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Overnight Story by Bob & Susan Bruno The Duck Island/ECSA Overnight Distance Race to Block Island continues draw top competition. This year, nine boats raced under the threat of bad weather from hurricanes Bonnie and Charley. Had it not been for NOAA Weather’s forecast for rain and gusty conditions, all sixteen boats that were registered would have raced. True to form, the forecast wasn’t even close. The wind at night is never predictable. But that’s okay… it’s too dark to trim your sails anyway. You can’t see other boats for clues to the advantaged side or to guess on how well you’re doing. All you can do is pick the best course, watch your instruments closely and wish for luck. With virtually no wind, the start was postponed for two hours. Gremlin, a Tripp 36, was making headway around the starting area with an ultra light headsail, but all other boats were motoring against the foul current. The crew of Arabesque was fueling up on Claudia Kondracky’s world famous magic brownies to improve focus and competitive drive. (*Editor's note: nothing funny in the brownies) At close to 2030 hours, the race committee asked all the boats to motor to the up-current side of the start line. In the worst case, all boats could start by drifting across the line. Fortunately, the wind filled in from the east and the fleet took off in a 3-4 knot breeze at the gun. Most of the boats chose to sail the shorter course outside Duck Island and fight the current. Gremlin and Looney Tunes stayed inside the island and made out much better in the early hours at dusk. They passed around the point at Menunketesuk Island and headed east along the coast. Meanwhile, the current south of Duck Island was running strong and the rest of the fleet was barely moving in the light air. My wife Susan was at the helm of Arabesque, in the middle of the fleet with Snowbird and Wolverine ahead and Nunnehi and Chaos just behind. As the sun went down, the wind increased to 7.5 knots and the fleet began to make progress against the current. In the dark, we could no longer tell one boat from another, but they were all headed in the general direction of Long Sand Shoal. We thought we could barely see Gremlin and Looney Tunes lights along the shoreline of Westbrook, heading toward Cornfield Point and making good progress. We sailed to Long Sand Shoal with the rest of the fleet. The wind remained steady and we were making reasonable progress inside the shoal. Sitting on the rail we looked up and commented on how great the conditions were for sailing at night. The sky was clear, the stars were out, the wind was steady and everything was right with the world…. That was when the fog rolled in and the wind died to zero. At midnight, nothing had changed. We still had no wind and zero visibility. The only consolation was that the GPS showed us drifting in the right direction. Per the race rules, all the boats were required to report their position to the race committee. As each boat called in their coordinates, you could hear the frustration. Shortly after midnight, the wind picked up out of the west. It was only 2.5-3.0 knots, but enough to fill a light air chute. The wind continued to build slightly while we sailed out toward The Race. As we sailed past Little Gull Island, the wind picked up to 10 knots and we saw Wolverine ahead and to leeward. They picked up on the stronger winds and stretched their lead until we could no longer see their lights. Meanwhile we changed to heavy air sheets on the hunch that the winds would continue to build. Outside of Long Island Sound, the waves turned into rollers that were big enough to make deck work challenging. Our bowman, Jeff Ott who is as surefooted as they come, almost lost his footing on the foredeck more than once. At first light, we were surprised to see nearly the full fleet with four boats ahead, bearing down on the R2 Bell and one close off our stern and another in the distance. Under a beautiful sunrise, we watched Gremlin, Snowbird, Wolverine and Looney Tunes finish. The entire crew of Arabesque was on deck for the finish as we rounded R2 and headed for home. Our buddy, close behind, was Mark Dixon on Nunnehi who accomplished the trip single-handed within striking distance of the fully-crewed competition. We planned to continue racing back to Duck Island to compete for the Sturgis Redfield Trophy, but with a dying breeze and a current that would be turning against us, we had a change of heart and fired up the engine with our trusty pilot “Otto” to bring us home. |