Race to Mexico

Team Knot Yet traveled to Pensacola to take on the Regata Al Sol, a race from the Pensacola Yacht Club to Mexico’s Isla Mujeres (Island of Women). Fittingly, the skippers meeting served margaritas and Mexican food. High marks for the best skippers’ meeting ever! 

Andy at the bar:

The start was upwind in light air. Double-slotted with the jib and screacher, we passed much of the monohull fleet before leaving Pensacola Bay. Dolphin, a sea turtle and fighter jets escorted us out of the inlet. The wind continued light and upwind, foreboding an arduous 550 nautical miles! The chop and light air led to aggravating tacking angles. 

I ventured to fly the drone underway. Launching it was no problem, but encouraging it to stay near the boat was a challenge. Recovering it while underway in a chop was an adventure! So far we have a 100% success rate on landing the drone underway, with almost no injuries. 

The Gulf of Mexico is home to birds that only come to shore to mate and nest, otherwise they live their lives at sea. But Knot Yet appeared to be an appealing home to them, if only they could find just the right place to rest.

Dolphin paid us several visits.

Late on the second day, the wind started to pick up, eventually reaching about 17kn on the nose.  Normally the boat can make fairly good progress in such conditions. But we had made great effort in tracking the Gulf’s Loop Current, and in positioning her to surf south in its 2+ kn current. 

However, the detriment of wind against current was easy to underestimate, and the boat pounded incessantly. Tacking out of the current eased the pounding and ironically allowed higher speeds, but our strategy at this point was fairly well committed to riding through the current. The acceleration on the rig with each pounding was massive. Perhaps storing all the food and gear for four people in the bow wasn’t the best idea, it probably exacerbated the pounding. First, the main chart plotter began to flicker. Not a problem, we carried a spare. Then the screacher halyard’s 2:1 attachment eye on the mast pulled out. The screacher kept flying, but didn’t point well with the reduced halyard tension. Next, a snap shackle in the mainsheet parted. Normally I keep a safety tether on the top of the mainsheet hardware to cover this risk, but I had used that line to reef the mainsail. So the boom swung free, and a few minutes were taken lassoing the end of the boom back into position. Even the Gizmotron succumbed to the rough ride.

Sometime after nightfall I heard an unusual clunk, and started looking around. I found that a weld in the stainless steel mast rotator arm had fractured, leaving the mast free to rotate as it pleased.

 This was not a major problem, except that it allowed a bolt on the boom’s gooseneck to gouge into the carbon mast. No bueno. As we experimented with ways to regain control of mast rotation, it was becoming clear that abandoning the race may be necessary. Keep in mind, the boat has to finish to win! Oh, and I’m the delivery crew. That’s a 600nm return trip. We needed enough boat to go both ways. So I made the difficult decision to abandon the race. I persevere to a fault, so that was a particularly difficult decision. After the extended upwind pounding, Knot Yet’s crew didn’t argue with the decision. Tampa was the nearest downwind port, so we dropped the main and sailed with 2 headsails back to civilization.

Interestingly, while we were dropping the main and turning around, I noticed a ship, probably over 200’ long, idling nearby. It looked like a military or research vessel. Once we were underway again, it made for the horizon without making contact.

The downwind sail back was surprisingly calm and pleasant. I read on the bow nets for a while. I realized that, for me, much of the value of such an adventure is leaving civilization behind for a while. No sight of land, no ambient city light, no radio contact… just peaceful solitude.

3 other boats abandoned the race. One was dismasted and required coast guard assistance, 150nm from shore.

The "Spot" trackers show the progress during the race, and our turn toward Tampa.

On the way into Tampa, we anchored at Egmont Key for a walk on the beach. It was a good stop, to ease back into the concept of civilization.

We will try again!