The worst thing about having a blog like this is that everyone knows when you are not writing!

Over the past couple of months we have been extremely busy doing all kinds of cool stuff, and it is often hard to get it written down before I loose the moment, thus all of the recaps and catch up sessions on this blog.

There is a tonne to talk about though, so please bear with me as I try and catch up again!

I’ve been terribly negligent about reporting on all of the amazing ocean racing that has been underway over the past few weeks, but I just had to write a post to get people to send positive vibes to Derek Hatfield and Spirit of Canada who is currently racing in the Ecover Transat B to B.

Pattianne reports this morning that Derek has been having some serious problems with the on-board computers, sat-comms and autopilot. I can tell you from experience that when “Auto” craps out on you it is super exhausting just trying to do sail changes and trimming, let alone trying to solve computer problems. My experience on the mini pales in comparison to an Open 60. I can’t even imagine what it would be like try to manage one of these powerful beasts without a pilot.

To make matters worse, he had an accidental jibe that caused some damage and wrecked further havoc with the computers.

So please take a minute to send some positive vibes to Derek, he’s got a lot of miles to go.

Here’s a video that Kristian just posted on the Leo’s site. I’ve written about Andraz and Kristian before; their blog was the best way to follow the transat!

Enjoy!

This past weekend I had my last trip out into the lake and it was a really great trip! The purpose of this training run was two fold, first I sailed up to Port Credit Yacht Club to attend the Lake Ontario Shorthanded Sailing Racing Series Awards Banquet, and the second purpose of the trip was to put a few more, really tough, miles under my keel.

I left on Friday morning after doing final inspections and a few minor fixes. Paul Davis helped me get the final things sorted out and I headed off into a really nice 10-15 SE breeze and temperatures around 5 degrees. The sun was shining and I had a really nice afternoon headed out into the open lake.

Over the night the breeze built to a nice 20-25 and the waves continued to build to around 6-8 feet. We surfed almost all night under full main and jib and speeds were averaging 7.5 to 8 knots with a high speed of 10.5.

I banged the US shoreline around Olcott, and around 0400 gybed for the final leg into Toronto. As the sun rose, the wind shifted to the NE and built further so I had to put a reef in the main. The temperature dropped when the wind shifted and I have to admit that it was pretty darn cold. The auto pilot was working well, so I was able to go below and make a cup off coffee and have a little sleep.

I got into Toronto around 1200 and after cleaning up a bit grabbed lunch in the club and had a great afternoon nap. I awoke to a soft tap on the hull and I poked my sleepy head out the companionway to see that it was now dark and there were two very well dress men in jackets and ties. “Damn! I overslept” was the first thought that jumped to my mind. Brian Townsend and John Vinden, greeted me warmly and I quickly dug through one of my dry bags looking my jacket and tie.

We had a fantastic dinner and I met a tonne of cool sailors. It was great to talk about the project with people who could fully understand what it is like to manage a boat by yourself over extended periods. People were so interested in checking out the boat, and learning a little more about the mini class.

Ian McAllister, Brian Townsend and John Vinden were very gracious hosts, and they presented me with some Lake Ontario 300 schwag and kindly paid for my dinner. (Prime rib and Yorkshire pudding was a REALLY nice change from the freeze dried gump I had been eating.) It was an early night for me, as I knew I had another long sail ahead of me.

When I awoke in the morning, there was an eighth of an inch of frost on the deck, and clear cool sky to greet me as I poked my head out of the companionway. A truly beautiful, crisp morning. I had coffee and hot oatmeal on deck while I let the frost burn off and I eventually started to get things in order for departure.

I left PCYC around noon on Sunday and had an upwind buck for the first 2/3 of the trip; wind ESE, 10-15. I hugged the Canadian shore as it was the favoured tack, and I kept taking little hitches out into the lake to clear land. I was in good spirits and the boat was rocking. Every once in a while the boat would get so dialed in, and I had her going 6.5 knots with a fair good wind angle. Had my headphones in for a few hours, and found that music makes a huge difference to take my mind off the cold.

The breeze eventually backed to SE and rose to 15-20, and I had to switch down to the jib. The sail change went pretty well all things considered. Changing sails requires that I go up on the foredeck, leaving “Auto” to drive. It’s kind of like trying to ride a bucking bronco with no hands while having a fire hose trained on you. To change the sail, I have to take the old sail off the forestay and untie the sheets, shove the sail below, drag the new sail up onto the front of the boat and hank and tie it on. Then you have to head back to the cockpit to pull the sail up to the top of the mast. It’s an exhausting exercise which takes about 10-20 minutes, but the boat is so much more under control when it is done.

It was really nice to be able to ease the sheets, and head below for a three, 20 minute naps. Auto performed like a champ for these, and as I was north of the shipping channel, I was way less worried about freighters. The current was on the nose still, which was really frustrating as my boat speed was averaging over 7 knots and I was making only 5.5-6 over ground.

I rounded Point Petre around 0700 and it was really nice sailing heading north toward the Ducks. It continued to build and it was on the beam. I opted to stick with the jib and full main as the wind was getting gusts over 20 and was not in the mood to fight with the kite on a beam reach on the home stretch. As I passed Psyche Shoal I had even more wind, 25-30 and really broad.

Approaching the entrance to Kingston harbour I had my first taste of what debilitating mental fatigue is like. I wanted to take the Simcoe Island entrance instead of the “K route” along the north shore. Gusts were over 35 now and I put in a reef, as I wanted this to be super controlled. On the final approach the wind was almost dead aft and I was worried about the shoal extension from the tip of Simcoe Island. I couldn’t bear off and I didn’t have time for two gybes. I bailed, and headed up, and put a second reef in the main. I was so indecisive about what to do. I just couldn’t figure out the easiest way in Kingston Harbour. I finally made the decision to take the K route, as it was a better wind angle heading into the harbour.

After getting around K9 buoy, I was over powered and pulled down and lashed the jib, so I was sailing in with just the double reefed main on a beam reach. (Going 7 knots sometimes…) It was now dark and pouring rain. I got the mooring lines, fenders, engine and sails sorted out on the approach to the club. Thankfully this all went smoothly. I was really nervous about something going wrong at this stage. I somehow managed to get the boat into the dock with too much incident and thankfully Alison was waiting for me in the car. After a very gross clean up, we headed home to a nice beef stew and a warm bed.

I have to say that the end of this trip was some of the most challenging sailing I have ever done. Exhausted, cold and soaked (not just me, but everything on the boat) there was a real possibility of things going very wrong. I’m happy to say that I was able to keep both the boat and myself safe and under control, but just barely. It was a good indication of what we have to work on in the spring when we get out for early training sessions.

Getting back into the swing of things at home and work is really tough after this trip. With just 90 minutes of sleep in 32 hours, I had to get up and go to work as usual. I made it through the work week, but more than one person commented on the horrible bags under my eyes. It generally takes a few days to recover. (Which is what has delayed this post.)

I think this was my last sail for year and it was a great way to end the season. It was nice to meet some new friends at PCYC, it was good to challenge the boat and myself, and it was great to take advantage of these awesome “November Gales” that we get here on Lake Ontario.

I’m already looking forward to spring training!

Yves Le Blevec, the former boat captain on the maxi catamaran Orange, crossed the finish line in Salvador this morning.

Because his radio was broken he had no idea he was in the lead for most of the second leg, so you can just imagine how he felt coming into the finish to find he had won the race!

Here’s an except from the Trasat website:

“It is an incredible, extraordinary feeling. I live for that project only since two years already, a project that my partner “Actual” and I built with a common aim… Winning only… As we did today in Salvador de Bahia! But that entire story is huge. Remember where I come from. I prepared both my boat and I these lasts months without knowing if I would leave. (- Yves knew that he could line up at start only a few days before the start as 4 other sailors -) After the first leg I really was under pressure because of my opponents level: Isa (Joschke), Sam (Manuard), but also Hardy, Deshayes and all the others… I have belt along as much as I could, without resting, and only at few moments I was worried for my boat and wondered if all that was reasonable.

When I passed the Equator where I dismasted in 2005, I had the feeling to be free. And, I had to concentrate again on my objectives by saying to myself “but you haven’t done anything yet, you still have half an Ocean to cross.” And at that moment, my boat fulfilled me… Easy, gliding in the trade winds, being incredibly well balanced. Yet I solicited it so much. Again I really doubt in the ‘Pot au Noir’. I have slow down a first time, and when I believed that the Pot was a bad memory; a monstrous cloud filled with storms and rain stuck me up and punished me by down pouring again and again… I, then, thought that the other competitors were cooler more east. I constantly was afraid to be overtaken under Brazilian Coasts. Without having any news since 6 days, I had to keep being aggressive. The boat did the rest…”

Yesterday afternoon I got back from practice out in the lake and it was a pretty crazy 24 hours! I went out to the Ontario Buoy and back to practice, and as usual Lake Ontario served as a great training ground.

I had been watching the weather carefully for few days before I left, so I knew that I would be in for some intense weather. We started out on Friday night in a fairly sedate NW 10 knots that built to a pretty solid W 20 knots. I was barely able to make it close hauled on starboard tack once I was out in the open lake.

There is absolutely nothing that can describe how uncomfortable a mini can be bashing upwind in 20+ knots and 1-2 metre swell. The noise and jerky motion of the boat falling off of the tops of waves is so violent. I drove the boat for the first 8 hours and then let “Auto” do a lot of the work after Psyche Shoal so I could nap a little. Same schedule as before, trying to sleep for 20 min and then getting up to check the heading, speed and look for traffic. Did a lot of changing gears, reefing and un-reefing as the wind speed changed.

I met with two freighters on this leg, dealt with between naps. It’s always scary when you encounter freighters. You must determine their heading and speed and alter course accordingly, and both times we passed I had to alter course and we passed quite close. These things are huge, like floating cities on the water, and they are almost always coming straight at you.

I rounded around 0200 and then bore off for the ride home. I un-reefed the main and kept the jib as gusts were up to 25 knots and I didn’t want to blow out the kite. The breeze was up and down and shifting between W to NW. As I got to passed Point Petre and headed toward Psyche Shoal, I had a nice 12-15 knot breeze that let me get the kite up for a bit. The breeze built as I past the Ducks and I had to take the kite down for fear of it exploding.

Passing into the outer harbour, I had a beautiful rainbow on one side, and scary dark wet clouds on the other side with blue sky and 30-35 knots on the beam in between. What could be more perfect! It was fast and furious sailing, with the boat lifting up and surfing down the 1-2 m swell. I was averaging 9-10 knots (12 knots was the high speed, the fastest 680 has ever gone!) and I have to admit that I was a little nervous about this, as my pilot had finally given up because the batteries were on their way out. Without the pilot, I had to completely stop the boat to make any sail changes, and with the big breeze and waves, changing sails is a rough job.

I had to put in a couple of reefs on the final approach to the harbour so I could gybe safely down to the club. It built even further as I was approaching the club and I could have turned around and gone out again, but I was totally done and ready for a beer and some sleep.

When I got home, Alison had a hearty meal of spaghetti (sauce done on the slow cooker, so the house smelled awesome!) and we had a great dinner together. I fell asleep on the couch and Alison got me into bed around 2200.

(Aside: It’s Alison’s birthday today, Sunday, so be sure to wish her a happy belated.)

I think these training runs have tonnes of value and I am really enjoying the sailing. This practice was about heavy weather and I definitely learned a lot about handling in relatively heavy air. (I’m sure I will be sailing in a lot heavier than 35 sometimes…) I hope to keep the boat in the water for as long as I can, and continue testing both the boat and myself.

I know, I know: Pics or it didn’t happen. Well I was too busy to take any pictures, but here is a video of a figaro training in similar conditions with the same sail combination as I had. Like I said, fast and furious sailing!

I know, I know. This is a very late report on the training run to Toronto. I got back to Kingston on Monday night and it’s been tough getting back into the swing of things at work and I’ve been getting ready for a couple of events that are coming up.

We (the boat and I) left Kingston on Thursday night and headed out in almost glass flat conditions. My motor is a touch temperamental on a good day, but she performed like a champ for the few hours until the night breeze started to fill in around 2000-2100 that night. It was a beautiful sail out of the harbour; sunsets are just so amazing this time of year.

One of the goals for this training run was to try out as many sail combinations as possible and I definitely did well on this goal. As the wind direction and speed changed, I did every sail change as if I was racing. I also had about 100L of water in moveable tanks, so this was a good chance to see how weight affects the boat at various points of sail and in different wind conditions.

As the sun went down I tried to get into a sleep pattern that I could live with for a while, and I am happy to say that I stuck with it for the duration of the trip. (Except the end, more on that latter.) I set my watch to repeat every 20 minutes and whenever it went off, I checked the bearing, sail trim and traffic and then tried to doze again. I slept in the cockpit for most of the sail, which sounds uncomfortable, but really isn’t that bad if you are dressed for it.

Sailing was light but good on Friday, with a broad breeze and filling as the day went on. I went fairly far south on this leg, and was outside of communications for almost all of Friday. It was the first time I got that pang of “damn, I am really far out here and if I were to fall off the boat, no one would know for days…” I was too busy to dwell on it really, but that knowledge in the back of my head motivated me to stay safe and move slowly and deliberately.

I got to Toronto around 0300 on Saturday morning, and when I went to take my main down I found that the bolt rope had frayed enough that I couldn’t get the main down. After fighting with it for an hour, I gave up and headed into the harbour with it up. To make matters worse, I bumped into the mud just outside of the RCYC harbour, and had to spend another half hour trying to get out!

After a quick sleep, Andrew Morgan came over to help get the main sorted out and after a couple of hours of pulling, cutting, “dremmilling” we got the main down. I spent the rest of the day visiting with old friends from RCYC, picked up some more groceries on the main land, and headed to bed around 2130. (My internal clock was so screwed up, I could have stayed up and partied with folks, but I thought better of it.)

After breakfast on Sunday morning, through off the lines and headed back to Kingston in a really nice 10-16 knot breeze. It was perfect conditions for the boat, with flat water and a building breeze. We were traveling at almost 10 knots, and passing boats almost three times my size. “Big grin sailing.”

Around 0000 my autopilot was having trouble keep a compass course and the GPS was giving me low power warnings. Turns out that both batteries were almost empty. By 0200 the GPS would not even start up, and I was stuck steering all the time. I was exhausted by the time the sun came up, but as Point Petre arose on the horizon my bearing in was right on. We bore off with a full main and a kite up and blasted North toward the Duck Islands.

I finally got into Kingston around 1730 and got the deck cleaned up before hitting the dock. I was SO looking forward to seeing Alison, having a hot shower and getting into a nice soft bed.

I was back to work on Tuesday morning, and this week has been somewhat of a blur as I have had to keep the momentum going despite some serious sleep deprivation. Ces’t la vie, this is the life of a competitive solo sailor.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I’m going sailing!

While watching the Transat news and studying weather has been a constant distraction, I have have been busy trying to get ready for my first big solo trip this weekend. We (the boat and I) will be heading out on Thursday evening for a quick trip to Toronto and back to visit the c-class worlds which are underway at RCYC, then turning around and coming home on Sunday.

Getting the boat ready for this little jaunt has been a lot more work than I thought it would be. Little things like getting the hanging stove rigged, installing the last of the required safety gear, rig inspections and engine maintenance have taken up most of my nights this week. It’s nice to finally be preparing for a longer sail, but it is a bit stressful, because forgetting something could mean the difference between a nice weekend sail and a total disaster. “Thorough preperation” continues to be my mantra, so if I get through all of the stuff on my list done, I should be in pretty good shape. (Knock on wood.)

Over the last two weeks, we’ve been trying to get the boat out in various conditions and start to get a sense of what she can do. The big challenge at the moment is to figure out what sail combinations we should have up in various wind speeds and angles. It’s been a usual fall here in Kingston, so it’s been blowing twenty something for past couple of weeks. I haven’t even had a chance to really test the genoa yet!

Generally I’m very pleased with the boat. Matt Fair and I had a chance to take her out and do some upwind practice in 30+ knots last week, and with two reefs and a jib she was wonderfully balanced. The trip this weekend should be good for taking notes on sails, speeds and stuff. Greg van Rossem and I also had a great downhill run out in the lake last weekend and we had some great speeds, over 11 knots. It’s been SO much fun figuring out the boat and how all of the manouvers go. We’ve certainly got a lot of work to do, but we are definetly off to a good start.

I’ll try and post an update from Toronto, so stay tuned to this page for updates throughout the weekend and the rest of the season. (Remember there is still over a month of sailing left!)

After a brief postponment, the minis are underway and the weather for the start couldn’t have been more perfect. The low pressure system that caused the postponment has stabilized and the fleet started in a north breeze of 15 knots.

As of this morning, Isabelle Joschke is in the lead, which makes me smile. While Isabelle has had an amazing season and is a favorite to win the race, she is still a bit of an underdog. Some of the others who are favorites for the race, had a really rough start, but are now getting things sorted and out and back into the positions they “should” be in.

It’s been a bit tough finding news for this race, so I thought I would provide a few links. If you have found another good source of news please post the link in the comments.

The official site is here. The race tracker is under “cartography”.

The best mini blog out there is the Adria4oceans team blog. This is a two skipper/boat team and they are also favorites for the race over all. Unforetunately Andraz had a collision with a press boat at the start and damaged a dagger board, but he is pressing on.

Yachting World also has had tonnes of good coverage.

Finally there are a few threads with news and opinions worth watching. Here on Leo’s forum, and here on Sailing Anarchy.

For weather, checkout the NOAA Atlantic Briefing.

The Transcascogne race has just completed in France and it was one hell of a race.  In the first leg the fleet encountered 50 knot winds and very large seas.  Some of the minis ran into some problems with breakages, keel problems and dismastings, but thankfully everyone was able to get into Santander Spain without serious incident. 

Andrew Wood is a Brit who was competeing the race.  Here’s a video of what the conditions were like on board for him.  The sound is aweful, but you really get a sense of what a mini is like in big breeze.