Tortuga Gets the Last Word

July 12, 2011

As reported yesterday, Randy Leasure's Westsail 32 Tortuga was the last of four boats to finish this year's SSS LongPac. Here is Randy's story.

Neptune allowed Tortuga and I to return Monday, and we crossed the finish line at 4:36 a.m. bringing us in fourth place (results not officially posted but likely the result) out of the 26 boats in the fleet that started the 2011 LongPac race (22 other boats dropped out because of the weather conditions or gear failure). What a race! We had it all. No wind and loads of it!

Starting out on Wednesday we had a nice push with an ebb tide out of the Golden Gate, and then the winds eased to a subtle breeze, not enough to make much way. I headed up along the coast of Marin with the rest of the fleet, and this light wind unfortunately persisted until the tide turned again. I was literally drifting backwards at one point in the Bonita Channel, so I tried to make my way south and get some heading out to sea. (The idea on the first day is to try and get as far offshore as possible to get into the ocean breeze) This didn't pay off as I got slowly sucked back toward the bridge with the flood. Nothing like sailing past Point Bonita Lighthouse twice in one race!) I had to tack back and forth and wait for the tide to turn again. The rest of the fleet that headed north along the coast didn't fare that much better, and once the tide turned I headed back that way again. The afternoon turned into the evening with light winds and some fog and basically still trying to make my way offshore with the majority of the boats in my class.

By Thursday the wind had still not picked up all that much, but I was able to get as far out as the Farallon Islands and drifted around off the North Islands during the afternoon. There was so little wind at one point in the I took the sails down because they were slapping back and forth with the swell.

At 1500, we were in business and the wind came up, and came up hard. Tortuga and I went from bobbing around to charging along at six knots in a matter of 10 minutes. Within the hour I was reefed back down and on my way offshore in 25 knots of wind.

Those of you watching the transponder tracking site may have noticed how much farther south I had to sail than other boats. Tortuga isn't really a racing boat, so she can't point as high as the other lighter and faster boats. (Imagine showing up to the Indianapolis 500 with a Land Rover and you get the idea.) I didn't hear until the radio checks that next day that people were dropping out of the race due to the extreme conditions. I sailed more off the wind to make things a little more manageable with the sea and wind conditions knowing I would be losing miles in the right directions, but I thought it better to not push things and end up breaking more gear.

We spent the next two days working our way as far offshore as possible to hit the 126° 40 Longitude mark and keep the boat balanced and in control and fix things in the 25-30+ knots of wind. We finally hit the mark on Saturday morning and turned around and headed back to the Bay! The race ended for me coming back into the Bay in the earlier morning hours, and of course in the spirit of the tides in this race, against an ebb tide!

The whole adventure was made all the more fun with my self-steering gear giving me challenges along the way. Both the windvane and the tiller autopilot gave me issues. The windvane lines would not stay locked in place, so I finally figured out a way and used a couple of weights from a dive belt to keep them from popping out of their cam cleats. [You can see this arrangement is the video.] Another issue and more serious was that one of the lines connected to paddle that is in the water to help control the steering chafed through and made it unusable. To run another line I had to clip myself to the swim ladder with my safety harness to be able to reach and run the new line off the back of the boat - not something I recommend doing while the boat is moving and the wind's blowing like crazy!

The tiller pilot could not be used during the heavier winds as it would get overpowered, but it would sail the boat on a more accurate course so I tried to used both at different times. The tiller pilot issues were due to the attachment of the arm at the tiller and the bolt that held it in placed sheared off. I got around that for a little while longer using a few pair of vice grips to keep it connected but the extension for the steering arms actually failed as well after a bit and broke off at the threads. At that point the tiller pilot was useless for me.

To add to the excitement of things my engine overheated. I was planning on running my engine every day or so to help charge the batteries, but was not able to figure out why it was overheating. It was a good thing that I had just recently installed some solar panels to help with charging needs and, with my refrigerator off, the solar panels could keep up with the power needs.

As the saying goes, attitude = the difference between an ordeal and an adventure. One thing is for sure, Tortuga can handle a lot more than me! It was quite the experience and the major qualifying race for the Singlehanded TransPac race to Hawaii next year, so we shall see...

- Randy Leasure, Tortuga, Westsail 32

For a photo of what Tortuga looked like when she finished, see our previous report. Thomas Watson of the Triton Darwind has also written a story. You can read it on his blog. His experiences sailing in the Singlehanded Sailing Society are leading up to a circumnavigation via the the Great Capes.