On the way to the start line, The Port of Los Angeles
	Never seen this before.
	Olson 30 dream race boat
	Checkin
	The start took us out Angels Gate.
	Passed by a Sunfish - my first boat.
	Faster boats started behind us.
	This Catalina 42 is a Transpac veteran.
	Reaching the west end after a fast crossing.
	Tacking up the coast - race boats in sight!
	In the dreaded hole trying to round.
	Dawn at the East end.
	Trying to see Avalon through the fog.

Story

Friday I was driven up to Dana Point and we delivered the Catalina 27 Carpe Domani up to the port of Los Angeles. It was about a 30 mile passage that started out motoring in calm seas and ended with 25 knots on the nose and taking spray over the cockpit.

On to the race.

After the intense winds of Friday and a small craft advisory all Friday night race day dawned hot, calm and bright. By the start we had winds about 5 knots. We had to tack a couple of times to get out Angles gate. After an hour it became apparent that we could not lay the west end of the island so we decided to tack and head back in to Palos Verde peninsula. There we found huge winds that caused us first to reef, then to change to a #2 jib. That got us out of the zone of being right on the edge of rounding up all the time. 

A couple of hours later we changed back to the number 1 jib and had a nice close reach out to the island in 15 knots +. We reached the west end a little east and had to take a couple of short tacks. As we got to the end, the wind died. We were within 200 yards of 2 race boats and had 10 race boats in sight. It took us 3 hours to go the next 1/2 mile and get around the end of the island. We put up the wind seeker and drifted, once in a while moving a couple of hundred yards on a puff.

By dark we were still drifting down the back side, now with only 1 boat in sight. About 9 PM a light SE head wind came up and we started tacking. We were making about 2 to 3 knots, sometimes up to 4 and down to 1. We started 2 hours on, 2 hours off rotation. I got us past Catalina Harbor, and little Harbor and right up to Ben Westin point. I then went to bed, which was lying on a bunch of sail bags on the floor in my full foulies. I fell right asleep. When I got up I had the 3:30 to 5:30 watch and the East end was in sight. It took us 2 more watch rotations to clear the East end and get around the island. The wind fell to nothing. I worked every puff while practically sleeping at the helm in between.

Around 8 I got up for the next watch rotation and made coffee, grabbed breakfast, and came on deck for duty. The East end was still there. But a little wind came up and we finally put it behind us. After that we stopped the rotation and we had a beat back to Dana Point in about 8 to 9 knots of wind. We finished just after 2 PM. Dead last and so late they called the wives and home yacht clubs to see where we were. Wife said "they are doing a race around Catalina". Finished in 26 hours, averaged 2.9 knots.

Very hard to believe that we could sail 75 miles (more like 100 over the water) and have head winds on all 3 legs, and never go up spin once.

Sunday afternoon we cleaned up an enormous mess, re-rigged delivery sails, and had a big pizza for dinner.

Return to Main Page

Sponsored by Starrstuff, Inc.   Please visit them.