal was totally chilled floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I really wished I could pass him an umbrella drink to rest on his tummy as he drifted along!

This pod of dolphins jumped a lot!

We also so dolphins several times jumping in the distance. Only once or twice did a dolphin play near our bow.  It seems like the Caribbean dolphins were more likely to swim with our boat, but we have seen a greater number of dolphins on the west coast.

We saw the blow of a whale once or twice and James saw one breach, but I didn’t see it.

Gratuitous sunset.

All in all the Race to Cabo was a great time. Everyone on board contributed so the work loads were shared.  Best of all, everyone meshed well, there was good input for decisions, the personalities complimented one another and no one on board dominated the discussions or decisions.

The whole race thing is a different mind set than Frank and I are accustomed to and I am not certain how I feel about it.  I like that races force you to be committed to sailing and making use of the environment and wind.  BUT I found it really frustrating to be at a complete standstill when we have two perfectly good engines ready to move us forward.

Though I have no experience, I think day races would be more interesting since the strategy of each boat is apparent much more quickly, thus the reward or penalty is more immediate.

We were on our way to Cabo with or without the race and I am glad we participated in it. Since we were racing what is actually our home, our team motto was “Party Not Podium.”

Ironically, we earned the podium but arrived too late for the party!

With only ourselves in the class we managed to take the award for first place!

Celebrating our finish of the NHYC Race to Cabo!

Frank and I are very impressed with how well TTR sails in light wind. The ability to sail in light air is one of the features that sold us on the HH55.

Yes, TTR can sail fast, but it is also exceedingly pleasant to sail well in lower wind speeds and calmer seas.

Several people had asked for details about our Race to Cabo experience. I hope this answers your questions. If not, ask and I’ll try to answer what I missed.

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