WINGSSAIL

wingssail images fredrick roswold
Judy takes us out

I’m on watch and I’m just sitting on deck, watching. I guess that’s what you do when you are on watch; you watch

It’s midnight and we are running down wind in a strong breeze. We have a reefed mainsail and a small jib polled out on starboard jibe. The windvane is steering. The boat is fast. I’m seeing 10’s on the speedo but I don’t like it. The waves are big and the boat is rolling and swerving and the ride is a bit wild. I’m just waiting for something to break but thankfully so far nothing has.

We need to jibe towards our destination, Barra de Navidad. Judy’s watch is starting and she is getting ready to come up. I tell her, “Turn on the deck light, I have to go forward and we’ll jibe”.

Using the wind vane we turn the boat to the new heading and get the mainsail across. I put the preventer on. Now we need to get the pole over and the jib to the new side as well. I’m going forward to do that. I’m clipped in and I mostly crawl to the foredeck because the motion is wild.I shout directions to Judy. She handles the lines from the cockpit. On my hands and knees I deal with the pole and barely avoid getting conked as it swings around. The motion up here is extreme and it is exhausting just to stay on board, even though it’s only for a few minutes. I compete my task and retreat aft

Now the boat is jibed, the pole is out on the new side, and we settle down, there is 62 miles to go; less than 10 hours. By daylight the wind drops, then shifts to the south. We go close hauled and start tacking. It’s only 10 miles to go now but the wind and a strong current are against us so it is painfully slow. We’re tired and a bit frustrated. It takes three hours to get to Barra.

Judy and Mike from Honu catch our lines. It’s good to see them. Hugs.

wingssail images ros bingham
Flamingo Regatta

The next week goes pretty good. We hang out with our friends and enjoy the Barra de Navidad experience. There are parties and drinks on the Malecon, which prove exceptionally strong and I barely avoid getting tipsy. But we have fun. I am busy planning the races next week for Tenacatita and meanwhile I’ve got to prepare for the single race in Barra, the Flamingo Regatta. I need to line up some crew. I get a bright young guy named Imas to grind and I get a guy named Cliff to do the main. Both are new to racing. Greg and Gloria also join. Greg is my jib trimmer. Gloria is doing halyards.

The Flamingo Regatta doesn’t go exceptionally well for us, 9th place out of 22. We start last, as our start time requires, and pass 15 boats, but the wrong sails for the light air and some weak crew assignments prevent us from doing better. To win we need to pass 22 boats but we don’t. We normally expect to do well and a lot of spectators thought that we would too and they bet heavily on us. We’re sorry we didn’t perform for them but their bets make money for the charity. It’s OK, we have the second highest number of bettors so we made good money for the regatta even if none of the gamblers made out on us.

Next we sail to Tenacatita. It’s supposed to be a rally but the other boats were worried about strong winds and left earlier. We sail alone. Nice sail though; there were no strong winds to worry about. Tenacatita is fantastic. Great anchorage, great weather, and many of our friends are here. The Tenacatita Race Week looks like it will come off as planned except only two races ins

tead of three.

Three days of racing seems to be too much for many of the competitors so we are cancelling the third Race.

John Knape image
Close Racing

But what good racing it is. I’ve wanted to race in this bay for decades; it is beautiful, the wind is nice, and the sailing is outstanding and here we are on the starting line with six boats. A great start gets us off the line at speed and we are first to the top mark (which is the sailboat Karvi). The spinnaker work is good and we romp around to the finish. First Place!
>Day two the breeze is up; 19 knots. We set the small jib and again have a good start. Nobody can touch us upwind in this breeze either.

On this beat we get the rare sight of a very near whale encounter. I am steering but due to the people sitting on the high side I can’t see the water off to our side. They start telling me of a whale nearby. Suddenly a large humpback whale breaches within 50 feet of our boat, next to us. After landing it swims directly towards us and then dives under our keel. Within a few feet of us its tail slides out of sight. I half expect to feel our keel hit the whale but it does not.

We put our focus back on sailing and get to the top mark first. We set the big symmetrical kite and head off almost directly downwind. The other boats are sailing higher but we are sailing deep with the pole back and the sail is pulling well. Every minute we are gaining.

Then comes the jibe. We need to jibe to get to the next mark. In the breeze it needs to be well done but the crew is new and we’re short one person. Then I spot a snag at the end of the pole which would be a big complication.

I chicken out and say, “We’ll set the jib, take down the kite, we won’t try to jibe it.

That is successful but we’re much slower without the spinnaker. Now the boats behind who still have spinnakers are catching up. What can we do? Those boats gain inexorably and the group of closes up. Brainwaves, the nearest one, gets by. We still have the last upwind leg and as we turn the corner toward the finish we again do well and start to regain what we lost but at the finish Brainwaves is still leading and they cross us. We finish second but are in third place on corrected time.

Third place is OK. Two other boats got places ahead of us and they are really happy. We’re happy too, because they are happy. Everyone is a winner, Tenacatita Race Week is a success.

wingssail images fredrick roswold
Upwind in a Blow

Two days later we are heading home to La Cruz. The weather doesn’t look good. We see projections of brisk northerlies and worse the following several days. Not wanting to be pinned down we head out.

The forecast is wrong. The wind is very strong: 25-29 knots against us. That is true wind. Over the deck we are seeing 34 knots of wind. We only brought the racing mainsail and with one reef it is too much. We are overpowered. The boat is sailing fast and pounds into the waves. In trying to slow it down the sails flog. This is unpleasant. We are passing Chemala at 4:30 PM. We could go in and get out of this rough weather but the next day is forecast to be worse. We decide to carry on. The sailing continues to be very difficult however.

By 10:00 PM we decide to take down the mainsail. This is also difficult and dangerous. Our mainsail is not attached to the mast; only a bolt rope holds it on. When it comes down it comes free of the mast. In this breeze the danger is of losing it overboard, a very big hazard.

I go forward and pull down the main with two hands and try to hold it onboard with my foot. Judy handles the lines aft and controls the helm (and injures her arm when the waves briefly take control and yanks the helm over). But we do it. The main is down and lashed to the boom. We now sail with just the small jib with still over 50 miles to go, all upwind. We are surprised how well the boat sails with just the small jib. It is a lesson we are just now learning after 38 years. Wow!

With this configuration the sailing is much easier and, while the wind does not ease, we carry on with little trouble.

By noon the next day we round Cabo Corrientes and head for La Cruz but the wind is dying and we sail slowly.

We arrive safely in La Cruz at 9:00 PM. The Tenacatita trip is over, successfully finished.