The one on the water…

That’s what I did this weekend.  320 nautical miles, about 58 total hours of sailing.  Leaving Thursday evening, we sailed 12 hours to Grand Marais, Minnesota to clear customs Friday morning, then immediately sailed another 12 hours south to Bayfield, Wisconsin.  Then we slept. 

On Saturday, we raced for 11 hours clockwise ‘Around the Islands’ (see the loop at the bottom of the picture?).

Then we slept again.

Getting up at 0500 on Sunday, we sailed continuously north-east back up to Thunder Bay, taking about 23 hours.

I am tired.  And wind BURNED.  I love it.

For the end of June, the lake is still EXCEPTIONALLY cold.  We were in full offshore kit (read: layers of winter clothes) and we were still cold.  Crazy, but kind of fun.  It’s funny how quickly a person can forget how miserable he was, only hours before.  Really, the cold part was only from the latitude of Grand Marais and north (on both trips).  Anything south of that, we were still in full kit but comfortable.  It rained like I had never seen before during our approach to Bayfield, which did not bode well for Saturday’s race and our general comfort, but Saturday was probably the best sailing weather I’ve seen since the Trans Superior last year.  There was a little bit of everything, but it was mostly very windy (but not unmanageable, about 15-20 knots), and very sunny and warm.  On the leg between Devil’s Island and Outer Island (the west/east line of the island loop), we clocked the second highest speed we’ve seen on Straight Jacket, 9.5 knots (the highest was 10.4 knots during our approach to Duluth in last year’s Trans Superior). 

We did very well in the race.  No official results that I can find yet, but from talking with other competitors after the event, along with our own shady calculations, I’d be surprised if we didn’t place top five – in a fleet of 19 mostly bigger, faster boats in conditions that do NOT suit Straight Jacket at all (she’s a light air killer, heavy air dragger).  For a twenty-five year-old, 33-foot boat sailed by five guys, two of whom are new to sailing this month, in mostly unfavorable conditions… that’s pretty good.  Granted, there was a little luck in our corner (the lead boats ran out of wind for 2.5 hours later in the race, allowing us to catch up), we still made some shrewd course decisions and sailed that boat at 100% all the time.  We ran out of wind as well, but SJ loves the light stuff (and we know how to help her go fast in those conditions), and we passed five bigger boats during that time while putting extra distance on those behind us.

A good race.  A good weekend.