Around the County….

Posted November 29, 2011 at 1:08 am by

That was the way of the wind, that weekend....

This is so cool – Norris Palmer wrote up his experience with the “Around the County” Race at the first of the month to share – here’s the story with his pictures (thanks, Norris!):

Norris Palmer

Around the County
A Participant’s Experience

Ever since we have been a member of the Friday Harbor Sailing Club, we have helped host the Orcas Island Yacht Club’s “Around the County” annual race.  It was always exciting to see these sailors drenching wet and cold come in from some really gnarly weather in the San Juans with huge smiles and hungry appetites, and wondering just how rough it was.

The weather in the San Juans starts getting wintery right upon the day of the Round the County Race or a couple of days before.  It gets windy, lots of waves, rain, cold, and foggy.  Imagine sitting out on the rail of a 30 ft. boat for 8 hours during all of that and having fun doing it.

This year we decided to see what the event was like using our 28,000 pound Fisher 34 pilot house Fragile Habitat, complete with diesel heaters, windshield wipers, and lots of room for errors.

The race was to begin in Rosario Channel at a buoy off the East side of Orcas called Lydia Shoal the next morning at 8:40 a.m.

On Friday, with a crew of three, we departed Roche Harbor going out the North entrance into 20 ft. deep water with 25 to 35 gusts head on.  The waves were rolling and breaking, something you don’t normally see in the waters around here.  Choppy; yes, breaking; no.

The nose of the Fisher was up and down like one of those bobbing head toys.  The windshield wipers were on full blast until we could make the turn to take the weather to our stern breezing down Spieden Channel.

Red sky...

We cleared Flat Top Island at the East end of Spieden and thought we could get tamer water in the lea but to no avail.  It was really blowing.  We put out a storm jib and rode the swells headed towards Deer Harbor.  This was not the San Juan Islands in the Tourism book.  This was the real Pacific Northwest turning into winter!

I can see now why the San Juans are such a desirable cruising ground in heavy weather as there are many places to “hide” in rough stuff as we got in the lea of Jones Island, then sliding in between steep point and Reef Island, the seas went flat and it was a different day.

We decided it would get too dark to try and make it through the narrow opening and strong currents of Pole Pass, so we did what any true sailor would do: Head for Deer Harbor and pick up the Cadillac Limo to Deer Harbor Inn and Restaurant where the fair of the evening was leg of lamb and a bottle or two of Mt. Baker’s best vino.

The morning came early as we had to leave the dock by 6:00 am, and it was dark.  John stood on the bow and looked for crab pots as the season has been extended and there were lots of pots along the way.

Once through Pole Pass, you could see the sparkling lights of two WSF ferries with the morning sun arising over Blakely Island.  It was a true San Juan Island breathless moment.

The next pass we were to go through to get to the start line was the cut at Blakely,  south of Obstruction island where several of the race boats were having difficulty getting through with such small race ready engines, designed to get you off the dock but not on a cruise through heavy currents. We arrived at the start with 10 minutes to spare, got on the port side of the start line and shot down on starboard with a great start being at the end of the line.  It was a reach to the next leg.  It began to be clear that 28,000 pounds of boat was not going to hold back the other cruisers in our class and start.

It’s amazing how in sailboat racing that everyone starts at the same time but when you add in all the variables like weight, sail area, sail settings, current, winds, other boats, they all break up and end up differently.  Some are great downwind, some upwind; some on reaches, there are so many variables.

On the first leg, crew Karen served up hash browns, eggs, coffee, and sausage, a real contrast to those sitting on rails with seas splashing in their faces. Again, I cannot believe the self-discipline of these racers and dedication to win and perform their tasks perfectly; it is what makes sailors great.

It was so neat to look over your shoulder at the second start of the really fast boats.  They came screaming down the back side of Orcas Island like someone had let the birds out of the cage.  I have done a lot of catamaran sailing but the sight of two trimarans with huge spinnakers in 20 knots of wind doing about 18 knots with their skipper sitting on the rear like the guy in the movie Dr. Strangelove where Slim Pickens road an atomic bomb out of the Bombay doors totally blew me away with the speed.

At these speeds, disaster is a sheet line away.  The crew must milk those spinnakers with control and delicacy or over she goes or down she goes.  It is true skill with these sailors from all over the Salish Sea and Puget Sound area.

The roller coaster ride came to a nature’s break from the action as we rounded the half-way point marked at 160 degrees off your port on the lonely island of Patos.  The sight was so eerie as the visibility was minimal from the overcast clouds and rain, but you could see a couple of brave souls sitting on the ledge with spotting scopes taking down numbers as vessels passed the “no wind” zone in the lea of “The Duck Island.”  The current was against you as the wind was nowhere, it took longer to round that spot than to get there, or at least it seemed so.

Once around the wind did her thing and blew like it could never run out of energy.  Spotting where our next island was in the County became more difficult in the rain and clouds.  It was another reach to the outside of Waldron and Stuart Islands where even looking at the Chart plotter could give you vertigo trying to visually identify our islands.  We had to “foot” off to make it to the lea of Turn point, while the seas were wide open to arrange their flow and height all the way down boundary passage making for another great ride.

Another stalled wind pattern on the lea of Turn Point Light House and such a lonely Light House it was, no one there but us and the bull kelp and “Lover’s Leap” rock.  We headed almost toward on a reach to give us more power to make it back out into the wind and waves that would take us toward our finish at Roach Harbor.

Then came decisions; the race committee sets a time when the last boat can finish for purposes of safety and an official end to the first races.  The finish boat gave us a call wondering where we were as we were already 2 hours behind the last finisher, (comfortable and warm but last).  They told us the race had ended at 4:00, I was at first relieved that I could start the motor and head home for the beer and BBQ at the welcome tent, but then we remembered the racing instructions said 6:00 pm.  Now the race committee can do anything they want but they decided to make a call and came back to us saying; “Fragile Habitat, this is race committee, you are Fragilely correct, you have until 6:00 pm to finish and we will stay on station”.  Our GPS said at this speed and direction we would finish at 5:30 pm but it cannot predict the future movement of tides, currents and winds.   The sun was to set at 4:35 pm and there was to be a full moon but with the cloud layer, you would not be able to see it.

The captain advised the crew that it would not be smart to be out here in the dark in the shipping channel between Gooch Island and Turn Point where all the ships make their rounding’s to further destinations North.  The crew said it was the Captain’s decision, the Captain decided that the crew should give their input and why it was important to stay out here and what do should we decide to stay out here.  We all decided that the spirit of racing is to finish, we decided that with our experience and navigation equipment, we could find our way to Roche.  We did a long tack before it got dark, observed a major freighter headed down the path to round, took a tack to port and got out of the lanes between Turn Point and Pearl Island.  The only commercial vessel that would have come through there would be the Sidney Ferry and it was not running that late.

Tack Tack Tack, we came to the south of Battleship Island where the wind really started gusting.  We were now relying more on the GPS charts and our position than visuals.  The pilot house became increasingly difficult to see so we moved out to the tiller looking for any lights for the finish.   We hailed the finish boat on VHF to ask them to blink their lights.  Sure enough, they were right in the middle of lights coming off of the dock at Pearl Island on the North entrance.  The orange finish mark was of course invisible in the dark but we shot towards the committee boat, or what we thought was the committee boat.  Just as we thought we were close, our tri-light went out which left us blind as far as the wind direction and it was really squirrelly in there and tried to backwind us several times.  When the light went out for the vang, we were totally unable to know if we were moving forward or backward.

What seemed to be hours but only a minute in the dark, not knowing where the finish line really was or if we were moving towards it or not, we heard the wonderful sound of the finish horn.  What a relief, it was over and we could now start the engine and dock and have a great meal and two kegs of beer at the hospitality tent put up by our own Friday Harbor Sailing Club.

It was black as pitch with only that flashing yellow light at the north end of “G” Dock at Roche as I took the 30 amp power cord and plugged it into the power station there.  It was a little tricky to plug it in in the dark but I got it in there without too much effort.

I stepped back on the boat and saw the charger light on saying AC was coming in.  Then I smelled something and saw smoke coming out of the engine room.  I leaped off the boat and unplugged the cord.  Karen and John grabbed fire extinguishers and stood by as we tore apart the stateroom bed to get to the charger/inverter unit below, tore out the covers, found the smoke which turned out to be steam and burning rubber.  It turns out that all of the power pedestals at Roche are 220 volt/50 amp.  You are not supposed to be able to plug the 30 amp cord into the 50 amp receptacle but someone had worn down the plugs so that you could.  The 220 amp went looking for a ground, it found it in the water heater and then ran down the wire coiling that is in the high pressure fresh water cooling system and down to the engine ground,  turning the coil into a toaster of sorts, melting the hose and spraying out hot water steam from the cooling system.

We made sure there was no further smoke which was actually steam and burnt rubber and headed to the Friday Harbor Hospitality tent looking forward to the kegs of beer.  Upon arrival we could see the great layout of tables and flags and heaters and there was our volunteers cheering us on for our late arrival.  Our “ground crew” was already on the BBQ with Lamb and Pork Chops, the beer was gone but the wine was flowing and so began the “Sea Stories.”

Norris Palmer

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Categories: Around Here
2 comments:

2 comments...

  1. Great story Norris!!! Love the red sky picture!!

    Comment by Susan on November 30, 2011 at 11:21 am
  2. Thank You, It was so beautiful to see that Sun start coming up in the channel between Orcas and Lopez. The Ferry was over in Orcas and in Shaw with thier lights on.
    It was “The San Juan Islands”

    Comment by Norris Palmer on December 1, 2011 at 8:14 am

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