Jaw Point - The Drifter
|
Well, the SEAS cup started a little slow, with four boats: Lyric, Mess Around, Smoke and Haiku. The weather cooperated, with one slight problem. NO WIND!
The boats motored to the starting line at Marmion Island, to start at around 11:00 AM (it seems that 10:30 is just a little too early for all but one of the boats, no need to mention which). Conquest II, owned by Tom and Tish Satre, agreed to be the committee boat. It became evident that there was going to be a lot of current, and very little wind, but the countdown began at 10:55.
As the boats jockeyed the pre-start, the wind gradually diminished as the tide reached its peak flood filling the nearly 18 foot tide. It became very difficult for the sailboats to even cross the start line, but when they did, what a treat! The fleet was joined by an uninvited, but not unwelcome pod of Orcas! |
|
After the short chat, Haiku managed to get a little separation from the other boats, and made a move to get around Bishop Point, only to sail directly into the teeth of a 2 knot current and a large hole! Lyric seeing this predicament, tried to use the current shadow of Bishop to sneak out and around the point, but also got caught in the current. Smoke and Mess Around, too attempted to get in closer to the point, but got caught in the same hole. Mess Around even made an attempt at a short portage over the point, but alas, had to fire up her engines to back out of the rocks.
Several hours of drifting around in the 'toilet bowl' led Lyric and Smoke to retire from the race. Maybe an hour later, Haiku and Mess Around caught a light breeze and just managed to sneak around Bishop Point, only to realize that there was absolutely no way a finish was possible in the allotted time. So they too retired.
Alas, no boats were able to finish, but fun was had by all. Deer, Orcas, Seals, Sea Lions, and many sea birds were seen and many crew went home tired after a day in the sun.