race report
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 The Coast Guard arrived in big rolling seas. ©2014 Randy Leasure |
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N2E Sea Story
April 29, 2014 Normally a NorCal sailor, Randy Leasure made his annual pilgrimage down to Southern California for the Newport to Ensenada race and came back with a sea story. Last weekend I crewed aboard the San Juan 30 La Marquesita with my friend Ed in the Newport to Ensenada race in the PHRF J/Double Handed division (my 18th year and his 20th). This race is typically a pleasant downwind run with more of a light air challenge in the wee hours than anything else. The saying goes that the race is won or lost at night with light air challenges.
This year the wind was out of the south-southwest with a front moving through. It was about 15 knots at the start and built steadily to 20-25 knots throughout the day. We followed a course tacking inside the rhumb line knowing the wind would eventually clock more out of the west, and it was even windier offshore and we saw no need to get pasted in the heavier breeze. We had a lull in the early evening but then it built back up with some unpleasant 8 to 10-ft seas and intermittent rain – Mr. Toad's wild (wet) ride indeed.
Around 2:00 a.m. we were about six miles past Point Loma when we were hit by a micro-burst of at least 40 knots, which blew out the backstay with a loud BOOM! Luckily we got the sails down right away and avoided losing the entire rig. A relief for sure as we thought the mast was going to go next. We tried to use a spare halyard for a backstay, but that parted too. The original backstay had wrapped around the forestay and jammed up, preventing us from taking the jib down entirely. With the current sea state, it was impossible to mount the outboard engine (it's hard to do at the dock let alone in large rolling seas). Even if we had it on, the outboard would have been useless in the large seas. Popping in and out of the water, it would have overheated for sure. At this point we knew we had to call for some assistance.
We contacted Coast Guard Station San Diego to let them know our position and situation, and then spoke with Vessel Assist to get a tow back in. We were about 3-4 miles offshore and drifting about 1.5-2 knots more or less down the coast. Vessel Assist took about an hour to round up the crew to send out a tow. We jury-rigged another backstay with another halyard and a spare jack line, as the mast was shaking quite a bit, rocking back and forth. Another hour or so later we were alerted by Vessel Assist that they were turning over the tow to the Coast Guard. Once they had made it out of the channel in San Diego and into open water they were swamped a few times with the large breaking seas. At this point it was about 4:30 a.m. We were not in any immediate danger but just cold and tired (and wet) and into Mexican waters at that point. Coast Guard San Diego dispatched one of their LRI-II boats, and it arrived around 6:30 a.m. to offer assistance. They had been checking in every 15 minutes for an updated position, so they knew exactly where we were. Once they arrived they made a few passes and threw a heaving line to me on the foredeck with a Y bridle to attach to the two forward cleats. With the sea state they kept the tow to about 3-4 knots, so it took 3 1/2 hours to get back into San Diego. Hats off to the USCG crew for getting us back in safely!
Once we were tied up back to the dock they somewhat sheepishly asked to do a safety inspection knowing we were pretty beat up and having seeing the chaos on board down below. (La Marquesita passed without issue.) Needless to say, we DNF’d, which was a huge disappointment given how fast we were making it down the coast. It would have been our quickest finish time ever.
Lessons learned:
The full results are here: http://scoring.newporttoensenada.com/results.
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