</htm
| Labor Day of 1997 found me sitting on the porch of Fred’s Orca’s Islands house. Fred's house faces south and looks out on the north end of West Sound and Hurricane was sitting out on the mooring bobbing gently in the glass smooth water. Just at that moment it occurred to me at that Hurricane was destined to see more than the Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands. I too was ready for a new adventure. The last trip of note was a bare-boat charter from St Lucia to Grenada just last winter. The adventure before that was the Pan-Pacific race from LA to Japan. Both trips left me in awe of the open ocean and hungry and longing for more. I had been thwarted several times in the past years for more ocean sailing: work, bad timing and bad boats conspired to keep me Puget Sound bound. |
| Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands are one of the best cruising grounds in the world. Everyday you can pull up anchor and motor or sail to your hearts delight and be in another pleasant picturesque anchorage. What you can’t do is sail all-night and all-day and then all night and so on. It simply is not that big and more importantly navigation can be difficult at night and the currents, which can reach 7 knots, are best approached at specific times of the day. What was missing from my life were the rhythms of the ocean, and the challenges of the weather and waves really big waves. |
| Now I had a goal, I would sail "Hurricane" in either the Pacific Cup from San Francisco to Honolulu, HI or the Vic-Maui from Victoria, BC to Lahaina, Maui Hawaii. Both races ran in the same time period. Late June to early July but what was different is the length and the difficulty. The Vic-Maui is a harder race. The distance is longer and you are exposed to more difficult weather. The deciding factor for me was proximity to the start line. I live in Seattle and Victoria BC in only about 70 miles away so logistics are easier and delivery time is minimal. | ||
| "Hurricane" is a Sceptre 41, that we purchased used just the prior winter. It has a short pilothouse with inside steering, one stateroom forward and one aft, and a large raise settee with a view out the pilothouse. This particular vessel is a Hurricane Andrew salvage boat. The salvage owner had put 90% of the work to bring the boat back to sea-worthy condition. It was my turn to put in my effort, the other 90% of work and money. I had my work cut out. There was none of the required safety equipment let alone the stuff that makes a seaworthy cruising yacht. To make a long story and expensive story short I spent 6 months preparing Hurricane for the voyage. All the standing and running rigging was replaced, a 12 volt 150 amp DC generator with 23 gal/hour water was added; custom carbon fiber spinnaker pole was built; new roller furler was installed; 7 new sails were ordered and built; DC to AC inverter was installed, new lifelines and stantionons installed; HF-Marine SSB, HF-SSB Weather fax and Satellite Weather fax installed; as well as a GPS. It was a long list that accounted for more then a 1000 hours of labor. The cost over-run was enormous, but it was cheaper then a therapist and I have something to show for it at the end. | ||
| . | The Vic-Maui is a 2400 nautical mile race from Victoria to Maui. It represents a full set challenges in sailing. Leaving the Straits of Juan De Fuca is notable in that three separate earthly forces are brought together in one place often with nasty and unforgiving results. Winds or the lack thereof, tides and ocean swells can setup many sailors for early seasickness. Once you leave the Straits it becomes a weatherman’s race, because predicting the location and movement of the pacific high a key element to winning. Taking a conservative route down the coast can cost extra mileage or going west and close to the high leaves one with the possibility of being covered by the high. This can cost you time. It’s a tightrope walk between the Pacific High and the West Coast. Finally after dropping below the high it turns into a drag race, with the boats that surf and go downwind the best making the highest mileage | |
| The links at left are the logs from the Vic-Maui Race. |
||
| The photo album of the Vic-Maui Race | ||
