Last week was quite an exciting time in Chicago. Hundreds of sailboats all ready for a 330 mile long (290 Nautical Mile) race. The weather was looking pretty good, strong winds out of the southwest, and a cold front later in the day. Let it Blow!
We got out there, with our scraggly crew about 1.5 hours before the start. 11 crew members, all men, who love sailing and having a good time. We are sailing Valkyrie, a 40', J120 sailboat. The crew has been sailing together off and on for 4 years now, and getting good.
As a sign of the day to come, we decide that we should get in a little practice with the heavy wind spinnaker, before the race... Good luck! It's blowing 25-30 knot gusts out there, and anybody who sails, knows its pretty ridiculous weather to be putting up a spinnaker! So, we decide to wait till the start, and see what the other boats are doing. After making that choice, we turn the boat around towards the starting area, and as we jibe the sail across, WHAM! Something goes flying. We're looking around to see what we broke! It's a winch handle... MAN it is windy! We take this as a sign to be more careful...
We struggle to get to the line, with our jib up, but somehow manage the jib with a minute left to the start. And, have noticed that most boats are preparing to set the spinnakers! We cross the line a little behind, which is ok on a downwind start, it lets us pick where to head, and steal the other boats wind.
Well, 25-30 knots is pumping us down the lake! We're pulling in the other J120's, and flying. John Moore (the Captain / owner / speed demon) has up flying just on the edge, John (AKA Hot Tub) is flying the chute, and Big Mac and Sleshy on the main sail. I'm looking for big wind gusts that might cause us to "wipeout".
Pic: Irish Mike grinding the chute
I think we got upto over 11 knots, and averaging almost 10 knots. Moore is playing the wheel perfectly, and we break even and pass the J 120's. Each wave needs to be counter acted, while the guy pulling the chute and main need to be sure to let it out, if we swing too much, and keep the sails flying just on the edge for max speed.
Wow! We saw many boats wipeout, and we had one minor wipeout ourselves... But, overall, we're flying, and only one boat is breaking from the pack along the shore towards Milwaukee, to the predicted wind shift that night. Let her ride :-)
By the time we read to go off watch, the wind has gone LIGHT. And much to our annoyance, the flies have come. I don't know where they live, but where there is no wind on Lake Michigan, the flies are TERRIBLE! They get below, annoying us while we attempt to sleep. They are landing on any part of flesh they can and sometimes they even bite! On deck, they congregate in the cockpit, and swarm the skipper... Later, we are woken up by calls to get on deck, the cold front has arrived! And did it arrive! At least 15 degrees colder, and now 20 knots of wind coming from in front of us! We do our sail changes, and are now tight to the wind, on main and small jib.
The waves are picking up and getting rough. Time to put on the Foul Weather gear... We get up on the rail and stay up there for about 3 hours! Waves are going over the front of the boat, and I'm the splash guard (1st person gets the waves 1st, and often protects the rest from the water). Well, the water is flying, but it's warm! Each time my feet get soaked, it actually feels good! We decide to eat dinner. Irish Mike, is down below, heating up concoction from Sleshy, curry and lentils, which was really tasty, but would later create a wind of our own :-) It takes him a while, as the boat is tilted at about 45 degrees, and each wave we hit, wants to send the pot flying across the boat!
We're sitting on the rails, with our backs to the waves, hovering over our dinner, making sure a wave doesn't turn it into soup. After that's done, someone notices our lights not working. "Sometimes, if you tap it, it will fix it" someone told me. So, I head up there, ready to take on the waves which are still pounding over the bow. I give it a few taps, nothing.. A little harder, and it looks like it's moving... Oh shit!!! There went the light!
Out comes a spare light... Thank goodness! I go up front again, with the spare light tied on, so I can't loose it, and manage to find a decent place to clamp it on. In between waves, I get a twist on the clamp. Again and again, I am getting nailed by waves. I'm pretty much soaked thru by now, as waves have been over my head multiple times and are still coming. Somehow, I've screwed up the tie down, and can't get on a second hitch. I fiddle around for a good 10 minutes, and finally decide to run back, and get another tie. Got that done quick, and headed back to get into my dry fleece.
That night, we made good time, sailed within 7 miles of the Wisconsin shore. Abandoning our Rhum Line theory (shortest course) and sailed on the favored tack. Again, the wind is getting lighter. We go for another sail change, and somehow for the 2nd time, our light jib is crossed inside it's self! We're adjusting this when PSHHHHHHHH !!! Ahhh! My lifejacket just Auto released all its air, and expanded around my neck in less than 1 second! I try to figure out how to release the air, but got too many things going on, so just focus on getting the sail correct, and UP! It took us a while to adjust the jib and do all the lines right. I'm trying my best to jump the halyard. But, the freaking lifejackt really made it hard. My arms need to be held out like a gorilla to get around it :-) We get it all up, in another poor sail change (early on, we had some pretty sore times on sail changes)... And, finally, I'm shown how to release the air... Needless to say, we switched it over to manual inflate for the rest of the race.
Finally, we get down below to get some rest. All the bunks have been taken already, so I'm stuck on the floor sleeping on one of the spinnakers. Which would be fine, except there is a big #1 Jib, kinda making me feel like the inside of a Taco! Well, I might have gotten a few minutes of sleep, but my back is killing, and I was just laying there, listening to what was going on... Later in the trip, I made sure to put in the ear plugs, and found that a Miller Light after watch, really knocks me out!
The next morning is great. We got the spinnaker flying again, and it's beautiful. We are making a direct course for northern Michigan, and moving well. Hot Tub has been flying the chute (a different name for the spinnaker) for hours. I decide to give it a try. I've done a little before, but not a lot on big boats. The first 30 minutes, I'm pulling, and getting pretty tired. It takes a lot just to keep the sail from going out further. Finally, I ask for another wrap around the winch, and ahhhh, so much easier! I really started enjoying it. I think I ended up trimming the chute for 3 hours, the whole time Moore was reeling in more boats, and we were climbing back to 1st place...
Pic: Ed Kearns flying the Chute
By that evening, we were hot on the 1st place boat, when all of the sudden, we could see a LOT of boat lights. We're flying in into the Manitous, thinking its gonna be a good night, when all the sudden we drop from 8 knots to almost nothing! We got stuck in a huge hole (an area without wind). So were all the boats ahead!
We went off watch, and caught some sleep. When we woke, we had moved a few miles, and couldn't really tell where the other boats were. All we knew was that there was still no wind. Mad Dog puts on the Skippers favorite song for the 5th time, (Skipper hates Tiny Dancer :-) In the distance, we could see a line of clouds, but as it got closer, we realized it was a fog bank! It was slowly catching us. But as it got close, we saw it had wind. So, we headed strait for it. The breeze picked up, and as the fog surrounded us, we were moving again.
Strange things happen in the fog...
We were moving again, so were having a pretty good time. At one point Moore had the steering wheel, and the spinnaker sheet in his hand, while grooving to the Greatful Dead. We just kept moving. At other points we were just laughing hard, being stupid. We even had to send Ed up the mast in the fog! Well, our watch was over, we headed down, an after 30 minutes, we heard the dreaded fog horn! Big cargo boats running through at 20 knots! We could hear the engines... We got on the radio, (a lot of other boats did too) But, they said they could see us on their radar. (As far as I know, no boats got hit :-)
We pulled out of the fog, hot on the leaders tracks again, 5 miles behind, but closing fast. We headed strait across the lake, and pulled within about a mile before the bridge, we were close, but needed some luck to win. We headed under, as the wind was dying... This time, 2 miles from the finish, we found another hole...
It took us almost 6 hours to make it in... The last 2 miles was 5 hours!!! Whenever the breeze came in just a little, we could tell by the smell. They don't have cars on Mackinac island, so the horse poop smell would travel with the breeze. We were pretty much delirious by then. Being so close to the docks and the party, but no wind! We tried everything to keep the boat moving. Ed took over on the radio, and kept us positive, with good tunes. And later with one of the funnies songs, an Arnold Schwarzenegger workout tune. Words can't describe the moment, but Ed dancing to this song, doing the workout word for word... Up, down, Up, down... We were dying laughing... This attitude pushed us past another boat for a final arrival time around 3:30.
We got in got inspected, found our spot on the dock, cleared the boat a little, and then... We all shotgunned beers, and started the party. Lots of people on the docks and awake, we kept on till about 8:30 AM...
The next day, we crawled out for breakfast then the big party! Free booze for all... A beautiful sunny day, free Mount Gay Rum, and hundreds of people who have been on boats for 3 days. We got good and sauced, met lots of people, and eventually made our way back to town. We planted ourselves in the local bar, The Pink Pony. Playing the finger game, absolutly trashed, we had attracted a crowd of people. We tried our best to fill the table with empties, but I was pretty much drooling and taking out of my ass by the time we left (so I've heard).
Some Party highlights... Skipper getting escorted by police men from the party (we were on the way out anyway :-) and later shooting mayonnaise across the Pink Pony. Me trying to hail a taxi about 2 blocks on an island without cars. The team having wheel barrel races in the street. Waking back up at 4 AM by Naydine, pumping Kid Rock loud enough for the whole harbor to hear, and jumping into Lake Michigan, and... having a few more beers...
The next day was spent on a big nice bus, beers on ice, riding back with Ed...
Needless to say, there are lots of details I've already forgotten, or did not witness... But, man what a FUN TRIP!
Crew
John Moore (Skipper)
Ed Kearns (Sir Ed or Drunk Ed)
Jon Madorsky (Mad Dog)
John Schlesinger (Sleshy)
Joey Saccone (Joey Sac)
Jon McGuane (Big Mac)
Mike Lovatt (Irish)
John Martin (Hot Tub or Big John)
Tom Trimmer (Trimmer)
Jim Mcdevit
Names Front Row, L to R... Moore's Dad, Hot Tub, Joey Sac, Lela, Seth, Moore's mom
Names Back Row, L to R... Mad Dog, Sleshy, Jim, Eddie K, Skipper, Irish, Big Mac
We were feeding the ray, and actually PETTING the wild ray!
And just hangin in the sun...
Another pic from my Birthday...
We rented some tents... Greg is hiding from the Sun, while Melanie, of course is loving it!
