Alaska 1000 Cruiser Navigation Contest

Sat July 3, 2010

Hi all

We arrived at Juneau as planned at noon yesterday; all the colors and flag dress flying on the final leg 14 of the 2010 Alaska 1000 race. The weather has been good the last few days with light winds and little rain, however, the rain came back with a vengeance today. Still little wind but even a walk to the store means full raingear.

The good weather yesterday made for a pleasant race day. The currents were again much different than predicted with the best score on a boat that used full power for the entire 15 nm race and still was 34 sec slow; “The Tillie” skippered by Bill Anderson with yours truly assisting. Not that full power for 1 ½ hours needs much assistance or finesse. The final leg up Gastineau channel was impressive as all boats planned their race to arrive at exactly noon. Everyone stopped on the way from Leg 13 to leg 14 and dressed their boats; thank god it was calm and no rain. We were in the thick of all the boats but 47 sec after high noon so that kind of told us most of the boats were slow. However there were probably the best scores of the entire 1144 nm. Jerry Downer won the leg with 1 sec but 6 racers were single digits. Even though some of the top 5 racers had bad legs yesterday, the race is really wide open as the 2 throw away legs rearranges everyone. We all are waiting for the results at the award banquet tonight.

The reception at Juneau YC was very nice and we met most of the locals. The clubhouse is on the north end of the basins and reminds me of many in Puget Sound . We may even have sparked an interest in them doing some log racing in the area. Many saw our boat parade through Juneau Harbor after the race today and said it was impressive. There was a helicopter taking pictures and tourists on the boat walk clicking away. One curious Seiner asked what it was all about on channel 16. It did look like a 4^th of July parade 2 days early.

We have the awards tonight at the Prospector Hotel. The 4^th of July fireworks need to be set off at midnight due to twilight lasting until then; so the Alaska tradition is to set them off at 12:01 AM on the 4^th (i.e. tonight) rather than during the evening of the fourth in twilight or waiting until after midnight (which would make the fireworks on the 5^th). It also let’s everyone sleep in on the 4^th to get ready for all the typical 4^th of July activities and then some. We are all moored in the Harris and Aurora basins just north of the basin where the barge with the fireworks is located so we will get a great show. We all just hope the rain doesn’t drown the fireworks or watchers.

The best news of the day is that Windy-I arrived this afternoon after being launched on Thursday and running up Stephens passage in 2 days. So we have a full complement of racers for the banquet. We are all so glad to see them here and on time! It seems as if all boats have had their share of boat problems but all are minor compared to poor Kent and Carol. I have seen 2 genset shutdowns (cooling problems), one leaking water tank, one stuck bilge float switch (on The Tillie), GPS loss (which is a real challenge in the narrow rocky passes) and other assorted glitches but none to cause any racer to drop out.

We just finished a big crab feed which we got in one pot in about 4 hours in Funter Bay . The halibut guts were great bait as the others got far fewer with food pellets etc. The run up Chatham strait on Thursday and even more so on Friday before the race start saw almost continuous sightings of Humpback whales, dolphins, a pod of Orca with a baby and all the other various entertainments on an Alaska adventure.

I will try to send this by email Sat afternoon but internet is questionable here in the moorage. I will send the results tomorrow.

Thanks

Bob  

Robert W. (Bob) Lindal;    Lindal Cedar Homes Inc.,   206-892-1234