The 36 mile Maclean Memorial Race brought in a little of everything from a strong spinnaker start to a good beat around to the Nisqually Delta, and a good pizza oven exercise run up to Herron Island with a few sprinkles in between. We changed headsails on the run four times without hoisting as the wind was everywhere. We ended up reefing the main on the beat to the delta and were almost overpowered.
When things got really quiet up around Herron Island, we got another treat. Finn Posner was on the helm during the lull around the leeward north west side of Herron Island when he thought he heard a whale blow. A few minutes later a good-sized Grey whale was spotted about 50 yards off our starboard bow. She was good sized and had numerous white blotchy spots over her back and didn’t seem in too big a hurry. After scrambling for cameras we had all eyes straining toward our port bow and finally got another glimpse about 100 yards off. Seems we never have a camera ready at the right time. We had several more sightings of the Gray as it was moving back toward the island. and we heard several more blows from the distance before finally losing it.
Scanning all horizons we saw no ripples or wind in sight as our knot meter was showing 0.0 knots and it appeared that the race was over. We discussed retiring early but thought we would wait awhile to see if anything might develop. A few minutes later out of nowhere a good westerly came roaring in. We and we took off for the final legs back to the Olympia Shoal finish. Another shower was sprinkling on us on the last leg to the finish where we had a good close reach to the line. Winds went almost abeam for a short while, but no one had enough energy to repack the wet kite for a reset. We were glad to see the breeze round up to close-hauled as we made the final dash for the finish.
Just after the finish the sky really opened up and the raindrops were big and very close together. Mother nature really provided some treats for the day and we were glad we stuck with it.
Steve Jones, Edgewalker