Packsail

The 2016 Harvest Moon Regatta was a huge success for us and turned out to be one of the biggest adventures of our lives so far.  The race is 150 nautical miles from the Galveston Pleasure Pier to Port Aransas Jetties.

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This year was a straight up 150 mile drag race with the wind just aft of our port side beam.  The wind started light at about 10 to 12 knots where we saw boat speeds around 9.  It went on for a couple hours and then started filling into a top speed of about 21 knots.  This was where it got really amazing.  There were some medium sized slow rolling swells coming from the same direction as the wind and frequently they were big enough to surf down.  At the point where the wind was strongest, we got a nice wave and watched the speed go from a steady 14 to a peak of 17.  We were screaming, literally and figuratively.

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In the wee hours of the next morning after our 3 PM start, around 4 or 5 AM, we were within sight of the finish line lights.  We had been hauling ass all night long and were trying to figure out how to check in before the finish line was even drawn.  I think we were about 8 miles out, when suddenly we hear a loud BOOM!  The large “screecher” sail broke loose from the bow pole.  The sail had dropped in the water in the confusion and we scrambled for about 15 to 30 minutes to get it back in.    We had to sail that last bit of the race with only the main and jib and were doing 9 knots instead of the 14 we were doing when it broke.  Two of the boats we had passed, managed to pass us which was a bummer.  However, when you consider that we started last, passed 130 boats and finished 10th overall with the breakdown in a homemade boat, that’s pretty amazing to me. Thanks Karina, Mom and Dad, Bart, Forrest, Rene, James, Dan and Liz, Alicia, Matthew, Rob and Porter!