We woke up to ZERO wind! It was a pretty dreary sight and all we could do was pray for the breeze to fill.
After a postponement flag was put at 10:00AM they lowered it and announced they planned to start us.
Taken off guard as there was still no wind, we scrambled around to get the boat in the water and out in time for the start. It turned out all our rushing was for nothing as we got out with plenty of time before the sequence.
At the start we noticed a bunch of boats starting at the pin end and we were about mid-line. We figured our game plan would be that with a few seconds to go we would launch the spinnaker and go for a clear lane above everyone else. It worked like a charm! At 5 seconds we were sailing at about 4 knots (in what felt like no wind!) as everyone else sat jumbled up at the pin. At GO we were still moving as everyone else sat still watching us roll them in dismay. We got a good lead off the start but somehow a couple boats managed find more wind and sneak by us for the lead. After rounding the first mark of the race we were in 4th with a good lead on all but one of the 20's.
As the wind came and went for the next couple hours we would accelerate away from the pack, catching the leaders, then we would slow, and so on. As we were still only seeing winds peaking at about 5 I felt I would be more comfortable not having my harness on. This was the first time in my life I have ever sailed in a race without my harness on! Suddenly, like hitting a wall, the wind increased to 12-15 and we were single trapezed with the spinnaker! But it wasn't enough! Our VMG angle was way off to make the bridge! We watched Team Velocity coming on strong double trapezed with a much better angle. Knowing I needed to get on the wire too, I handed Brendan the helm and scurried around the trampoline trying to get my harness on! Once I got it on we were double trapezed for about 5 minutes before the wind died back down. While it lasted, the wind had allowed us to make substantial gains on the leaders. We were now contesting the Capricorn about half a mile to leeward of us for the lead. It appeared we were pulling into the lead, as the race committee drove by to cheer us on. We had decent breeze and were going faster than all boats to leeward. Suddenly Brendan said with a nervous tone "Todd... look over your shoulder... theirs a giant tugboat and barge!" I turned around and saw the monstrosity. I knew this was going to be a problem. Traditionally, out of the two of us I tend to be much less cautious when it comes to encounters with commercial traffic. I tend to put us in risky situations in favor for not disrupting our race. Brendan wanted to jibe away but I told him it would set us back way too much. I was hoping we could cross the tug, but I secretly knew in the back of my mind that there was no way this was going to happen.
I told Brendan to relax and focus on the spinnaker I would worry about the impending encounter with the tug. For a couple minutes I continued on course to what looked like we might (big emphasis on MIGHT) cross the bow. I was slightly nervous but tried to concentrate on the task at hand. Next thing I knew I heard a few loud airhorns and realized the tug was thinking the same thing I was, we were on a collision course. Now my mindset went to getting the heck out of it's way but not damage our race. I turned the boat downwind more and ran on a low reach alongside the tug. We were keeping pace with it so I hoped we could keep it from passing us. No such luck, it soon passed us and we got stuck in it's lee. Still not wanting to jibe back, we sailed slowly for a few minutes and watched the boats to leeward catch up and pass us.
We neared the Verazzanno and converged with the boats that had been to leeward with us including Team Velocity and Team Accelerated Chaos. The 3 of us sailed side by side, dueling it out for a while, fighting the currents and trying to make it to the bridge. The Capricorn was the only boat ahead of us and as they crossed under at 2 hours and 47 minutes! The cutoff time for the first boat making the bridge is 3 hours! We knew that having taken so long to reach the bridge it was going to be a long race! We had hoped the Capricorn would turn around but since they didn't and none of us wanted to give up we kept sailing. We ended up crossing under the bridge at 2 hours and 58 minutes! We continued to sail up towards the Statue, it was in sight! As we jibed back and forth across the river with a boatspeed of about 5 knots our GPS was indicating that the Statue was 5.3 miles away and it would take us another hour and a half to reach it. We were so close! But the wind kept shutting down and soon we were averaging 2-3 knots, at that rate it was looking like 2.5 hours to the Statue. Running the numbers through our head we figured we would not return to Sandy Hook til 10PM. In our hurry leaving the beach, I had forgotten our flashlight. The thought of sailing in New York harbor without a flashlight did not appeal to me. Apparently Team Accelerated Chaos was thinking the same thing, they dropped their spinnaker and turned around. We soon followed suit. We were astonished when we saw that several boats opted not to turn around. We informed some of them what our GPS was telling us, as they did not have one, they seemed to debate turning around but as we sailed back towards the beach, they kept sailing towards the Statue. At that point we could do nothing but wish them luck and think we were making the better decision. As we sailed back, Team Accelerated Chaos, Team Velocity, Team Moose-Burd, Flash Gordon and several others all joined us. Apparently, we weren't the only ones who were happy with our decision.
About 30 minutes after turning around the wind filled and we were soon averaging 13-14 knots. I could not help but wonder if the wind had filled past the bridge. Brendan and I were disappointed but overall knew that we had made the correct decision, cautioning on the side of error. It was 4th of July weekend and we had no intention to spend a whole night out on the water!
After returning to the beach we indulged in some hot dogs, hamburgers, and beer, a true 4th of July style beach BBQ. We derigged the boat and around 8PM as we were pulling out of the parking lot we saw the first boats coming in. I looked at Brendan and said "Oh well!... We had a blast either way!"
Despite the sailing conditions the Statue of Liberty Race once again did not disappoint and I will be back again next year, hopefully looking for the win!
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