Long Beach to Cabo San Lucas Race day 3

by Rich Roberts on 9 Nov 2010 Long Beach to Cabo San Lucas Race - To landlubbers, Long Beach Yacht Club's biennial race to Cabo San Lucas would appear to be a straightforward downwind run over a vast and lonely place, not an 804-nautical mile obstacle course. But as Akela led the fleet past the halfway point Monday there's been hardly a dull moment in its pursuit of the record.

The moonless nights have been shared with whales, dolphins, birds, various other sea life and even an aircraft carrier, and as if that weren't enough, some of the boats are playing tag team among themselves along the way.

Chuck Skewes, e-mailing from Per Petterson's Alchemy, an Andrews 68 from Oceanside YC, commented after a couple of nighttime near-misses with Brack Duker's Santa Cruz 70 Holua from Marina del Rey and Ricardo Brockmann's Reichel/Pugh 52 from Acapulco, 'It is amazing that 400 miles down the course we are having super-tight racing.'

That trio has been tap-dancing along from the start, swapping third place behind Akela and Bob Lane's Andrews 63, Medicine Man, whose 1-2 positions seemed secure.

But will No. 1 be good enough for Doug Baker? The Long Beach veteran who owns most of the significant West Coast sailing records and chartered Akela, a Reichel/Pugh 78, to go after this one won't go home happy with just a trophy.

When the race started last Saturday the prospects seemed bleak, but by Monday, according to mid-day tracking by iBoat, Akela was logging a top speed of 13.5 knots that with 313 miles to go looked touch and go to beat OEX's record of 2 days 22 hours 50 minutes 9 seconds. That speed could put it past the finish line off the beach from the Pueblo Bonito Pacifica Hotel one nautical mile east of Cabo Falso at the magic hour: 1:50:09 p.m. PDT Tuesday.

That is … if they can avoid serious pitfalls, like the encounter with a sunfish and kelp that navigator Ernie Richau described Monday in his message just below.

E-mail from the boats

Akela

Monday, 12:05 p.m. PST

We had another good 24 hours. The wind has been 15 to 22 knots from the northwest. Code 2 spinnaker running the whole time. Last night while Matt [Reynolds] and I were sitting at the chart table going over our race strategy we had a little excitement. We were going about 13 knots when suddenly we felt a big thud and slowed to about 10. Unfortunately, we had hit a huge sunfish. After a quick inspection we found no damage to Akela. I wish I could say the same for our friend in the sea but he was slow to swim away.

A few hours later, going about 18 knots, we ran into a small island of kelp. This created a bit of a yard sale on deck. There was so much kelp wrapped around the keel we immediately rounded up. After a bit of a fuss we got the kite down on deck, backed the boat down and were soon off sailing at 18 knots again. This was the second kite down, backdown and reset the kite in the last two days. We are hoping that it will be the last. ---Ernie Richau

Alchemy

Monday, 8:33 a.m. PST

Last night was a little more exciting than most nights out here in the ocean. We had 22 knots of wind for awhile and changed to the A4 for about an hour and then back to the A2. At about 11 p.m. we had a very close encounter with Holua. She had no nav lights and came out of the darkness and called starboard. We had to crash gybe in 20 knots to avoid. Took about 15 minutes to straighten out with an all-hands drill. Will [Stout] was on the foredeck in his underwear.

At 4 a.m. we came within a few feet of hitting a whale. It cleared the boat by about 4 feet and splashed the crew on deck. We have no moon and with some clouds it is extremely dark out. At about 5 this morning we had another close cross with Vincitore. They had to luff their kite to skate past our stern.

When the sun came up this morning we had gained a couple miles on them and they are now straight astern. I have lost count of the lead changes but I am sure Dave Ullman and Bruce Nelson on Holua know that they are one down on us. We are heading toward Cabo just south of Cedros in 15 knots of wind and pretty big swell. We have also had a lot of kelp and are now evaluating how to get one off the rudder.

We had dehydrated beef stroganoff last night for dinner and are into some similar treat tonight. We are killing the Captain Crunch! There are rumors of hot dogs for lunch.

Jay [Davis] spent about half an hour up the rig last night straightening out what was left from our surprise gybe and doing a little preventive maintenance on the top of the head foil. Everything is holding up well and the boat is going well. Maybe tonight we can keep these two boats behind us and get a little more rest. More later. I am very tired and I have a feeling there is a gybe coming up in a little while. ---Chuck Skewes

Vincitore

Sunday, 5:48 p.m. PST

All well on Vincitore, excellent weather and the best food in the Pacific! Quesadillas, huevos rancheros! Viva Mexico! Fantastic afternoon with winds of 15 to 20 knots. Boat surfing; top speed so far 18.7! ---Ricardo Brockmann and crew

Alchemy

Sunday, 4:45 p.m. PST

This morning I was awakened by a yell for Artie [Means] to bring up a camera, then a loud roar of a jet buzzing us. A U.S. aircraft carrier [USS Carl Vinson] was out doing maneuvers within a mile of us. We talked to them briefly on the radio to get course and direction so that we would stay out of their way. It was pretty impressive out here in the middle of nowhere to have so much activity for a while.

We have extended a little on Holua during the day and now the wind is 16-18 and brief touches in the 20s. We are still under A2 but looking closely at setting the new A4. The conditions today are ideal with lots of sun and warmth. We are currently on lay line to Cedros and will most likely be gybing in 7 hours or so to catch the wind concentration off of the bend in the Baja Peninsula. I hope the wind holds through the night we are moving great and everything is going well. Finished the gumbo today; on to dehydrated tomorrow. ---Chuck Skewes

Standings

Positions at 7 a.m. PDT Monday (official race times remain PDT despite time change); PHRF Off-Wind handicap times in seconds per mile.

1. Akela (Reichel/Pugh 78/minus-120), Doug Baker, Long Beach, Calif., 365 miles to go; average speed 10.2 knots; ETA Tuesday, 6:47 p.m. PDT.

2. Medicine Man (Andrews 63/minus-99), Bob Lane, Long Beach, Calif., 401 MTG; avg. speed 9.4k; ETA Wednesday, 1:48 a.m. PDT.

3. Alchemy (Andrews 68/minus-87), Per Peterson, Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., 433 MTG; avg. speed 8.6k; ETA Wednesday, 9:05 a.m. PDT.

4. Holua (Santa Cruz 70/minus-87), Brack Duker, Marina del Rey, Calif., 436 MTG; avg. speed 8.6k; ETA Thursday 9:54 a.m., PDT.

5. Vincitore (Reichel/Pugh 52/minus-102), Ricardo Brockmann, Acapulco, Mexico, 431MTG; avg. speed 8.6k; ETA Thursday, 8:38 a.m. PDT.

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