Tales of sailing, cycling, hiking, motorcycle riding and the retirement lifestyle.
"It's my blog, I will write what I want to, I will write when I want to!"
It has been several days since the Jim DePue Memorial race at Port Madison. I had sort of run out of steam when it came to writing race reports, but my blog tracker keeps showing someone hitting my blog as if they are looking for a race report. Since it appears that at least one person must be reading my blog, I will attempt a short race report.
The Jim DePue Memorial is the first race of the seven race West Sound Sailing Association (WSSA) series. It is a 16.5NM race run in the waters of Puget Sound, starting at Point Monroe and sponsored by Port Madison yacht club. All week before the race, the predicted wind were reported to be light. The prediction was pretty close as we saw winds up to 8-9 knots for a while after the start. But the converse was that it was a very nice, sunny day!
We got a great start about a third of the way down the line. As predicted, the current was suppose to be a small flood, so we headed out. Soon we saw that most of the boats above us were heading toward shore. Sure enough, the current was better near the shore, so we tacked near the shore into Murden Cove. We took a short tack back out toward the middle of Puget Sound only to still find contrary current. Back to the beach! In our flounderings, we lost position to several boats that we owed time to. We stayed close to the beach the rest of the way to the mark off Eagle Harbor and gained back some time.
After rounding the mark and setting the spinnaker, we stayed a bit low of the West Point mark, but as the wind lifted, we sailed higher toward West Point. By the time we jibed at West Point, we had passed three boats. We sailed a lower coarse to the final mark at Point Jefferson and gained on some of the boats ahead. especially as we neared the mark. One boat just ahead stayed high of the mark and sailed really slow as they sailed down to the mark. We sailed a good angle to the mark, had a great takedown, rounding and ended up on a good angle to the finish where after one tack, we finished at about 1408. The wind had died a lot and the boats behind struggled to finish.
Our final placing was seventh in class and seventh overall. I take responsibility for giving away places by heading offshore. But I later heard that many boats also expected the flood and could not get any benefit from it. Oh well, it was still a good day for a race and we stayed focused and recovered some lost places.
Last week I decided to take a "Cruz" down the Washington and Otrgon coasts. I confused a lot of people by calling it a Cruise. They thought I was taking the boat down the coast. But my "Cruz" was a car trip that involved camping for three nights a national and state campgrounds. I have been thinking about this for a few months to see if it is doable. I do not own a RV, so my camping consisted of sleeping in the back of my pickup and cooking under a canopy on the rainy days. Not the usual way people camp in the winter.
I got underway early Monday morning. I drove north around the Olympic Peninsula to the coast with my first stop at Rialto Beach in the Olympic National Park. I then backtracked and drove to the small village of La Push. Back again to Highway 101, I continued south through Forks. I decided a side trip to the Hoh Rain Forest was in order, so of I went up that road. Not many people were there and the visitors center was closed. After a short hike, off again I went to hook up with Hwy 101 again. I continued south to the National Park Campground at Kalaloch. I selected a great campsite overlooking the beach and the ocean and set up my canopy to provide some shelter from the rain. A campfire kept the chill off during the early evening until I retreated to my warm sleeping bag.
Tuesday evening I was underway early again and headed down Hwy 101 until the first opportunity to head back toward the ocean and Pacific Beach. I continued south to Ocean Shores for breakfast. After breakfast, I drove around Greys Harbor through Aberdeen to Westport. After a quick stop at Westport, I continued through Grayland and Tokeland to 101 at Raymond. From there I continued on to Long Beach for lunch and then to Cape Disappointment State Park where I was assigned a great camping site near the ocean. I hiked out to the North Head Light and the light at Cape Disappointment(Cape 'D"). This was a great sunny day but as night approached, it did get cold!
Wednesday, once again, I was underway early and crossed into Oregon. In keeping with driving the roads closest to the ocean, I left 101 near Warrenton and took a side trip through Fort Stevens State park to view the South Jetty and the wreck of the old sailing ship Peter Iredale. Again on 101, I continued south to Seaside and another side trip and on south until I reached Tillamook. Here I stopped at the cheese factory(something I have always wanted to do) before continuing on to the Air Museum in Blimp Hanger 'B' of the old Naval Air Station. That is a huge structure that was built during World War II and now houses a great display of old aircrafts and artifacts as well as dry storage for rent. After the visit, I continued on to Cape Lookout State Park were I set up camp again. I was hoping to hike to Cape Lookout, but I arrived too late in the day. This was a very stormy and rainy day, but with the right equipment, I stayed dry and comfortable.
Thursday, I again was again on the road early(have you noticed a trend here?) and drove back roads through Pacific City to the Little Nestucca Road that took me through the Coast Range to Highway 18 that I followed to McMinnville. At McMinnville, I visited the Evergreen Aviation Museum for several hours. I have been here before and was looking forward to seeing it again. On the road again, I drove to I5 and followed it north arriving home in the late afternoon.
This was a great road trip. I knew that it could be cold and stormy and it was for some of the days. But with the right equipment, I was dry and comfortable. The bunk I built in the back of the pickup provided a dry place to sleep. I proved to myself that this kind of winter camping is doable.
Crescent Lake
Rialto Beach
La Push from across the James River.
James Island
For Twilight fans, they should know that this marks the beginning of the werewolf territory.
Hoh Rain Forest.
Westport
Long Beach, DUH!
North Head Light.
The Coast Guard was training at the cliffs of North Head.
Cape Disappointment Light.
The Oregon Coast near Manzanita
Cheese please!
The blimp hanger at Tillamook
Typical campsite at Cape Lookout State park.
How did that 747 end up on top of the building? The water park at Evergreen Aviation Museum at Mc Minnville.
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 cold before the sun rose and the decks were slick with frost. The currents through the
Narrows were going to become favorable around 0930 and remain favorable the rest of the way to Olympia. I got underway at 0500 from Brownsville. I had a good, favorable
ebb current through Rich Passage. As always happens, the north flowing current in Colvos Pass slowed my progress to the Narrows. After the Narrows, the current changed and helped boost my speed through Balch Pass and past Johnson Point at the entrance to Dana
Pass. I arrived at Percival Landing in downtown Olympia at 1250. I was not the
first boat in on Friday. Some boats had arrived earlier and boats arrived throughout the day until the harbor was
packed. The day was sunny, so I found some WIFI, walked around the downtown and kibitzed with other sailors. In the evening, Olympia Yacht
Club sponsored their usual great dinner and raffle.
Saturday morning was clear and still. After a early morning breakfast at Olympia Yacht Club, we rigged the boat and got underway for the start at Olympia Shoal. We could see some fog at the north end of Budd Inlet, but the winds were too calm to blow it away. The forecast was for winds less then five knots and it looked like the forecast could be accurate. On the positive side, it was sunny and warm the entire day after the fog burned off.
After a half hour postponement, we started and headed north in Budd Inlet beating into very light winds. I got a terrible start and we found ourselves near the back of our class. As we chased he leading boats, we would get closer to them only to stall and then they would leave us behind.
As we approached Dofflemeyer Point, the wind did fill in to a barely sail filling 3-5 knots. At this point, the current was flooding against us. We tacked close in toward the shore and through the anchored boats in Boston Harbor. After Boston Harbor, we continued to tack close to shore often tacking in as little as 10 feet of water. We gained on boats in our class that were ahead only to hit the "wall" that slowed them and have them sail away from us again. We did sail through many boats that started ahead of us and some that had started behind us and passed us early in the race. In fact nobody passed us during the beat up Dana Pass. The short tacking took it's toll on some boats that would tire of tacking so many times. They would take a longer tack farther out into Dana Pass and find themselves swept away with the current.
As we entered Henderson Inlet, we found some good puffs of wind and really gained on a pack of boats that included most of the boats in our class. But is was too little, too late as the Race Committee made the wise decision to shorten the course at Johnson Point after only 7.5 miles. We finished at 1518 very close to some of the leading boats and placed 7th out of 9 boats. If we use this race as our series throughout, we should still be tied for first with "Melange"(J35) after their 3rd place finish. Early series favorites "Absolutly"(G&S 39) and "Tantivy"(J109) placed 6th and 5th respectively and are a few points behind us. Results can be found here: Toliva Shoal Race Results There is still the last race of the series at Gig Harbor in March.
After finishing, we motored through the Narrows to Gig Harbor where the crew rode the staged vehicle back to Olympia for their vehicles. I motored the rest of the way back to Brownsville arriving at the marina at 2112.
It was actually a fun race even with the light winds. I enjoy the challenge of trying to solve the mysteries of the race course. So, that is why I like this comment from a great (and somewhat notorious) sailor:
"My goal in sailing isn't to be brilliant or flashy in individual races, just to be consistent over the long run." Dennis Conner
Thanks to the crew of Jim, Tom, Kathleen and Ranier for keeping focus and helping make this race a success. Perseverance always wins!
Here is our track for the day. Looks strange with all the changes in direction. I did not count how many tacks we made up Dana Pass, but there were a lot of tacks as we tried to stay close to shore and out of the adverse current.
Here is an enlarged track of our short tacking up Dana Passage. Not all of the points on the track are actually tacks, but you can get the idea about how close to the shore we stayed and how many tacks we made. I count about 35 tacks. This is where we saw some boats that seemed to grow tired of tacking, head out into Dana Pass and get swept behind.
A short video during the start when we were actually moving well!
It is January and time for the boat show. As has been the case for several years, the indoor part of the show is at the Centurylink Event Center and the "in the water" portion is at Chandlers Cove at Lake Union. There is a free shuttle that runs between the two venues.
Since I am not in the market for a large boat, I attended the indoor venue. I am usually just looking at accessories and talk to vendors for various concerns about their equipment. But this year I wanted to look at a new sailboat called the J70.
I also ran into several acquaintances that I have known for a long time through. I only spent two and a half hours there and caught the 1330 ferry home. No Ivars Fish and Chips today, but I may make another trip to Seattle next week!
One corner of the event center had small sailboats including the J70 and sailing gear.
Most of the event center was filled with powerboats, big and small.
My friend Kevin. The "K" in "DMK".
How about this? The hot tub boat! Yes, it really is a functioning boat completed with twin screw electric propulsion, joystick control and stereo.
The hot tub boat can be rented on Lake Union or one of your own can be custom built.
Today, my church had a "Mens Day". This is a day for the men in the church to social It started with a breakfast and culminated with a steak dinner and a guest speaker. After breakfast, several activities were planned, I elected to go with several friends to the LeMay America's Car Museum in Tacoma. I also took my dad as a late birthday present.
Harold LeMay ran a successful refuse company in Tacoma. He collected the world's largest private collection of automobiles. The city of Tacoma donated land next to the Tacoma Dome for the museum. Many automobiles are displayed from the LeMay collection along with automobiles from other collections. The museum has four levels. The side halls were designated specific themes(British Invasion, Ferrari in America, Alternative Propulsion, etc) and the main halls were random collections.
It was well worth the visit. The LeMay Family also has their private collection on display at another facility near Parkland, south of Tacoma. That might be another great place to visit.
The main hall.
The main hall.
Lincoln hood ornament.
One of many side halls.
Highly Customized Ford Thunderbird.
One of two DeLoreans on display.
A 1994 George Barris custom. AKA, the Flintstones Car.
Rare 1961 Chrysler 300. 413 cubic inch Max Wedge engine, 375 hp. Two four barrel carburetors on the cross ram induction manifold.
Early GM Electric car with charging station.
Stanley Steamer boiler. Steam buffs should appreciate that this operated at 600 psi. It could do 75 mph, but only for 50 miles before it ran out of water.
1964 Sunbeam Tiger, A performance version of the Sunbeam Alpine with a Ford 260 cubic inch V8.
"Chi Town Hustler". A seventies era Funny Car that had a body style to resemble a Dodge Challenger.
I always wanted to believe that Lance Armstrong did not use performance enhancing drugs(PED), but there was always something about him that kept me from thinking that he was "squeaky clean". I remember when he showed up on the racing scene as a young cyclist. Much was written about him. Talented, headstrong, hard to coach, tempestuous were some of the things I remember. I found him to be very arrogant. He showed some promise in his younger years and competed in many events and proving himself in both amateur and pro cycling. In 1996 he was diagnosed with testicular cancer and after a well publicised treatment, he was declared cancer free in February 1997. During his treatment,
his professional cycling team fired him. They did not think that he could return to professional cycling. They also were not sure he would live.
Here is where I really wanted to believe in him. He started training and reversing the ravages from his fight with cancer. The US Postal Cycling Team hired him and he went on to win seven straight Tour de France titles. Some naysayers said that he could only do this if he was taking PED's. He adamantly denied taking drugs. I even defended him saying that no doubt that he took one of the banned drugs EPO as part of his cancer treatment. He continued a fight against the allegations until 2012 when he was stripped of his Tour de France wins and banned from competing for life. During his defense, he testified under oath that he had not taken drugs, sued news media for there reporting and bullied his teammates that were testifying against him. He damaged a lot of lives. It was his ex-teammates and families testimonies to the USADA (United States Anti Drug Association) that finally allowed them to take action.
Some people have defended Lance by saying, "All the riders dope". Others have said of his defense, "Oh, everyone lies". When I raced bicycles, we knew what the rules were. The rule book had an extensive list of band substances. And we knew the consequences of being banned. I was never drug tested, that was usually reserved for the event winners, and, well, I never placed that well. But I knew that since excessive caffeine was on the banned list, I too had to watch it because even drinking too much coffee could trigger a positive test. We read about how the Europeans were really good at using PED's and it seemed to us that the penalties were not very severe. Unfortunatly professional bicycle racing is still experiencing severe drug use.
Now he has finally agreed to a interview with Oprah Winfrey. It aired last night. I finally watched part of the interview this morning on YouTube. I do not have access to Oprah's channel. She ask him straight away if he had used PED's and blood doping. His answer was "yes" to everything. I found it interesting that he was adamant that when he made his comeback in 2009 after retiring in 2005 that he was drug and doping free. And yet he still placed a respectable third in the Tour de France. I would like to believe that he still could have won previous Tour de France's without doing drugs or doping. It was hard to tell from the interview if he was really remorseful for what he did or if he was sorry that he was caught.
So now where does this go? Some say that this is a way for him to get back into competing in triathlons. That may or may not happen even if his ban is lifted in a few years. The USADA has commented that he would have to swear under oath to them before they would ever consider lifting the ban. His sponsors have dropped him, and some which includes the US Government are starting legal action to retrieve the money that was paid him. Will this leave him broke? He has been stripped of his 2000 Olympic Bronze Medal. He has separated from the Livestrong cancer research organization. How will it fair? An interview on TV this morning with the CEO made it sound like they have confidence that they can continue. I never bought one of their yellow wristbands. He has published two books (that I have read) about his life, cancer, recovery, Tour de France wins and how he did it all with just hard work. Will he write another book and finally tell all?
So, I always wanted to believe in Lance. I am glad he finally admitted his involvement and his lies. This is what I wanted all along. I still will have to decide if I ever want to believe in him.
Liar?
Seven Tour de France championships. He contents that his drugging and doping during that time just "levelled" the playing field.
The Duwamish Head Race is run the first Saturday of each year(unless it is the New Years Day weekend). It is a 30.7 NM race that starts at Des Moines, sails north around Alki Point and around the Duwamish Head marker at the entrance to Elliot Bay. From there, the race continues across Puget Sound to Blakely Rocks and returns south to the finish at Des Moines. This race is the second race of the four race Southern Sound Series.
For me, this race got underway early Friday morning when I left Brownsville Marina at 0700 for the delivery run to Des Moines. Deliveries are just one of the parts of preparing for a race. It is still fun to be on the water and spend time on the boat. By 1020, I was moored in Des Moines and spent most of the day kibitzing with acquaintances on other boats as they arrived.
After a breakfast sponsored by Three Tree Point Yacht club, we rigged the boat and got underway to the starting area. The winds were predicted to be light all day, but there was enough wind to make the boat move well. The wind was SE and allowed us to get a good start on starboard with the spinnaker set. As we headed north the wind was spotty. Some boats played the right shore, but we seemed to find better wind near the middle of the channel. The current was better in the middle as well.
As we approached Alki Point, the wind had built to about seven knots and was very easterly. This made the reach from Alki to Duwamish Head very tight. We could see some boats having trouble carrying their spinnakers, so when we got close to the mark, we brought ours down and reset it after rounding and setting our course for Blakely Rocks. At this point in our class, we were following "Absolutly"(G&S39), "Grace E"(J35), Tantivy(J109) and "Melange(another J35).
The reach across the sound was a parade although "Jeopardy" (J109) and "First Dance"(Beneteau First 35) took a high lane and passed us too. At the rocks we started a beat back toward the south and soon past "First Dance". We got to the shore near Restoration Pt and the light wind evaporated. We drifted in the current induced chop until we managed to sail into some newer wind coming from the SE. We sailed toward Alki Point where we could see most of our class leaders. "Melange" stayed more toward the middle and we lost track of them. We made one tack into the beach just south of Alki, but when we tacked back out, we found better wind away from the shore. The wind was still light at around 5knots, and was variable between SE and SW.
We started gaining and passing the boats ahead that stayed on the east shore. After Fauntleroy, we had passed "Jeopardy" and "Grace E" with "Absolutely" and "Tantivy" still ahead. The wind seemed to finally settle on a SE direction and we had one long tack to Pulley PT. "Grace E" stayed right behind us and "The Boss" (J35) had moved up with them. "Absolutely" and "Tantivity" were well ahead so we determined that we needed to cover "Grace E" and "The Boss" and try to stay between them and the finish that was about 3 1/2 mile away. As it got dark it became difficult to tell where these boats went.
South of Pulley PT, we saw "Tantivy" appear to tack in toward the beach and we followed them that way for a while. After we tacked back, we seemed to get a bit of a lift, but it was short lived as we headed back off shore to again, better winds. As we headed off shore on port tack, a starboard tack boat boat approached. In the dark it was hard to define who it was. Lets see, tall fractional rig, dark sails, dark hull, Oh my, yellow stripes! It was "Absolutely", the boat that had been way ahead of us! Now we had another boat to cover! And we did! "Grace E" tacked back our way and had gained on us by their long tack offshore. We could not identify "The Boss" anymore. As we stayed ahead of the two boats, another boat approached from the right. Lets see, fractional rig, white hull, three digit sail number. Oh my again! It was "Tantivy"! We passed above them, tacked to starboard, and now we had three boats to cover! Fortunately they stayed in a group. On our last tack to port to the finish line, we were just ahead of this group and then "The Boss" showed up just below "Grace E". We finished first in this group at 18:13:46 with "Grace E" finishing 6 seconds behind us, "The Boss" finishing another 5 seconds later, "Tantivy" 17 seconds behind "The Boss" and finally "Absolutely" 11 seconds behind "Tantivy". That is some close racing! Unfortunately, my computer choked and I do not have any tracks to display.
We knew we placed well by finishing ahead of this group of boats, but how well? There was no gun for first to finish. Sure enough, when we motored into the harbor, "Melange" was already there and had finished about 10 minutes ahead of us. We were still happy with our finish. Combined with our 2nd place finish at Winter Vashon , we are leading the class with 4 points. But, there are still two races to go in the series. Results and pictures should be be found here: Southern Sound Series and here: Three Tree Point Yacht Club.
The banter in the harbor with our competitors was great! Everyone was in a great mood and congratulations were going around amongst all the crews and skippers. This is a fun group of sailors to race with!
After getting the boat cleaned up, I headed straight home and arrived at Brownsville at 2204.
This was a great race! After falling behind early on, we persevered and put our great night racing abilities to work to pass the boats ahead. Thanks to my crew of Jim, Tom, Walter and Ranier for staying focused and working hard.
EDIT: The race committee has been fine tuning the results(they are still preliminary) and the finishing order has now changed. We still finished first of our group at 18:13:46 with "Grace E" finishing 6 seconds behind us, "The Boss" finishing another 5 seconds later, but "Absolutely" actually finished 28 seconds behind "The Boss" and finally "Tantivy" finished 4 minutes 49 seconds behind "Absolutely". In the dark and with us concentrating on finishing, I did not pay much attention to those finishing behind and relied on the results for the times.
Video taken shortly after the start in the light reaching conditions.
"Jeopardy" a J109 in our class.
"Last Tango" and "Dulcinea" (both J105's), matched raced for most of the downwind leg.
The crew working the boat on the light air downwind run toward Alki Point.
Boats sailing across Puget Sound from Duwamish Head with the Seattle skyline in the background.
I am a single person. I retired in Dec 2008 after working 31 years for the federal government. Thanks taxpayers! I hope to be able to indulge in my activities of cycling, xcountry skiing, hiking and motorcycle riding.
