A Different Kind Of Fun - Ensenada Race Part 2
It’s all fun & games when the race is over!
So, my brother-in-law, Colin, told me about there being 2 kinds of fun. #1 type of fun is when you are doing something & completely enjoying it in the moment. #2 type of fun is going through something strenuous but knowing you’ll look back on it as fun minus the pain. He stated that what we were doing was Type 2 Fun. Hmmm… not quite there yet. But I’m so glad we did it & it was an experience I’ll never forget. It was really great to be able to do a race like this with my dad. Although, not sure how much of a help I was.
The thing is, that there is always something to be done during a race. And unless you are an experienced racer, you aren’t really sure what that thing is. Therefore, it was a bit stressful trying to figure out how to help or how to stay out of the way. Luckily, my Dad & Colin have racing experience. So, they could tell us what to do.
Understandably, I couldn’t really document much of what went on during the race. I needed both hands, or at least needed them to be ready at all times to do something. Having a camera in my hands or anywhere on my body would only be getting in the way. Hence, there is very little to show of the more exciting times in the race.
The day of the race we left Dana Point around 9:30 got up to Newport about 25 minutes before our race was to begin. We had just checked in & were with all of the other boats. Suddenly the engine died! Not the best time to have this happen, as we needed it to get to the start line. (I thought Matt could better describe what was going on.) Here are his words, “The engine would not start or lift out of the water. It was intermittently working and we got it to work with minutes to spare. We sailed to the start line and started on time. We wouldn't likely need the engine for the next 26 hours and focused on racing. The next day we opened up the engine cowling and found a loose wire and a seemingly unrelated bolt. The wire connection, or rather lack of which, had been missed after a recent repair. We reconnected it and all worked. It's a good thing because we were not enthusiastic about sailing all the way back up to Dana Point.”
Leaving Dana Point, motoring to Newport & starting the race.
The next issue was that it was hard to figure out how the starting line-up was organized. We figured it out though & were off sailing on our way to Ensenada! Pretty exciting! Crazy to be sailing amongst a ton of other boats.
15 minutes into the race, Colin told me to load absolutely everything into the v-berth. This meant everything from the fenders to cockpit cushions to all of our bags. -Basically move anything that wasn’t food or a part of the actual boat up to the front. In addition, we also needed to put our weight up at the bow of the boat. Doing this prevents dragging the stern of the boat, therefore slowing us down. We moved our bodies around in relation to how much speed we had.
During this time, we saw these things on the water that looked like little Portuguese Man O War jellyfish. However, we later found out that they weren’t jellyfish at all. These are called, Velella velella. The best photo I could get, a few photos above, looks like there are a bunch of bubbles on the water. NPR actually wrote up an article about these things washing up on the beach a few weeks ago. Click here for a better idea of what I’m talking about: https://www.npr.org/2023/04/26/1172249942/blue-creatures-washing-up-california-shore-by-the-wind-sailors-valella-valella
What was pretty awesome was that Trifecta got going up to 13 knots! So cool! And it was very smooth! Trifecta is a 880 Corsair Trimaran. The overall length is 28’ 8”. If you’d like more info on this boat, click here: https://corsairmarine.com/corsair-880-sport/ We didn’t use the engine at all during the race so that was pretty pleasant. -Actually you aren’t allowed to use the engine during the race. And if you do, you get a big chunk of your finish time added on to.
I tried my hand at steering the tiller. Man, was it hard! I found it nearly impossible to keep a course & my arms got super tired pretty quickly. Arms get tired at the wheel but at least I have two hands to hold onto it. Furthermore, there is no autopilot allowed during the race, so someone always had to be at the tiller.
Unfortunately, I took myself out for a big chunk of the race by getting dehydrated. Seriously stupid of me! I was hoping not to have to pee a lot during the race & so I thought I’d limit my intake of fluids. Turned out I got to the point of forgetting to even drink water at completely. I think I had only about a cup of water that whole day. It was about 7, when Colin was guiding me on steering with the tiller, when I started seeing black spots in front of my face. So without saying much, I handed him the tiller & went downstairs to eat something. I don’t think I had more than a power bar & a sip of water when I thought I was totally going to faint & had to lay down. I also started feeling achy & having a bad headache. At this point I wasn’t sure of what was going on with me. I laid down & couldn’t really sleep but was pretty out of it. I felt horrible.
Still in bed early, Saturday morning, after finally falling asleep in the middle of the night.
So, I missed the night-time sailing. -Something I do actually have experience in. That was a bummer. The guys did fine without me though. But it would have been nice to relieve them from staying up, so that they could get some sleep.
Matt recounts what went on: “For a long time it seemed that time stood still. In fact, I would estimate that we were halfway to Ensenada for more than half of the trip! I know that doesn't seem possible but maybe you just needed to be there to understand. This is probably due to the wind dying down at night, when we were also tired and disoriented. After about 18 hours of careful adjustments and attention, our captain, Colin, just had to take a couple hours to sleep. Terry and I took over the helm where we quickly and accidentally jibed more than once, went in a couple circles, and even went backwards for a time. When I took the helm my main goal was to keep us off the Coronado islands which separated us from the mainland. Thankfully we were about 25 miles off-shore and probably 5 miles from the islands so they were hard to hit. That was a good thing as about an hour or so into my shift, I was falling asleep and waking up pointing straight for the damn islands! It must have only been for seconds at a time because I was still fully upright and faced forward each time I "awoke" but I was facing at least 15 degrees off of my mark. When Colin got up to check on us, I told him I was falling asleep and having a hard time pointing the boat in the proper direction. He took over and we were back on track.”
I woke up in the morning & immediately started drinking more water. I think I drank water in the night. I didn’t really fall asleep until probably after midnight. Everything was just a blur really.
Crossing the finish line!
We crossed finish line around 1:30. Greeted by a big buoy that looked like a floating pumpkin. He didn’t say congratulations. He didn’t give us a high five. He just sat there. Well, I’d like to see him sail a race like this! Whatever!
How did we do? We came in 3rd in our division. -Out of 4. Our time was 26:11:13 with a corrected time of 24:45:07. Yes, a bit disappointing but we did our best. We possibly could have done better if we had sailed closer to the coast in the night but who knows. It’s hard to say what all the factors that determine a race are considering everyone has a different boat. Anyway, we were pretty stoked that we did it! Not the easiest race.
If you want to learn more about this race, go to: https://nosa.org/bpage/3/
After arriving, we were guided to our spot in the marina. And as much as we all wanted to crash, we first ate & just took a breather. We had to get to the marina office to check in. The line seemed really long. So my dad checked us in to at least get our health inspection taken care of. We decided to go back later to get our passport stamped.
I went with my dad back to the boat to get it somewhat cleaned up & organized cabin a little. We put the dodger back on. -I think I forgot to mention that it was taken off for more speed at the beginning of the race. It’s not exactly comfortable having cold air & possibly waves hit your face. -Therefore we definitely wanted it back after the race was done.
All of a sudden it was almost 7 & we had to do the rest of our checking in. After that it was a fairly mellow night with refreshments by the pool & then dining in the posh hotel restaurant.
Ensendada welcomes us!
The next morning we left at 8AM as planned! We thought we would have to wait in line at the fuel dock to fill up the 7 or 8 gas tanks that we had to get us back to Dana Point. However, I think there was only 1 other boat at the fuel dock. This was a pleasant surprise. I think a bunch of people were staying for the whole weekend. The party for the racers was Sunday night.
Since we just wanted to get home & the wind was pretty much completely coming from the north, we had to use motor. Tacking the boat all the way did not seem the least bit appealing to anyone. This meant checking on the amount of fuel we had in the tank every few hours.
8AM & on our way out of Ensenada.
Gas needed to be refilled about every 2 - 3 hours. Not the easiest task.
Big ship greets us on arrival to San Diego. There was a lot of fanfare -confetti & streamers. I just unfortunately didn’t seem to get that on camera.
Peak inside Trifecta:
We were making good time but we needed to check into customs, so we had to go all the way into San Diego; which I want to say took 2 hours off our the good time we were making. Getting “okayed” by customs took less than 5 minutes. That’s all I will say about that.
I went to sleep about 9:30PM. Mainly because I felt a little tired & no one else seemed to be, so wanted to be able to be up when others wanted to sleep.
Woke up at midnight & only my dad had managed to stay awake that long. Pretty impressive. It was nice to hang out with just my dad during this time. Definitely different weather temps than Matt & I experience above Santa Barbara at night. Almost balmy, you could say.
Dad went to bed, probably around 3:30AM -crazy! -After Colin & Matt woke up. I was barely hanging on & went to bed a little after 4AM.
2 hours later I woke up when we were just entering Dana Point Harbor around 6AM. So we made it back in about 22 hours. It would have been 20 if we didn’t have to stop in San Diego but it also would have been in the dark.
We arrived in grey & sprinkling skies. As much as it would have been nice to leave the rest of the work to someone else. We did need to get the boat’s amahs back up, everything off of her & the boat to parking lot. However, my dad was the one who did have to go back & properly clean the boat. Thanks Dad!
Arriving at Dana Point Harbor!
We made it! In the rain! Oh, feels like Santa Cruz!
The voyage isn’t over until Trifecta is taken care of.
Transformering the boat back into parking-lot position.
Before we needed sleep we needed real food. We went out to breakfast at a place called Proud Mary’s in the Dana Point Harbor. The meal really hit the spot but both Colin & I agreed that the coffee did absolutely nothing to curb our tiredness. We went home after & my dad, Colin & I crashed for a few hours. Matt, on the other hand, was wide awake. I guess it was a combination high of being stoked to have taken part in such an adventure & just glad to be done with it. 😄 Regardless, I think he has more energy than anyone I’ve ever known.
Celebration breakfast! The smiles before the exhaustion really sets in.
After that we all live happily ever after!
My dad will continue to do his usual weekly races on Thursdays. He is always looking for crew, so if you live in the Dana Point or surrounding area, are respectful & kind & listen to instructions well, let me know & I’ll put you in touch with my dad. He’ll also be doing other races, that are a bit longer, on the weekends here & there.
Colin will go back to the BVI. Besides working he’ll be paragliding, sailing & taking part in all sorts of fun sports!
Matt & I will get back to getting ready for our sailing adventure coming up in a few months!
We have a new YouTube video up on our channel! Click the link below.
Zephyr with his Nana. -Who was nice enough to watch him while we were gone.
One side note: As much as I try to use all the correct terminology, I do know that there are possible errors in some of my descriptions, vocabulary, etc. Please let me know in the comments below if you spot any. I don’t want to go around with mis-information in my head. So any corrections are appreciated.
Thanks for reading this long saga of our dive into the racing world. Who knows what next week’s blog will entail? I certainly don’t at this point. Stay tuned for something….Have a great week!
