Kind of long...
Yesterday the Volvo Ocean Race started their new leg from the Chesapeake Bay.
I had been really wanting to get on the water for this as this year the starting area was south of the bridge, meaning there weren't too many good places I could be to see it. The best seat in the house would probably have been on the bridge itself, and the bay bridge walk just happened to be on the same day. But still not up close and personal.
So I had been planning all along to get the F-27 in the water and be out there for the start. Actually, I had wanted to get it in for the parade of sails from Baltimore to Annapolist last Thursday, but that didn't happen. I threw the boat in on Saturday, with only the bare minimum of work that needed to be done for the season. I figured I could clean and wax the boat or go sailing. I will choose sailing every time...
I hadn't planned much on crew because I had thought my wife would be going with me with our 16 month old daughter. But we have yet to break her into the boat thing, ad we decided that this was not the time to do it.
So I got on the phone and made the calls and came up with nobody who could make it. Check the forecast, 5-10, ok, I'll just run the boat myself. Got all prepped and fueled up and all. Sunday morning I get up at 5:30 and the wind is howling! Thomas Point reads 20-24, small craft advisories in the NOAA forecast for the day. Crap! I wasn't about to go singlehanding an F-27 in very crowded conditions in heavy air. So I started the check and wait game. The start was at 1:00 pm so I figured there was time.
And sure enough, come about 9:00am the wind was dropping into the low teens, and the animated wind model was back to showing it going light for the day. Grabbed the rest of my stuff and went to the boat. Started the sail from the mouth of the Magothy river down to the starting area. The Coast Guard had closed of passage under the main span of the bridge for security concerns during the bridge walk, so I had to go all the east to the crossing point. By the time I got through, about all I could do was go down the east side of the spectator exclusion zone and pick a spot to anchor. I wanted to be on the west side, mainly because the bay is shallower over there, and I knew I would have no problem anchoring. But, I stuck to the east, nad ended up scrounging extra lines from below to add to the anchor rode.
Got anchored and set just as the boats were starting to jockey for the start. I figured I had an ok spot, not a great one, for watching the race. The wind was from the north, and Tri-Pawed settled with her nose pointing at the bridge, the starting line to the south just above Thomas Point.
But talk about luck (I won't chalk it up to clean living) - as soon as the boats started on startboard tack, a group of four decided to go hard to the east in search of breeze. Apparently they had asked the question that morning - was it ok for the racers to go through the press and spectator fleet? The answer was yes, and they wasted not time doing it. As they came up the east side to the east and through the spectators, I know had one of the seats in the house!
As I was watching the boats to the east, I looked astern and saw that Ericson was heading straight for me! Instructions to the spectators were to remain stationary, so I was just there to watch. They me passed me on my startboard side close enough that could have almost high-fived! Shortly after, their ceremonial crew member dove off the back to be picked up the Ericson RIB. Way cool!
Shortly after Moviestar goes by to port, very close, but not as close as Ericson. This is great!
As they headed up to the windward mark near the bridge, I'm thinking they will just pop the chutes and head straight down the race area, and that I won't get to see them up close an personal again. Wrong... Once the boats got established under spin, they jibed to port and once again went through the spectators on the east side. On the windward leg a ton of spectator boats followed them up, so the area was now thick with boats. The Volvo boats are now picking through them with spins up. Watching these boats move and accelerate with the breeze really reminded me of the way cats move under spin. Got a great view of the pack of boats once again one the east side of me as they headed south. But then I look up and here comes ABN AMRO heading straight for me under spin. They passed me to port almost as close as Ericson had going upwind. Completely amazing!
So of course these boats go by close, and they're all spiffy clean and new, and they see my boat which still had a bunch of stuff from trees and dirt on it. Probably looked like the Waterworld kind of thing to them...
After it was done had a great sail on the Bay, although winds were dying and clouds started to come in.
Anyway, what a great thing to be in the middle of! first pic attached is off the stern of the boat towards the starting line, boats are maneuvering pre-start.
(Had to spend time with the inlaws.) But after seeing those pictures... Lets just say wow, that must have been really cool. I hope you didn't use up all of your good luck this season on that one event though.