Catalina To Port: A PSSA Race

From the starting line located near Palos Verdes buoy "10PV", leave the West End of Catalina to port, finish when Catalina East End light position 33 18.1162N 118 19.0570W is within 0.5 NM and bears 350°M from the helmsman's position. The skipper shall take his (or HER...I added this :-) ) own finish time. Handicap distance 41 NM.

 This is my 3rd year racing in The Pacific Singlehanded Sailing Association’s Catalina to Port race. I doublehanded with my boyfriend, Stephen. It was our first time doing this in a race, and we were very excited about the opportunity to share in this experience. I absolutely love this race, because of the varied conditions and points of sail over the course of a day, but mainly because the backside of Catalina Island is a magical world. It’s uninhabited and dramatic coastline makes one feel light years away from the intense energy of LA. And if you look to the right, you can see my favorite sight of all time, and without obstruction……the horizon over the wild Pacific!

  Our start was at 11am off of Palos Verdes point. I was very happy to see so many boats out there as we approached the PV buoy. We had eight boats all in all, 3 doublehanded, and 5 singlehanded. DIstraxxion, Jeff Coyle’s XP 44 was our rabbit boat. She always takes my breath away when I see her sleek lines and powerful rig! If Jeff weren’t such a wonderful guy, I might feel pretty intimidated by the sight of her!

We had a bit of a rugged start, but once we got on track, we were moving quite well. The winds were light at first, which caused a bit of a confusion for me as we tried to figure out which tack towards the island was favored. We made a mistake by heading out on a port tack for too long. Distraxxion, Velocity  (Thomas' Hobie 33) and Katin (Jason's Jeanneau Sunfast 3200) headed the other direction and it became apparent to us pretty quickly the mistake we had made. One thing I learned from that, is to be more patient when the wind is light, and not feel pressure to DO something about it, but rather to allow it to show me the way. Despite our bad call, we were moving along well towards the island once the wind filled in and we were on a starboard tack, and made it to the west end of Catalina by about 3pm. We rounded the island and headed out to sea for a bit trying to get into a good position for our downwind run towards the East end.  With our spinnaker flying well, filled by a steady breeze, we made good way down the coast (even though I was still kicking myself because knew that the aforementioned three boats had left us in the dust). It was fun to be out there flanked by the rest of the fleet though, who were at various positions around us, flying spinnakers of many colors.

 Brian on Slow Poke (Ranger 23T) kept all of the boats connected and communicating all day by checking in with us to see how we were doing. It was fun to hear how everyone was faring, and especially to get the report from the boats ahead that there was big wind around the point coming into the east end and our finish. We heeded this warning and doused our spinnaker just in time. The wind was up around 20 knots by this time and right on our stern, and we were able to move quite well wing and wing with mainsail and a reefed genoa the rest of the way. At one point (see the video below) I was steering us along towards the finish, and I was overcome with gratitude, not only for the majesty that surrounded me int hat moment, but also for all that I have learned as a sailor in the past four years. So much has happened, and so many lessons have been learned. Some were hard and some were magical, but through them all I am still so blown away that I am able to be out there in the wild blue, surrounded by nature in this way. It brings a tear to my eye as I write this. There is nothing like it anywhere else!

 We finished around 7:30, graced by one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. The sight of the sunset over Church Rock and the East End is probably my favorite thing about this race! Church rock seems the most appropriate name, for I felt I was in the most sacred house of worship in that moment. After we finished, the wind shadow of the island slowed us to a peaceful pace, and we cranked up the engine and headed into Avalon for a much needed and well-deserved meal at the Lobster Trap.

 I am as always, so grateful to PSSA and all of its seasoned sailors for the opportunity and inspiration to learn and grow as a sailor. I am also grateful to Stephen for being such a great teammate and for teaching me so much along the way. I am hoping that my autopilot will be ready for me to singlehand the next race in May, which is the Santa Barbara Island race.

Go Team Cassiopeia!

As much as I love sailing, racing, and buoy racing in particular, has always intimidated me, especially the starts! I think it is a combination of PTSD from so many intense starts and races with my super confident and competitive (read: proficiently aggressive) Dad at the helm, and a lack of confidence with tactics. Longer races are so different, and even in those, I am mainly flying by the seat of my pants (and as I told the race committee who wanted to place me in the more experienced class….being a big chicken at starts and following people over the line). That is slowly changing though, and being a skipper for the first time in the Sunset Series last night is already helping to build my confidence!

As I mentioned in my last post, the decision to race came to me in a moment, and within a week I had assembled a wonderful crew of women. Our experience and personalities run the gamut, and after being on the boat together yesterday, I can see that we are going to make a great team! There is already an air of supporting each other to grow not only as sailors, but in our personal lives. A personal example for me is in the seemingly never ending challenge of trusting myself and what I know (not down playing my skills and playing small). I can already tell that these women are going to gently yet strongly help me past this life-long challenge.

We headed to the start with a lot of time to spare, practicing our tacks and jibes, with our faithful Robin (now dubbed bow rider) on the bow calling traffic and such. Lara and I got into our groove with communication and timing, while the rest of the crew got up to speed with their jobs. Lara is so calm and confident, and helps me to stay centered. She was on top of the timing and guided me expertly towards our start! Carrie and Gabi developed a seamless operation in handling the genoa sheets with my undersized (and underpowered) winches. Carrie was on the main trim like nobody’s business. I teased her that I could see the fire in her eyes the minute we started sailing. She hasn’t sailed in many years, but let me assure you that nothing has been lost. The woman is amazing and her contributions to tactics and sail trim are invaluable…not to mention her humor and fierce competitive spirit!

We were in the last class to start (cruising B, non-spinnaker), so we had the benefit of being able to clearly tell who was in our class and where they were on the line. We pulled a risky maneuver and started on a port tack at the pin. If we had had more wind, it would have worked better, but as it was, we were a bit slow. As a result we weren't able to cross the boat on the line closest to us and therefore had to tack away because they had rights (they were on a starboard tack). This ended up being ok though, because we were able to pull away from them and push them up a bit to get moving on our way to the mark. We had a short course, and did fine heading up to our weather mark.

My only regret is that we didn’t motivate to use our whisker pole on our way downwind. We haven’t had time to practice with it, and my pole is a bit messed up. The last time I used it was in the middle of the Pacific, and on a different boat, and it has some battle scars.

We placed 4th out of 11 boats in our class, and I am so excited about that!! Not too shabby for our 1st race! No matter the outcome, we had a great 1st race, celebrated by a big enthusiastic toast at the end of it. I, for one was celebrating our amazing crew, and a job well done! I am so very grateful for this opportunity, and to be able to sail and grow alongside these strong and talented women! The thing that I am the happiest about, is that we truly are a team. We are there to support each other in very way and the energy between us is one of real respect and support. There was no yelling or criticism, which for me is a welcome bit of fresh air. I am very excited to see what this season brings! I imagine growth and friendship will be at the top of the list!

The ladies!!!!

photos by bow rider (aka: Robin Mohilner)

A New Adventure for Cassiopeia and Me!

The wind is coming up early and strong for a Marina Del Rey morning. It is gorgeous and clear from where I sit in my new apartment overlooking the marina, but the wind is somehow unsettling. The cacophony of clanking halyards and howling wind is making me feel antsy.  It always amazes me how the wind can be so disconcerting to me when I am on land, and today is no exception. It feels eerie and dramatic, especially for 7 in the morning. Perhaps if I turn my thoughts to the sea and all of the adventures she promises, I will feel less ill at ease. Truth be told, I cannot wait to get back out there. Soon, I hope!

Cassiopeia and I are working towards that goal now, as we slowly ramp up our game. I have been sailing more lately, and as I slowly emerge out of the haze of the past months, I can see in my mind’s eye my next sailing goals and dreams materializing. My sailing adventures fell to the back burner for a while as I navigated some personal challenges. Slowly though, I feel the fire being stoked, and I can feel the horizon calling me again.

The most recent development is that I have decided to race I the Sunset Series here in Marina Del Rey. These races are our local Wednesday night buoy races put on by California Yacht Club, that go from now until September. I have crewed a lot in this series and other races like this in my life, but have never skippered my own boat in them. As I am sure I have mentioned here before, race starts intimidate me, and being in charge of a crew of people has always felt daunting to me. So, I decided to do it anyhow! Just as with all other decisions in my life, it just came to me one day that I should do this, and with an all-woman crew. So, that is what I am doing. Thankfully I have a lot of wonderful ladies in my life who love to sail. I have invited a crew of experienced racers and enthusiastic newbies alike, and I fall somewhere in the middle.  My goal in doing so is to create and foster an environment of mutual support and learning, so we can all learn and grow from wherever we fall on the spectrum.

A new and wonderful friend of mine, who is a very experienced racer has agreed to be my coach and tactician. I am so grateful, because the thought of going in cold and without support would stop me in my tracks. I couldn’t be more excited (or intimidated) about this new adventure. I have been taking a clinic on race starts the past 2 weekends. Last weekend I was coached by my talented and experienced boyfriend on his boat, and this weekend I will be sailing with my friend Lara for the first time to get our strategy and communication plan together for the season.

Last night I attended the seminar for the race series. I went alone, as none of my crew could make it. I will admit that though I saw some familiar faces there, I felt really intimidated. It reminded me for a second of how I felt when I walked into the skippers meeting before the Singlehanded Transpac. Everything sounded at once familiar and completely foreign and daunting. I know myself well enough to know that I need a hands on experience of all of this in order for it to start to make total sense. I have faith that it will, and have faith in myself that I will learn exactly what I need to exactly when I am meant to.

I am so grateful to my friends for being willing to embark upon this new journey with me. I feel so supported and so excited to have a team of strong women by my side as I dive into this new adventure! I know that we will all emerge better and stronger for it!