The Big Chill-Toliva Shoal(not Shoals) Race

It is February and once again the crazy sailors are released from the asylums and they make there way south to Olympia for the Toliva Shoal Race. This is the third race in the four race South Sound Series. It is a 37.4 NM distance race from Olympia to the Toliva Shoal buoy and return through Balch Pass and other narrow passages. Even though it is still winter, this race has a reputation for light winds and shortened courses. I enjoy this race even with sometimes cold, wet, windless conditions. I must be one of the crazy sailors!

My race started on Friday morning when I got underway for Olympia. It was 23 degrees before the sun rose and the decks were slick with frost. The currents through the Narrows were going to become favorable around 0800 and remain favorable the rest of the way to Olympia. I got underway at 0400 from Brownsville. I had to break ice to get out of the marina. I had slack current through Rich Passage. As always happens, the north flowing current in Colvos Pass slowed my progress to the Narrows. At the Narrows, the favorable current helped boost my speed and lasted through Balch Pass and past Dofflemeyer Point at the exit to Dana Pass. I arrived at Percival Landing in downtown Olympia at 1135 where I again had to break ice to get to the dock.

That night Olympia Yacht Club hosted a pre race party and dinner of prime rib with several veggies and salads. After a quiet night on the boat, I again went to the Olympia Yacht Club for their hardy breakfast. After the crew arrived, we talked weather. All week I had monitor various weather models that indicated light winds less than five knots. But when the crew gave me the most recent weather briefing, things had changed and winds were predicted to be as high as 18 knots all day. Sail selection decision time!

We got to the starting area just as the winds started to fill in. Soon it was blowing 10 knots. Time for the Heavy No. 1 jib. We got a good start in the middle of the line. Even though the far end was favored, I elected to let everyone crowd that end, we had clean air. The wind was somewhat NE and we carried one tack down the west shore of Budd Inlet. Whenever we thought of tacking, the wind would lift and increase. We gained on many of the boats in our class, but Tantivy and Absolutely gained some on us. 

We had a great beat out Dana Pass with now favorable current and rounded Johnson Point for the reach to the Number 3 marker. The wind was too far forward for us to set a spinnaker until we were about halfway to the marker. Rounding the marker, we again were close hauled on one long tack to Ketron Island where we tacked several more times until we rounded the Toliva Shoal buoy. By now, the wind had increased to about 18 knots.

We rounded the buoy and set the spinnaker for the reach toward Balch Pass where the current would still be ebbing. We could see several of the boats ahead of us struggling to get through Balch Pass, so we worked left away from the McNeil Island wind shadow. We gained on Absolutely and reached through the pass. A couple of boats went too close to McNeil island and were stuck for a while.

We had a great run down Drayton Pass where we were seeing speeds to nearly 10 knots. But again approaching Devils Head, we could see some boats struggling in the wind shadow. We also could see some well sailed boats head more toward the south away from Devils Head. We chose this tactic and again gained some on Absolutely. We took the spinnaker down and reached toward Johnson Point where again we set the spinnaker for the run down Dana Pass. In Dana Pass, the wind rose some and we observed velocities of 25 knots on the instruments(if you can believe them!).  We stayed to the left to try to avoid adverse current and saw speeds of over 10 knots. One last jibe at Dofflemeyer Point, a reach up Budd Inlet and we finished at 1629 in third place in our class.

We got to the Percival Landing dock at 1700 as it was starting to snow. After cleaning up the boat, I was underway at 1730 to deliver the boat home. Dulcinea traveled with me and after enduring white out conditions, head winds, adverse current and  a tug/barge/logboom, we found our way back to Brownsville by 0130 Sunday morning to find the docks covered in 2 inches of snow. Actually, the delivery home with air temperatures at the freezing point was still warmer than the delivery to Olympia on friday.

It was a great weekend for a race. The temperatures during the race were not too cold and the winds were pretty consistant. Thanks to my crew of Tom, Jim, Walter, Tim and Rainer for working hard at keeping us heading in the right direction. And thanks to Olympia Yacht Club for the great hospitality.

Results can be found here: Toliva Shoal Race Results

And the race website with reports and links to photos: South Sound Series

Mt Ranier looming over Tacoma early Friday morning.

The Tacoma Narrows bridges.

Tom trimming the spinnaker on the reach to the Nisqually Reach Buoy No. 3

Boats behind in the Nisqually Reach.

 Rainer trimming the spinnaker on the run down Drayton Passage.

 It was snowing hard when I left Olympia and it did not take long for the snow to accumulate on the decks. The visibility was very limited for about half of the trip home and I had to rely on the chart plotter for the courses to steer. 

Our track for the day. We beat out through Dana Pass, reached to the Number 3 buoy, beat to the Toliva Shoal buoy and had a great reach and run back to the finish at Olympia Shoal.