Neil, Rod (from Newcastle), and I sailed Santeria in an overnight race from Whitby to the Leslie Street spit and back. Race started at 9pm with 14 boats, including one from Frenchman's Bay, one from Cobourg, and of course Santeria from Newcastle.
Winds were forecast to be light 5-8 knots from the E, and swing to SW and pickup in the morning.
Road Trip withdrew because of the lack of wind.
Black Shadow withdrew because they lost their spinnaker halyard on the top of the mast.
We had a good start on a port keeping in front of several boats all the way to the T2 buoy in Toronto. Flying a symmetrical spinnaker, we were the second boat to the mark behind Sumac.
We had a hard time dousing the spinnaker at the mark and hoisting the #1. The experienced Gruntled crew did a perfect douse and set on their #1 and went roaring past us.
We stayed on the rhum line beating back into the east wind. We tried an asymmetrical spinnaker, but it wasn't any faster than the #1, and was difficult to fly.
We sailed into a no wind zone about 4 miles south of cathedral bluffs with 3 boats behind us, and floundered around for several hours. Boats that went offshore didn't see this wind hole. For much of the time between Toronto and Ajax we were only doing 2-3 knots of boat speed.
The wind never did swing to the SW like we were hoping. It did fill in to about 10 knots from the east for the last hour (5 miles of the race). We had a tacking duel with Kalona (Aloha 34) near the finish and beat them across the line in the rain.
As we came into the harbour, the skies let go with major rain and thunderstorms.
Trip Odometer: 66.70 miles
Moving Average: 4.3 knots
Moving Time: 15:34:00
Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130621.kmz
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