The race committee also said that times were much slower than last year.

John, you did very well. Your time was excellent and just finishing showed you were pretty comfortable in your boat. Enough comfort to give several other boats a hand is much appreciated by the race committee.

It was tough race this year 59 boats (out about 230) dropped out of the race due to the conditions. Two 6 man outrigger broke. Several rowing shells broke. I believe one tandem surfski broke in half. Racing boats tend to be built a bit light.

Phll and I were paddling the Guillemot Fast Double Phil made several years ago. We had a hardware failure with the rudder before the start but opted to go ahead anyway without it. The Fast Double is 25.5 feet long and really benefits from a rudder, especially in any kind of conditions. We aren't the smartest pair...

...But, we had a great time beating up into the wind as far as Halibut Point. However, Phil's nylon sprayskirt was letting a lot of water into his cockpit so we opted to pull ashore just around the point to dump out the water. This required hopping out of the boat in deep water, swimming onto a rocky shelf with waves breaking on it, dumping the water, pushing the boat back into the water, swimming it out beyond the breakers, and then hopping back in.

Our time was about 1 1/2 hours longer than usual. Since there were 3 boats in our class we easily pulled out a 3rd place finish for much fame and adulation.