2017 DH Leg Notes

DOUBLEHANDED LEG NOTES

28 June - Spadefoot is on it's way to Bermuda. Justin has arranged to salvage it.

24 June - The Newport Awards were held with about 70 people attending. Mayor Harry Winthrop participated and handed out some trophies.

21 June - For those that might be curious Spadefoot is still reporting and traveling south at the moment.
2043 Carina finished. "We beat last race's time!" Last boat in! They were in a slip at the Newport YC by 2230.
0800 - Tyche emailed me. In response to my question verifying his withdrawal. "Yes, we withdrew. Had we not we'ed still be there!" Tyche due here around noon. Carina due to finish around 2100.
0436 Halcyon finished.

20 June - 2104 Panacea finished.
1850 Nimros finished.
1752 Corvus finished.
0935 Tyche emailed me. "Finally escaped the stream. If wind holds we'll see you Wed."

20 June - 0249 In Concert finished.
0158 Praire Gold finished.
0045 Aggressive finished.

19 June 1100 - Prairie Gold - "Aggressive and Prairie Gold just checked in. All is well on both vessels and we continue to push one another until R2."
2217 Cordelia finished
2148 Concussion finished
2143 Yankee Girl finished
2145 Dianthus finished
806 InReached me. "All ok on 806. Wet and bumpy ride at the moment. 78 miles to go, eta 7-8am Tuesday."
1800 - Concussion InReached me. "24 miles out. Dense fog. Tiger Shark still following. Spirits are good. Hopeful for a finish."

19 June - 1726 Upstart finished.
1449 Choucas finished.
1446 Gillett Children's Hospital finished.
1349 Seriana finished.

19 June 1331 - Concussion emailed me. "We are now being escorted in by USCG Cutter Tiger Shark. We are still under sail and intend to finish the race." emai
1024 Cordelia emailed me. "No contact on the radio this morning although we were close enough to hear Dianthus and Concussion conversing about their mast problem. They could not hear us. At 10 am Concussion seemed to have it under control and had a pod of dolphins as an escort. The Coast Guard is on way to stand by. Our summary of this trip: one blown out spinnaker, one blown out Code Zero, a life raft that tried to jump overboard when its cradle restraint ripped loose, and a torn outhaul on the main that requires a constant reef since the Gulf Stream. Just another day at the office.
Prairie Gold emailed me. "At 10:30am this morning Prairie Gold's assym spinn was shredded. Pieces were recovered and special offers on sailbags (red white and blue) can be placed at NYC upon our arrival."
Windswept emailed me. "This is definitely sports boat weather! It would be fun to watch Toothface or Inigo Montoya scream by, but they have probably already finished. I'll bet the minis are cranking up some impressive numbers. Windswept is hitting over nine knots at times. we are hand steering in half hour shifts as the autopilot is not up to the task, given the sea state and wind conditions. We could shorten sail and use the auto pilot, but what fun is that? If conditions persist, we should be finishing around noon tomorrow."

19 June 0800 - Trouble No Trouble emailed me. "TNT831 is sailing along and enjoying this beautiful reach back to Newport. Reeves has finished his copy of War and Peace and expects to complete The House of Usher if we keep up our current rate. He has also finished his initial patent work on a new way to prevent "Rumpy" using paper towels, duct tape bilge sponges. That boy is going to be a millionaire someday. All is well here and we hope your week is shaping up to be a good one."
0746 - Breakaway finished.
0825 - Barcanova finished
0830 - Solarus finished
Prairie Gold emailed me. "Just noticed the time and forgot to monitor for the 7am call. We have been flying a small assym kite since 6pm last night and we are spending a lot of time trimming to keep at hull speed and not to blow a panel. All is well here, although our fresh provisions from Bermuda needed to be discarded because they went off quickly. But we have eggs, bacon and freeze dried fuel. Looking forward to seeing you later."
Bluebird emailed me. "Bluebird Report 40:02N 69:58W. Winds 20K Making 8-9 K with spinnaker. Crew tired, but moving along in the right direction. Hope to be in Newport late tonight!"
Tyche emailed me. "Tyche withdrew at 6. 45. 4.5 current on nose. Big seas."

19 June 0620 - Upstart called in that Concussion has put out a Pan Pan. There is something wrong with his mast, reducing power and trying to limp into Newport. Concussion is in contact with some unknown vessel. The Coast Guard Woods Hole is aware of the situation.
0645 - Dianthus called in also about Concussion. He is coming up from behind Concussion. "Mast is splitting at the partners"?
0655 - Choucas called in that he had heard Pan Pan from Concussion also. Reported winds 22 kts out of 220 degrees, was 25 kts. Foggy, 63 nm out.
0739 - Upstart emailed me on Concussion. "He told Dianthus to keep racing. CG has dispached a cutter. He is attempting a jury rig"
0755 - Concussion emailed me. "Uscg estimates 10 hours to intercept. We have designs on finishing the race. & The mast split at the exit hole for the instrument package. & We've lashed the mast with about 50' of dynema and coated it with west 610 epoxy. Dr. Ireland's fantastic idea to make a cast. Hopefully it will set. & Spirits are good. Splint is holding. Single reef main only. Trying to get over to the rhumb line before attempting a straight shot in. & We have a dolphin escort. 78 miles out."

19 June 0447 - Kiwi Spirit 2 finished.
Breakaway called in. Blew out the spinnaker. Under genoa and main. 20 kts @ 215 degrees.
806 emailed me. "Mon am. All ok on 806 after a very cold night, making good progress. 180 nm miles to finish. Eta around 8am Tuesday at present rate of progress,

19 June 0200 - Concussion emailed me. "Spinnaker shredded. Will fly main only until daylight." Another spinnaker bites the dust. Kiwi Spirit 2 expected to finish around 0415.

18 June 2013 - J Hawk finished. Next boat around 0400 tomorrow morning.
Prairie Gold emailed me. "I feel like land is within grasp, then I look at the charts :) Not in VHF range of anyone tonight for the call in - maybe we are going to different Newports"
Upstart emailed me. "Spoke with Concussion at 7 and all is well. No other contacts".
Trouble No Trouble emailed me. "We were very excited to hear that dragon and toothface were taking hot showers and eating giant medium rare steaks.... oh, and then they came in and had dinner. Well, let me tell you that there's nothing like a lumpy freeze dried beef stroganoff! Especially when the jetboil singes your eyebrows. We are having a wonderful time on the teeny tiny version of a Class 40. Although we only get cold showers, low freeboard and all. TNT 250 miles from Newport. And having fun."
Concussino emailed me. "Spoke with Upstart. It's a beautiful day, and we are both happy to be out of a head current. All are well. Repaired spinnaker is holding."

18 June 1700 - Upstart emailed me. "Sunday 4.40pm all is well on UPSTART"
Perseverance indirectly via Bonnie Van Slyke. He asked me to report to you that all is well. They are creeping along with no wind. He also said hand-steering has been exceptionally difficult. He said that "the people with autopilots don't know how good they have it." They have had no incidents, nothing breaking, and the Gulf Steam was a nonevent--set them off a few mikes but that was expected. They are alone--have not seen anyone nor heard radio traffic.

18 June 1500 - Concussion InReached me. "Nice day in the North Atlantic. Patched up the big chute (we call her big Betty) did a Spinnaker peel. With the big girl up, we are high fiving on Concussion"
Windswept emailed me. "There was no traffic on either VHF or SSB this morning. I guess everyone was sleeping in. We are out of the GS and heading for the barn with about 265 miles to go. The Boston coastal weather report calls for 10-15 knot SW winds for the next several days. Right now we have about 5-8 knots from the WSW and are making about 6 knots through the water thanks to Big Red. We are just passing what appears to be the Norwegian Dawn on it's way back to Bermuda.....brings back memories!"

18 June - Prairie Gold emailed me. "Rudy and I have been chasing up the tail end of fleet 3 being close to Aggressive overnight. We have been in the GS for several hours now with schools of dolphins. Freeze dried ice cream will be prepared to celebrate returning to the cold waters of the north when we exit the stream."
1021 Inigo Montoya finished. Nice tight grouping for the first 3 boats.
1012 Toothface 2 finished with Inigo Montoya not far behind.
Dragon finished about 1000. First boat to finish.
Cordelia emailed me. :All by our lonesome now with no one else on the comm. Wind totally died last night. We even lowered the main and napped for an hour and a half. We have about 8 knots now out of the SW. Nice day...could use more wind, but we can at least also sail the rhumbline."

Corvus called in. No VHF contact with anyone. Repair in Bermuda didn't hold so sailing on main and staysail only; going slow. Fine however.
Barcanova emailed me. "we enjoyed a pleasant night sailing in a lumpy but mild southerly. Barcanova has the laundry out in anticipation of a more exciting night. Currently we're about 180 miles out and estimate we'll arrive at the finish about 0800 tomorrow morning. Rested and ready for the wind to build!"

18 June - When the boats get inside of 20nm their update rate goes to 15 minutes.

18 June 0800 - Looks like the first 3 boats will be finishing before noon, maybe around 1000.
Breakaway called in. Hasn't heard from anyone but in nice conditions.
Tyche InReached me. "Good morning. Easy night except shower on Gerry's watch. Contactec P. Mccrea. Alls well. 6kt wind and smooth sea. Cheers"
806 InReached me. "Sun am. All is well on 806. Crossing the Gulf Stream. Benign conditions but some counter current so we haven't nailed where we wanted to cross. No other boats in sight, vhf range or showing on AIS. No Dolphin sightings so far, hope we encounter some."
Choucas emailed me. "Had a three way chat with Gillette Children and Concussion. Talks of spinnaker wraps and frustration GS crossing in light air. But all seems fine aboard the vessels."
Bluebird emailed me. "Greetings from Bluebird, and Happy Father"s Day! We had an interesting night in the Gulf Stream, with some nice showers washing the boat, some lightning, , then slow dying of the wind, not in our forecast! We are in the cooler green-gray waters of the Atlantic, moving slowly but at least out of the negative current and pointing towards Newport. May the SW breeze fill in!
Trouble No Trouble emailed me. "TNT had a nice evening. We are happy with our progress even though we lost the code zero and all furling headsails.
Reeves got hit in the face by a flying fish. No physical injuries but his ego was pretty bruised when he realized that a fish out of water had better VMG than he did.

17 June 2000 - Concussion InReached me. "37 21 | 67 29. In the stream. H2O temp 80.1. about 12° of crab angle. Looks like weather on the horizon."
806 InReached me. "Evening check in. All is well n 806, even calm enough to have a salt water wash down on the aft sun deck this evenoing!!!"
Cordelia emailed me. "Talked with Dianthus, In Concert and Concussion. Concussion blew out a couple of sails today but all is well with everyone. Beautiful day and gorgeous sailing. Wind SSE at 10 - 15.
We had an adventure today on Cordelia. We were jibing when a preventer line on the mainsail boom got caught on an ear of the mount for our emergency life raft, which is on deck and in a big fiberglass canister. The ear is a turning point for the cable that holds the raft on. It bent the ear, the boat was heeling and the canister came out of its mounting cradle, careened onto the deck, and slid to the side rail and stopped! If it had gone overboard, it would still have been attached to the boat by its inflation cable. I assume it would have popped open and inflated and we would have been towing an inflated life raft. Lord knows what we would have done then. Can’t retrieve it and reuse it, so we probably would have had to stop and sink it. As it was, we had it on the rail. I dashed up and stuck my leg between it and the lifelines so it would not slip overboard. Gail got a line and we made a netting between the rail and the lifelines so it could not slip through then or when we tried to hoist it back in place. We did get it back in place and all secured. So no harm, no foul. Just another day at the office.
We are entering the Gulf Stream as I type, at 1900 Saturday night. Wish we could head more westerly but the wind angle won’t allow it without a huge reduction in our speed. Oh well. All for now.
Dianthus called in. Put his spinnaker up 3 times today. In Concert is having furling problems. Cordelia doing fine in front.
Trouble No Trouble emailed me. "Fun day of sailing out here. Saw Nimros a few times came within a few hundred yards no one on deck to wave to today. We started heading westward and assume they are staying the eastern track. Great wind!!!"
Prairie Gold emailed me. "Aggressive and Prairie Gold were just in VHF contact. All is well on both vessels. We have had no contact with the rest of the fleet who we assume is well ahead of us."
Barcanova emailed me. "Just made it across the Stream. A wild ride! 25-30kts and the usual big seas. We survived without any major problems other than a few miles round ups and look forward to some mild reaching tonight. No contact with anyone for 24hrs. We did almost 249 miles yesterday and Del ripped a 17.2 kt ride."
Upstart emailed me. "Life is good on Upstart at 6pm Saturday"

17 June 1400 - Toothface 2 emaild me. "ALL IS WELL ON BOARD. DESPERATELY MISSED A HEAVY AIR RUNNING SPINNAKER LAST NIGHT. DRAGON DID A JOB ON US SAILING LOWER AND FASTER. YOU CANT CARRY EVERY SAIL FOR EVERY CONDITION! WE HAD THE WRONG SET OF TIRES FOR THIS RACE TRACK. GOING WELL NOW AND LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING MY WIFE AND FAMILY SOME TIME TMRW. POURING RAIN OUT HERE...WELCOME BACK TO NEW ENGLAND! CHEERS, T FROM TF2
Upstart emailed me. "11.50 on Saturday and all is well on Upstart"
J Hawk emailed me. "doing ok out here. Got chute wrapped around head stay around 11 last Night, took 7 hours to get it secured around headstay with no flapping or little hourglass filled with air (could not get it down and proceedibg with it wrapped on headstay). Have used all available halyards to secure it, so if I cannot retrieve one of those just mainsail from here. We are fine."
Tyche InReached me. "Wing + wing in 8 – 10kt wind doing 6+. All is well.
Concussion InReached me. "36 39 | 67 04. We've been up a Spinnaker and battled with a few wraps. We've resigned, for now, to just a main sail." Sounds familiar. Then another one "blownup".
Breakaway called in. Heavy seas going downwind; good but also bad. Moving right along.

17 June 1000 - Windswept emailed me. No traffic on VHF or SSB. We crossed within a dozen yards of Prairie Gold last night. Thanks to AIS it was not the white knuckle experience it could have been. We are currently driving down wind in a lumpy sea. The randomness of the waves confuses the autopilot to the point that we have been hand steering since dawn. We hope to be at the GS entry point by the end of the day.

17 June 0800 - For those curious about why some boats aren't being tracked; Team Wichard is being shipped back due to the crack in the keel box; the designer recommended not sailing. Strummer is sailing to the Azores probably Sunday. Pocket Rocket started but had to return to St. Georges due to keel problem is being shipped home also.
Trouble No Trouble emailed me. "All is well. Managing power. "
Tyche InReached me. "Had an uneventful night and a good run with 10kt winds. All is well."
806 emailed me. "All is well on 806. We had had enough fun with spinnaker for one evening and decided to take it down at midnight as the concentration needed was getting tough in the dark. 20 knots of breeze still kept us moving along nicely all night. No comms with anyone else though Corvus was visible on AIS during the evening."
Cordelia emailed me. "It’s a beautiful morning out here with winds SSE at 15+ knots and continuing to clock. Made contact with both Dianthus and In Concert. Everyone is well and enjoying the day. Yesterday In Concert blew out her Code 0 while Cordelia blew out her Asym. Neither has a spare, and with the winds aft of the beam, we are not pleased (although Dainthus is). We should hit the stream late today. All for now. Fair Winds."
Prairie Gold emailed me. "All is well on Prairie Gold, We had a great night of sailing with the assym flying for most of the night to see if we could catch some boats after lagging yesterday. We have no idea where we stand in the fleet but are enjoying the conditions."
Dragon called in. No one to talk to! Winds 20 knots at 142 degrees.

16 June 2300 - Just got home!
Trouble No Trouble emailed me. "Aside from our spin pole losing both furlers and outhauls, and our code zero exploding unspectacular fashion, we are having a great time! See you in Newport!"
Barcanova emailed me. "All's well here on Barcanova. We're at N 34 57 W 065 35 heading straight to Newport at about 9 knots I'm a very pleasant southeasterly. Haven't seen anybody since we emerged from the glassy slatfest at about 0600 this morning. Some hard reaching with various spins in the morning but a slight aft shift has calmed things down here. Champaign sailing! "
Cordelia emailed me in response to his saying TnT was headed back to Bermuda. "oh, crap! u r correct. I even wrote it in my log. Here i am trying to keep you informed and screwing it up. Sorry. At least you already knew."
Choucas emailed me. "I have been sailing with a group of three boats within AIS signal. Gillette Children, Concussion and Seriana. All is well with these boats."
Windswept emailed me. "No traffic on either VHF or SSB. I guess I am in my own private Idaho once more. We had been cruising with Blue Bird this morning, but he gave us the slip in some light air. The winds are now 10 to 15 knots from the ENE and we are making 7+ knots over the ground through a lumpy confused sea."
806 emailed me. "glad you are getting my messages. All is well on 806. The sea has calmed down and we are literally humming along having some fun surfing with the spinnaker up. 806 hums when she planes. We had a text from TnT earlier in the day that all is well although they are out of vhf range. We have one other boat within sight but are not sure which one. Did Pocket Rocket get into Bermuda safely ? Cheers,"

16 June 1300 - Pocket Rocket made it back to St George's and is docked. He has retired and will ship the boat back ala Team Wichard.

16 June 0800 - Further information on Pocket Rocket, he had a similar problem with his keel to when he finished the first leg. He was able to stabilize the keel and headed back to Bermuda not requiring any assistance.
Upstart emailed me. 7am wind has filled in and all is well with upstart, choucas, concussion, and barcanova.
Dragon called in. 18-22 knots from 094 and they are flying. Deep beam reach with beam seas so very wet ride. He heard from Toothface and J Hawk who are both doing fine.
Cordelia emailed me. "June 16 AM Comm heard from Dianthus, Prairie Gold and In Concert. Also heard conversations between Concussion, Corvus and Panacea. Aggressive was in sight on the AIS. All is well. Not of a fun night of very light winds out of WNW (4-8 kts), which dropped to almost zero this AM. Lots of flogging and banging - even went backwards for a spell. Tried the Code 0 and got a good couple of hours out of it before a squall came through. After that the wind filled back in from the NE at 8-10, juggling things up a bit, putting leeward boats to windward. We seem to be in a warm eddy that showed on the charts with about 0.5 kts unfavorable. Of note, last night at 2045 Trouble No Trouble called 806 with a leaking keel box (I believe). His position was 33d 10.10 N 64d 29.524 W. After speaking to several boats, and assessing his situation, they called in a pan pan to Bermuda radio and began heading back." (Editor's note: Cordelia evidently is mistaking TNT for Pocket Rocket who turned back last night not TNT)
806 emailed me. "Good Morning Roy. All is well on 806. No contact with Trouble No Trouble this am. Last VHF contact before being out of range with Pocket Rocket was 22:00 last night. They reported situation stable making 4.5 knots towards Bermuda. Spoke with Yankee Girl this am. All good with hin. No wind here."
Trouble No Trouble emailed me. "TNT is doing well. Sitting in a hole devoid of wind. About 60Nm from Bermuda. Nimros and 3 other boats are near us."
Choucas emailed me. "All is well with the Class2. The only boat that did not came up on the VHF is Perseverance.. they must be going at their own pace."
Corvus called in. Reported in around 1830 and said he was having mechanical; problemswith his furling so he is under main and staysail.
Dianthus called in. Reported he talked to Cordelia who had a blown spinnaker, and In Concert who blew his code 0.
Prairie Gold called in and reported all ok.

15 June 2100 - Pocket Rocket emailed me that he is returning to Bermuda unassisted. Keel problems. 806 has been communicating with him.
Halcyon looks like it is back on its way to Newport.

15 June 1900 - Concussion InReached me. "7:05pm est. 32 59| 64 38. Gillette's is in front of me a few miles, Yankee Girl is to the west. Nice evening. Wind is about 9-10. Seas are choppy."
Pocket Rocket "Hi Roy, marcus from Pocket Rocket. Just wanted to check in from my inReach. All good here."
Upstart texted me. "Upstart reporting all is well with choucas serina breakaway concussion gillette and barcenova."
Cordelia emailed me. "Great sailing this afternoon and early evening. Winds are 10 -12 knots NW. Heard from Aggressive, Prairie Gold, Dianthus, and In Concert as well as Perseverance and Panacea. All is well with everyone. No issues and all is well."
Windswept emailed me. "I have Panacea, Yankee Girl, and Bluebird in sight. No report from Yankee Girl or Bluebird. Panacea reports that all is well. He also was in contact with Carina and reports all is well. No news from Nimros.
Just after rounding Kitchen Shoals, it appeared on my AIS that both Corvus and Tyche had turned back towards Bermuda. Have they retired from the race? (Note, NO) The weather predictions were about as wrong as possible. Instead of a beam/ broad reach, we are once again hard on the wind. At least the wind is manageable at 6-10 knots. Time for dinner."
Dragon called. Spoke with Toothface2, J Hawk, Solarus and Inigo Montoya. Wind about 10 kts N looks like shifting to the East.
806 emailed me. "806 reporting in that all is well in the Mini Fleet. No problems to report on any of the 3 boats as of the 19:00 chat schedule on the 15th. We're seeing 5-10 knots of breeze with quite a confused sea. Tony."

15 June - Tyche InReached me. "Nice sailing with 8 apparent and it's swinging gradually to the west. We are doing 350. Need 335."
Concussion InReached me. "Hello, Roy! This is Concussion. The wind is about 6kts out here, but the sun is out and it is a beautiful day!"

15 June - you will notice that there are emails now from InReach boats. I discovered that InReach for some reason this year is not getting there messages to my email address. They changed to a different email address and I am now receiving the InReach messages. I was wondering why I wasn't receiving any messages from those boats. Felt not wanted!

15 June - And they are off. The classes started at 0900 however in about reverse order this time. Class 4, Class 6, Class 3, Class 2, Class 1. Wonderful time minus the short rain shower we had; not supposed to rain on the Race Committee. A J boat and several high speed ferries vied for the Cut space with the fleet. All went well however Halcyon is headed back. A repair to the back stay needs a little mod. Halcyon is anchored waiting for Vernon Hultzer to help out. Alan Oatley and his daughter Julian provided the boat and manpower as well as Eric Johnson and Fred Green.

14 June - The weather brief was provided by Gary Hall and Jen Smith of Bermuda Weather Service. I finished off with the specifics for the race. Next, all had to go through customs. We start 0900 EDT tomorrow.