Epic Delta Ditch

Last Saturday was JetStream's inaugural Delta Ditch Run.  I had done the race previously on other boats but never taken mine.  The race is generally a downwind run from the Northern San Francisco Bay, up the Delta through the San Joaquin River into the city of Stockton.   About 65 miles.  Navigation is key to this race as there are mud flats hidden outside the marked channels and knowing what corners to cut is critical to do well.  Though sticking the boat in the mud could easily end the day.  I had been stressing about the navigation and memorizing and documenting as much as possible.  With a short crew of just 3, we can't always have someone focused on navigation and with the predicted strong winds the twists and turns will come very quickly at us.

For the race we had our regular crew with Andrew and Rob.  Andrew would be the trimmer, a long day on that spinnaker sheet, and Rob would do everything else while I drove.  I think at the end Rob ended up with the more demanding job, both working the pointy end, preparing the boat for the many transitions in the race and navigating us to the finish.

The start of the race was pretty hectic.  We didn't have a stellar start and were a few seconds late.  It was a downwind start and soon everyone was working to get their kites up.  We started at the pin on the leeward side in order to be able to cleanly bear away and set and we were off to the races.  With boats broaching in front of us, we chose a low line to stay clear of the mayhem.  With solid 20 knots and some flood current to help us along we were soon in San Pablo Bay making our way to Vallejo. 

Into San Pablo Bay there was a lot of South component to the breeze which make it impossible to hold the big kite up and stay clear of the Pinole Channel.  At this point we were even with the J125 Double Trouble leading the fleet out to Vallejo.  Over the protestation of the crew I called to switch down to our Code0 to come up on the course.  It was a good call.  DT below us carried the kite a bit longer but had to drop to white sails, same with the rest of the fleet behind us.   As we passed Pinole Pt. the wind started to clock back and we went back to our A2 leading the fleet into the Carquinez Straight.   By this point the wind had moderated back into the teens and DT, the Melges 32 and the Sierra 26 were charging hard behind us.  As we got under the Carquinez bridge DT had snuck ahead and the Melges and Sierra continued their chase through Benicia.

Into Suisun Bay the winds continued to stay on the lighter side the Melges had gotten in front of us and the Sierra was close approaching.  As we tried to stretch the edges of the channel to reduce the number of gybes we were always paranoid about the mud flats.  Rob did a great job keeping us in deep water.   Two of our close competitors wouldn't be as lucky.  The Sierra found the mud on the Northern edge of the channel, though after a few minutes they were able to free up and continue racing.  For DT the encounter with the mud on the Southern edge will end their day.  The wind and current pushed them into shallower water and they eventually had to use their engine to free themselves.  Through the Mallard Slough it was just the Melges leading the way (thankfully with strong local knowledge of the Delta) with us matching them gybe for gybe all the way through to Sherman Island.

The winds have kept of building from the latter part of Suisun Bay onwards and we were now clocking some good speeds over the water.  We were soon approaching a notorious mark of the course, Marker 19.  This section of the course looks like an upside down U, which forces a few sail changes and transitions.  We thought we could hold our smaller kite, but we had killer puffs coming over Sherman Island into the mid 30s.  The water in front of us was churning white and some of the multihulls ahead were in pure survival mode.  So down comes the kite and we are back to white sails as we reach up the back side of Sherman Island.  This was a crazy reach with winds now in the high 20s and 30s.  These are pretty good conditions for the JS and we were able to get ahead of the Melges again and leading the fleet of monohulls.  Around the top of the inverted U there are opportunities to cut some corners and reset for a short downwind section.  But without the lead of the Melges we decided to be conservative and stay in the channel.  We also didn't have a good chance to prepare for this transition and weren't prepared to set the small kite on the top section.  So we chose to reset the Code0 again.  It helped, but the boats behind us who got to set made up some ground on us.  We were still neck to neck with the Melges, but we had some issues as we came down the backside of the inverted U and they got ahead again.

We had an opportunity to catch them again when it was time to reset the big kite for the start of a long narrow downwind section to the finish after Prisoners Point.  Give the ferocity to the winds we had just experienced we decided to go back up with the A5, but as we entered the narrow channel the winds subsided.  We had to go back to white sails while we set up to reset the bigger A2 and by then the Sierra got back in front of us.  It is good to have all the options on the sails.  But managing all those sails with just 2 crew and a 3 foot wide foredeck showed some limitations.  It is something we will plan better the next time around.

This next section of the course, the final stretch, worried me a bit.  I wasn't sure how competitive we could be on a 300 - 400 ft channel doing gybe after gybe downwind against boats that could square back their symmetrical spinnakers and just go straight down the river.  But we built a significant cushion on the reachy legs of the course to hold them back.  The Farr 40 behind us made a strong push to catch us into the finish but they ran out of course.

@ Slackwater   At the finish

We were the 3rd monohull to cross the finish line, with the Melges 32 and the Sierra 26 in front of us by only a couple hundred yards.  It was a really fun battle with those two boats, exchanging places multiple times during the race.  We had completed the race just shy of 6 hours and were very satisfied with our performance.   Both Andrew and I had cramping arms, and Rob was both mentally and physically exhausted from all the demands we put on him.  It had been a good race.

Thanks to Rob and Andrew for a great race and helping delivering the boat back the next day.  That was mostly a 12 hr hate mission.  But I'll leave that for another post (or not).  Need to find a road trailer before next years race.

HDA-1 video

Rob Blackmore's finest so far.  We keep evolving the angle and the number of camera's onboard.  Fun to watch but a lot of effort to edit.  Thanks Rob.

HDA-1 Results and Photo Sequence

Photo credits to Rob Blackmore our foredeck (well forward most crew)

HDA-1

Not sure why more sportboats don't join HDA.  It has consistently provided some of the best sportboat conditions for the last few years.   Saturday was no exception.   Last year they even gave us our own start but the low turnout had them move us back to the regular PHRF fleet.  All good we had about 6 sportboats this time around, with a 1D35, a Mumm30, an Ultimate 24, a GP 26 and a turbo'ed Hobie 33 joining JetStream in the fast PHRF division.

 Even though the NWS was for 10-20 the central bay delivered a solid 15-25 with mostly flat water.  Ideal  and welcomed conditions after weeks of sailing in light air.

The RC sent us on the long course which had us going from the start/finish line in the Berkeley Circle, up to Harding, down to 21 and 8, back up to Harding and finally back to the finish.  A little over 12 miles of racing.

Saturday we had our regular crew, with Rob and Andrew.  We got off to a great start and chose the left side of the course.  There was still a lingering flood but it wasn't very strong and I didn't want to play chicken with the lee of Angel.  On a stronger flood we would have gone right, but in this case we chose left.  The fleet quickly split between the lefties and the righties until we were the only ones left on the left side.  We still had some good company with the Express 37 fleet behind us heading towards the cone in Alcatraz and quickly catching up to us.  But we flinched and decided to go back and stay in some contact with our fleet.  Not sure this paid off.  I think had we gone a little farther and gotten into the cone it would have been an even shot, but tacking early left us exposed on the remaining flood.  The Mumm which had been pretty even with us until we split rounding Harding a 100 yds or so ahead of us, with the 1D35 already past Alcatraz on their way to 21 by the time we rounded.  So we will be in catch up mode.  But we now had the breeze.  With the kite up we were holding 14 and 15 knots and quickly catching up and passing the boats ahead.  We caught up to the Mumm 30 near Alcatraz and had passed Ohana and Mintaka before we reached 21.  To us it looked like the 1D35 went quite a bit past the gybe mark, as they were pretty far down.  The reach from 21 to 8 was fully powered up with our A2 and we were flying with spray all over the boat.  The 1D35 had a problem with their douse and had gone way past the mark.  We couldn't believe we were now leading the fleet.

For the second upwind the wind was now above 20 knots and we played a more conservative leg.  I took a couple of quick tacks to get in a strong covering position with the fleet and with the exception of Ohana, which has 15 more feet of waterline than us, we were able to keep the rest of the fleet behind us.  Though both Mintaka and the 1D35 were right on our stern when we rounded.

It wasn't our cleanest set.  We were powered up during the rounding and almost put the kite on the water.  But strong crew work avoided a disaster.  And we were off.  With the winds now in the 20s gusting higher we were in full flight mode.  Perfect crew work and sail handling, as I can only drive the boat if the sails are worked right.  We were now consistently holding 15 - 16 knots, getting spurts into the 19s and hitting a top speed of 22 knots.  It was an adrenaline ride.  Still amazes me how well the boat handles in those conditions, with immediate acceleration on every puff.  We had some good gybe angles, we caught up to Ohana around Pt Blunt and screamed towards the finish line to get the gun.

Results are yet up, so not sure how we finished on corrected, but we had a blast.  The adrenaline was still pumping all the way down to the Bay Bridge on our way back home to Alameda.  It was one fun ride.  Rob took tons of video, so check back for an update once he gets to do some editing.

2012 Vallejo 1-2

Just a quick note.  Nothing as exciting as last years.  Neither with the sailing nor our result.  This year we didn't see any winds over 10 knots (except for the very end of Saturday).  Not our ideal conditions.  We had a mid fleet result on the Saturday downwind race and brought the rear of the fleet on Sunday with a mostly upwind race in sub 10 knots conditions.  Saturday evening at Vallejo was a good party amongst many friends and the raftup was the biggest I have ever seen with some boats not fitting in and the neighboring marina unavailable due to a shallow entrance.

Rob played with a new camera mount so we should have some footage shortly.

Sadness

I don't often write from my experience in other people's boat.  Not sure why, but probably from a sense of the responsibility that I know comes from skippering a boat, and when I'm not the skipper I don't feel entitled.  But the events of Saturday were extraordinary and not specific to the boat I was crewing on.  I sit here in the warmth and comfort of my home surrounded by my family with an uneasiness and sadness, knowing that some families are going through a very rough time wondering about their still missing loved ones.

Saturday was the Crewed Farallones race.  You have probably read about racing around the Farallones if you have been reading this blog, but in a nutshell it is a 60 mile race from San Francisco Bay around the SE Farallones Is and back.  We call the Farallones Is, the rock pile.  It is an intimidating rocky outcrop in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and when conditions are rough still a scary place after all these years of sailing around it.   It is best to give it  a wide berth, though in mellow conditions many of us have tried to cut some corners.  Myself I always make sure I'm never the closest boat and keep some safe waypoints all the way around the island to guide me on rough and low visibility conditions. There are a few variations of this race, one with fully crewed boats (the one this past Saturday), a double handed version and a single handed version.  I have probably done more singlehanded versions of the race than the other two combined.  A good friend and fellow sailor invited me to go on his boat for the race.   We have raced many ocean miles either together or against each other. For this race we would have a very experienced crew of singlehanded racers and other well seasoned crew.

Our story is not the significant event.  We started, sailed a conservative race out to the first set of channel markers with a reef on the main and our #4, our skipper decided it was enough and we turned back home.  The conditions, though heavy and challenging (20+ knots, 10-15 foot swells with bigger sets) are not uncommon for the area nor for the crew of our boat.  There was no hesitation to turn the boat around when the decision was made.  We had just gone across a huge breaking set smack in the middle of the channel and we would likely have to deal with another 3 miles of similar conditions before getting into the deeper water west of the channel.

Soon after we turned around we saw a competitor had snapped their mast on the shoal area just South of the channel.  On our way out we had seen two Coast Guard lifeboats following the fleet out.   We were a fair distance away and in the rough conditions it would be difficult for us to provide much assistance.  With their mast down we weren't sure if the boat was able to make a distress call if it needed to, so we called in a Mayday and informed the CG of the situation and their position.  We soon saw the two CG lifeboats headed for the sailboat in distress and we continued on back to the bay monitoring the radio.  From the radio conversation it sounded that there were no emergencies and one of the lifeboats would remain on station until the crew could sort out the mess and head back home.

We had a couple of big surfs on our way in, still with a reefed main and our small jib.  Inside Pt Bonita we shook off the reef and set the kite for a great sail back to Alameda.  Spirits were high on board and everyone was making plans for their regained afternoon.

It wasn't until late that evening that my friend called with the bad news.  A boat had been lost at the Farallones Is.  The news reported that a large wave had swept 4 crew off the boat, and in an attempt by the remaining crew to rescue them another wave had slammed the boat into the rocks.    The CG was already in full search and rescue mode and had pulled 3 survivors from the island and one deceased sailor.  Even worse 4 of the crew were still missing.   It was already dark and the prospects of any successful recoveries become slimmer every hour that passes.  This has been a shocking experience.  The sport we love can be a trying and dangerous at times.  I don't have much to offer, other than my thoughts and prayers for the crew of the lost boat and their shoreside families.

Corinthian Redemption

The Corinthian Race, hosted by the Singlehanded Sailing Society, is a tour of the central San Francisco Bay with a Start/Finish line off the deck of the Corinthian YC in Tiburon.  Over 130 boats signed up for the race and with the new jib on hand we were ready to go.

From the Start, we head to Little Harding, followed by Blossom Rock, to Blackaller, up the North bay to Southampton Shoals, back to Little Harding before the finish.  Today the forecast was for light winds 5-10, starting from the North and eventually shifting to the West around 2 PM.

The start proved to be a bit of a fiasco.  With the wind blowing from the NE through Raccoon Straits it made for a light downwind start with a strong flood pushing East.  We, along a handful of other boats setup south of the line and approached it on starboard.  Most of the fleet was approaching from the East on port.  We were a few seconds late and were forced to gybe onto port as the fleet didn't budge at our right of way.  This unfortunately left us to windward of the fleet, and the same folks that fouled us by making us gybe closed the door on us at the pin end of the line.  The T650 just in front of us also got squeezed and touched the mark and had to come around as well.  By the time we got turned around and made our way back to the line against the flood we were the last boat to start the race.  Not how we wanted to start the day.

But we had some opportunities to make up.  By the time we reach Pt Belvedere we were back in the middle of it, getting around half of the fleet that have gone too far into the current.  Around Belvedere the wind filled in from the North and the spinnaker went up for the sail down to Blossom.   We intentionally overstood Little Harding to stay in the current relieve on the Sausalito side before cutting across to the San Francisco shore.   The boats in the middle of the bay closer to Alcatraz weren't looking that great so we kept working our way South.   By the time we reached Blossom we were on the top 5.

The leg from Blossom to Blackaller was a white sail close reach.  We edged towards the SF shore to get out of the worse of the current and it payed off well.  It was a drag race between ourselves, the Flying Tiger, Outsider, a couple of J boats close to shore and a couple of Trimarans enjoying the reaching conditions.  There was no hoisting of the kite around Blackaller (as we usually do) as the wind was still Northerly.  It was close hauled all the way up to Southampton.  There was  a wind transition between Pt Blunt and Alcatraz that only a few of us got through.   Roshambo had broken free early and had stretched.  The FT followed, with ourselves, the yellow tri, Jarlen and Outsider chasing.    There was no one else near. By the time we hit SH, Jarlen had gotten ahead of us and the Tiger being able to hold a higher line with their big genoa.  Initially both the Tiger and Jarlen looked to be headed on the South side of Angel Is, but after seeing we were headed through Raccoon they both came back.

We played the current and the N to W wind transition right through Raccoon and got ahead of both Jarlen and the FT before rounding our last mark on the way to the finish.   We saw Roshambo on the way to the finish as we were approaching Little Harding.  They will get the first to finish gun, but we would be the first monohull to finish, division winner and overall winner in corrected time.  A rewarding day after a frustrating start.