But, on Saturday March 21st, these three old men felt again like a bunch of Spring Chickens. Paul de Leeuw, whose friendship I have enjoyed since 1976. half our life time, crewed with me since 1977. Paul is a Dutch-Canadian-Kiwi and was also a forest products exporter. Ken House became a friend in 1982 and has sailed many a race on “Fleetwood”.
The last crewed sail race I have done on the West Coast was 25 years ago. This was the last of a four race regatta sailed monthly from December in the Puget Sound. This one is called the Islands Race and is organized by my yacht club., the Gig Harbor YC. Sixty boats participated and the wind for most of the race was between 15 and 20 knots, with an occasional stronger gust. It was sailed up and down Colvos Passage from the mouth of Gig Harbor bay to a mark north of Blake Island. About 30 miles. With tacking and jibing more like 40 miles. It took us about 6 1/2 hours. We earned the Booby Prize. We got to the start 25 minutes after the starting gun. We had a few problems. One of the crew members could not find a parking spot and got on board after the starting gun. Then my engine quit again after I had put about 25 hours this week of work into trying to find the air leak. We sailed out and back into the slip. And our skills were a little rusty. But we had a great time and caught up on a lot of the years that we had not seen each other. I had not yet been in a good blow wit the boat, and found how well she handled and how much sail she can stand. It was a down wind sail to the mark with the current and tacking against the wind and current on the home stretch. We consistently sailed about 10 to 15 degrees closer to the wind than the other boats.
Now I realize why I enjoyed the North West as much as I have in all those years. I had wondered why anyone would want to live in this rainy dreary dark winter. But being out on the water in March makes me realize what I have been missing.
Advance notice: I will give another slide show and presentation at the GHYC on June 3rd. of “Fleetwood”‘s travels.