Bridge To Bridge, 2001
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The plan materialized out of some idle conversation with Dave Garman, skipper of the SC27 Giant Slayer. I had helped Dave out in the past, helping him take a respectable 3rd in the Light Air craziness of the 2000 Winter Vashon. Dave knew someone in Hood River who had gotten an invitation to sail the 2001 Bridge to Bridge race, a 100 mile offshore race off Oregon's rugged coast. This someone was interested in sailing the race, if the right crew could be assembled. And so it happened that Dave was invited to sail the race with Stan Perkins aboard Mirage. Dave had sailed a brutal Oregon Offshore on his own boat in 2000, and so knew what might be in store. When more crew were needed, Dave invited me. When another crew member was sought, I invited Summer Locke. Plans were laid, preparations made, and in mid August, several days before the start of the race, Stan and Greg started the long delivery down the mightly Columbia River, from Hood River, OR. It took them 3 days to get to Astoria, where we all met on a Friday evening for the skipper's meeting. 9 boats had entered the race.
The Race Committee announced all boats would be racing in one start - boats ranging from a J130 to a Catalina 25! Thrown into the mix was a fast Olson 30, a Seattle boat recently under new ownership in Astoria, and the 1999 Line Honors boat, a crazy little custom 24 foot offshore spritboat named The Bull, as well as other offshore worthy racer cruisers. Sat morning dawned and we left the dock early to avoid tide issues. The start is at the mouth of the Astoria shipping channel, beyond the shelter of the breakwaters. Excitement was complete and immediate as we and another boat were almost run down by a freighter in heavy fog, only minutes from the dock! The fog lifted as we got farther out along the river, and eventually the navigation became easier. The winds were forcast at 10-20 from the Northwest, but at the starting line there was none of that to be had, instead a lighter SE wind was filtering out of the low clouds along the coast. The committee boat started us at 10:30, and we were off!
The Olson had a great start and in the minutes and hours that followed, proved to be the boat to beat. Chuck Skewes was at the helm, pointing high and going very fast. The J130 was off like a rocket as well, and went out to sea while the Olson made a B-line for the shores of Tillamook Head. We followed the Olson for quite some time, making good progress, leaving some boats behind and feeling good about our position. The Olson went all the way to the beach at Tillamook Head, and rode a lift around the headland. We had opted out earlier, and didnt get the lift. Abeam of the lighthouse, the wind finally shut off, and our closest competition, the Olson, everyone drifted for a while, becalmed. The Westerly was trying to fill in as the sun finally broke up the clouds in the mid afternoon, but it was a long time coming. Finally we started ghosting along again, as the Westerly filled, pulling 2 or 3 knots boatspeed. We pulled away from the Wauqiez 35 behind us, and got closer to the Islander 40 and Cascade 36 just ahead of us. All 4 of these boats, including us, were rated within 10 seconds or so of one another, so it was important to cover this fleet.
The J130 came motoring along at about this time, on its way back to Astoria. The Olson had beaten it boat-for-boat thus far, and I think the J thought the race was a wash. As the wind filled, we wanted to be the first to pop a spin, and so we did and beam-reached for all we were worth to get our speed up. Off our stbd quarter, The Bull hoisted their asym in the building air. But something went wrong - their forestay broke! So just an hour before dark, they headed back under motor and jury rig. With the evening came the more steady Northwesterly we had been waiting for all day. It permitted us to sail straight down the rhumb line. At first we were afraid the wind would die after dark sometime, but it stayed steady all night. Summer and Dave went below for a rest at about 9, while Stan Greg and I kept the boat going. At about 1 am, we did a watch change. Stan and I went below, and Dave and Summer came up. I snoozed on the V-berth. Unless the wind came up dramatically, the conditions made it easy to sail the boat with 2 or three on deck, even gybing the pole. Before dawn I came up and relieved Dave at the helm. Stan, Dave and I were the principle drivers, but everyone got their share of pretty much everything. When the winds got light, Dave and I would take over driving - we had had plenty of practice the previous weekend in the doublehanded Vashon Challenge. Stand and Greg were amazed that all the tweaking could eek out such a difference in boat speed - they were used to sailing with triple reefed main and #5 in Hood River! With dawn came the final hours of the race. We had been eating up the miles during the course of the night, sailing the rhumb line. With dawn, we found the Cascade 36 about a mile and a half in front of us, and the Olson was magically parked on the shore in a spot of dead air. Just as we got abeam of the Olson, the northerly finally quit. We only monkeyed around with the spinnaker a short while before we realized there really wasnt any wind to be had. So we put up a saran-wrap drifter, and got some boatspeed out of the swell and motion of the boat. We were tantalizingly close to the Cascade 36, which according to the radio checks, was in first place! Then, out of the blue, the Wauqiez 35 appeared off the stdb beam, coming in from offshore! As the Easterly materialized out of the cold fog along the coast, it became clear that this was now a race between the Cascade 36, the Wauquiez, and us! The Olson was still parked along the beach, and it was pretty obvious it was over for them. The Easterly filled in, and we made Mirage go as fast and as high as possible for the finish line, now only 2 miles away. The Cascade 36 and Wauqieuz converged, and we all finished within minutes of each other. Only at the awards ceremony would it become clear how close the race was. Mirage outcorrected on the Cascade 36 by a mere 28 seconds, and took first place. The Wauqiez corrected out a few minuted behind and took third! Eventaully, the 7 boats remaining would finish, all within the time limit except for the poor little Catalina 25, which no one had seen since the start. It was revealed that at the time we finished, they were still 40 miles out. They made it to Newport by late afternoon, helped along by a 20 knot Northerly wind - a day late.
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