Monday 04 Jul 2011

Monday 04 Jul 2011
We returned to the Shoreline Yacht Club for their traditional pancake breakfast. After breakfast, we left the dock at 10:30 AM to make the 1:00 PM start off San Pedro. As we left the dock, the officials announced our boat name, class, and crew. A cannon was fired and friends and family cheered us on as we headed past the fire boat spraying streams of water. We then continued into the channel towards the staring line.

The race started right at 1:00 PM. We thought that our class was supposed to start at 1:05; however, Harry noticed that other boats in our class started with the first class. We then noticed that our class flag was indeed up. Consequently, we quickly trimmed the sails and altered our course for the starting line at the end of the pack. None of us were too upset since it’s a long race and we were really not that far behind. We headed straight for the West end of Catalina Island and trimmed the sails for maximum speed.

We didn’t quite clear the West end and had to tack once. Most of the other boats in the fleet headed North towards San Nicolas Island, presumably to hit the trade winds sooner. We had good wind for most of the day and sailed at 6-7 knots on a close reach with the main and No 1 Genoa heading West.

We had ham sandwiches for lunch and chicken soup for dinner. Everyone stayed on deck for the entire day and up to about 9:00 PM. We saw some Rizzo’s Dolphins, common dolphins, and sea lions.

I had my first watch at 2:00 AM with Randy and Phil. We had three different watch crews with three hour shifts. This gave us three hours on watch and six hours off. While on shift, each crew member spent one hour at the helm, one hour trimming the main, and one hour trimming the headsail. Rotating stations like this helped prevent fatigue and boredom, kept us alert, and gave everyone a chance to steer the boat.