Erik Borgnes
06/12/10 #8652

Yes, the de Fuca that almost was . . .

Wind was ripping yesterday but today it died - unexpectedly. So it was warm and flattish conditions. 14 miles of open water route finding in the current.

As for the ski paddlers, Ian McKenzie, Jeff Hilburn, Gabe Newton (no Gareth today) and I took off doing all we could do to stay with Sir Ian who set the pace for the first 3 miles. As we neared the first point where the Elwa river mouth hits the strait, I went wide a bit for no particular reason, and to my surprise, Gabe went wider and deeper into the strait following an eddy line of some sort, so I stayed with him. Ian and Jeff took the rum line closer to shore and before we all knew what happened, we were two sets of two, separated by a hundred yds. That grew to about 750 yds a few miles later as Ian and Jeff stayed straight on the rum line and Gabe and I kept going deeper into the strait looking for more current. As we all neared Ediz hook, we all came back together with Ian about 50 yds up on me and Jeff and Gabe about 50 yds behind me. The order stayed the same to the finish and the four of us finished within about 2 min - spanning first to fourth, - winning time was about 1 hr 26 min. There were tiny little swells to ride from about mile 7-12, but not much and nothing like it was yesterday.

The event was really well run, about 50 total paddlers, good food last night and at the finish. Too bad the race happened in between the windy times - it's picking up right now from the west.

Erik

Re: De Fuca race wind forecast
waterbornewarrior
06/12/10 #8653

4:58 PM… The wind turned on in PA (just after we tied our boats down). Any body want to run shuttle??

Don

Juan de Fuca “downwinder”
lori & beau whitehead
06/12/10 #8654

Well, at one point I was so hot out there on the water, that I was not sure we had any tail wind at all. But I managed to cover the 13 miles in 1:52 on a stand up paddle board, so there must have been some wind and some good current too.

A SUP race in Portland was cancelled this weekend which brought a fast crew of guys up from Hood River. We had a total of 7 SUP's out of about 40 or 50 vessels.

I had a blast trying to hold off Don K. on his prone paddle board (the only time I can beat him is with a tail wind).
A very well run event, with shuttles and a quick awards ceremony… and great people.

Hope more of you folks try it next year, this is a keeper.

Beau Whitehead

Re: De Fuca race wind forecast
Michael Gregory
06/13/10 #8658

- Timing is everything! Perhaps this race should have an open schedule. Start whenever the wind starts to crank?
- Nice course though. The race crew did an excellent job.
Many Thanks, Mike.

Re: De Fuca race wind forecast
Erik Borgnes
06/13/10 #8659

Wind has been howling all day today - just like last friday. The race was just happened to be during the lull. sigh.

Got Mark Porter's contact info, thanks.

Erik