Van Isle 360 Race-Winter Harbor to Ucluelet

This was the longest, toughest leg of the Van Isle 360. At 138 NM, and in the open ocean, it has the feel of a true ocean race. Pre race chatter had a lot to due with the predicted 25-35 knot SE winds forecast for race day.

The first real obstacle of this race is to clear Brooks Peninsula. This land mass juts out into the Pacific Ocean and is notorious for nasty conditions. Brooks is 20NM from the start at the entrance to Quatsino Sound. The race committee took some precautions and decided to move the start time earlier to 0700 to hopefully sail clear of Brooks Peninsula before the storm hit.

After a comfortable night ashore, it was tough to leave the dock at 0530 to motor to the starting line. The line is set between the Kains Island lighthouse and a buoy across Quatsino Sound, about a mile away. The wind was blowing out of Quatsino Sound. We had a great start about a 1/3 of the way down the line from the lighthouse. We had clear air and most of the fleet was much farther down the line.

Since the wind was outflow from the sound, it was a convergence zone to get to the SE wind that we could see offshore. So, for three hours most of the fleet battled through light winds and many sail changes. We went to spinnaker, wind seeker, back to the windseeker and then to No. 1 before we could generate enough speed to head out into the ocean.

When we reached the SE wind, it rose rapidly. Within 1/2 hour, we changed from No. 1 jib to No. 2 and then to No. 3 jib. After a couple of hours, we reefed the main. Later as the wind built, we reefed the main a second time.

All day and night, we beat into 20-25 knot winds. In addition, the rain poured out of the skies with a vengeance. The seas built, the boat pounded and lots of water came aboard. We had one crewman get sea sick in the afternoon and was out of commission laying in a bunk all night. Others felt queasy. We had three helmsmen and we rotated through two hours stints at the helm. The time at the helm passed quickly with the reward being a chance to warm up in a somewhat dry, warm bunk. All night the beat down the coast of Vancouver Island. It was wet on deck. Many times waves would wash the length of the boat filling the cockpit.

Early in the morning, we were still beating off Nootka Island and suddenly the wind lightened and shifted west. Like a switch was thrown, everything changed. We shook out the reefs, went to a bigger jib and then set a spinnaker. We then had a 60NM run to the finish at Amphitrite Point. The winds built to about 15 knots during the run. We finished at about 1900. After finding our condo, showering, eating a late dinner, we enjoyed a good nights sleep in beds that still seemed to be rocking.

This was a challenging leg of the Van Isle 360. With the wet and cold, crews that could stay focused performed the best. This raced included some sailors who are world class ocean racers and the chatter on the dock was that they thought it was really tough too. Some boats had damage. The trimaran "Makika" hit a whale south off Brooks Peninsula, broke the rudder, returned to Winter Harbor, repaired the boat, restarted the race and should be finishing the race Tuesday morning. Another boat broke a port in the hull and took on a lot off water before discovering the damage. Still others had various systems failures and another boat reported a crack in the hull. At least one boat went into an anchorage along Vancouver Island to wait out the worst.

Today(Tuesday) is a lay day to rest up, repair any damage and sight see before starting the next leg to Victoria tomorrow.

The run toward the finish at Amphitrite Point.
With all the appearance of a locker room, we had wet gear everywhere. We tried to sleep behind the lee clothes that kept us from being rolled out of the bunks.

These gloves are now ruined. Fortunatly, I bought new spares before the start of this race.