Cabo Race: Carnitas, Cerveza, and Siesta

(March 24, 2015) – Line honors in the 800nm Newport to Cabo San Lucas Yacht Race were captured today, with one record broken and another standing. Manouch Moshayedi’s Rio 100 (representing Scuttlebutt Sailing Club) crossed at 04:08:56 PDT (2d:14h:03m:56s), but fell short of the monohull record of 2d:13h:25m:58s held by Doug Baker’s Magnitude 80. Next to cross was H.L. Enloe’s ORMA 60 Mighty Merloe at 05:19:14 PDT, setting a multihull record of 1d:16h:14m:14s. Two PHRF boats, Sauvage (Wauquiez 41) and Avanti (Jeanneau 54DS), have retired due to equipment failures.

This report comes from onboard the Santa Cruz 70 OEX:

Our approach to Cabo has left few passing lanes. The West Coast 70’s are grouped together in a tight pack, with our team taking a step out and gybed south last night for some 26 miles in search of better direction and pressure. Our routing models showed less pressure and a slight lift closer to the peninsula. Our hope was to sail in stronger winds on the outside and pass the leaders like Cale Yarborough at turn Four at Talladega.

Well, the gamble didn’t pay out. The predicted light air and lift for our competitors on the surf line turned into a header puff. At one point it appeared we may have lost 25 miles to the leaders but in the end, we gave up 10 miles for our expedition south.

This has been a great shakedown for this summer’s main event – the Transpac. We have a mix of some new and some familiar faces. All in all our crew has gelled nicely though we each trip you learn each other’s idiosyncrasies. We thought we’d learned all the food issues from Gluten free to Lactose intolerant – but cooked fruit, come on? With a name like Smuckers – it has to be good.

Last night we had another close encounter with a large mammal, only this time it was the Captain of a 900-foot freighter carrying explosives. Our AIS plotted a collision course a good five hours out. We tried to raise Captain Swordfish on the VHF. We were sailing in 1,000 meters of water and he replied that he wouldn’t change course because he feared shallow waters. Holua was in line with us about two miles back when the good Captain informed us that he would “split between target one and target two.”

Well somehow flying along on a glass fiber sailboat as a 900-foot freighter steaming at 20 knots carrying explosives, describing said glass fiber boats as targets, gave little comfort to those on board this glass fiber boat. We watched in awe as he turned left and crossed in front of Holua at what seemed less than half a mile. Woo-Hoo. Paraphrasing the first line in COLREGS, “Seafaring is not a contact sport.” Humm!

This has been a remarkable race of great conditions and spirited competition. Bill Lee produced remarkable legacy in these sleds. Several are on the market and we hope to build the fleet. Chef Pete at Gladstone’s Long Beach gets the night off as we’ve made dinner reservations for our crew dinner at Mi Casa.

Event website – Tracking – Standings