2005 Marblehead to Halifax
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Start and Day 1
July 11, 2005
Greetings from Offshore,
Gryphon Solo and each of the two-person crew named Harris are currently about 80 miles to the west of Cape Sable, Nova Scotia. The breeze has gone light and is from directly behind us, which is not particularly helpful. We are right next to our friend and constant companion, Artforms, who we have been dueling with from the start. It has been an interesting race and far from over.
The start was exciting as there were 125 racing boats plus spectators boats, all milling in the starting area and many friends drove by to say hello and wish us well. My family came out as well and my wife Kim held up two-year old Emmett to blow kisses while seven-year old Griffin was dancing and giving me the big "thumbs up". We started out well although we were a bit late to the line as my stopwatch stopped and I wasn't exactly sure of the timing of the gun. Our class of nine boats has three boats of about 80 feet in length, with over 20 crew each. We all sailed up the North Shore coast from Marblehead up to Gloucester, when the wind shut off completely and caused everyone to come to a screeching halt. We frantically changed sails to get our "wind seeker" Code Zero sail up. However, we waited for the wind to fill in again and off we went.
It was beautiful sailing through the night with the wind at our backs, a clear and starry night with flat seas. As we flew across the Gulf of Maine, Brian and I were hoping the wind would hold so we could get around Cape Sable without having to worry too much about the 20 foot tides. No such luck. The wind went down to about 6 knots this morning and we are working hard to keep the boat moving in the right direction as we are pushed into the Bay of Fundy by the strong tidal flow. The key will be to get around Cape Sable without getting sucked in by the tide, and that it is a dicey game.
So we look forward to a challenging day of match racing against Artforms under sunny skies as we approach the Nova Scotia coast. It is only another 100 miles up the coast to Halifax, if we can just get around the corner!
Happy Monday to all-
Joe
