It's A Wrap
by Greg Harms, July 11th, 2008
Red Heather and Black Watch both made valiant efforts to cross the finish line by the 23:55 Thursday official deadline, but the unforgiving mild winds on their final approach to Lahaina simply didn\'t make it possible. Zulu continues to progress towards Maui and is expected to arrive sometime Saturday morning bringing Vic-Maui 2008 to a close with all of the fleet safely into Lahaina Harbour.
True to Hawaiian hospitality, both Red Heather and Black Watch were welcomed as they arrived in Lahaina with an abundance of cheer and delicious feasts by their respective greeting parties; Red Heather in darkness just after 3 am, and Black Watch under sunny skies shortly after 9 am. Red Heather\'s entourage of 18 from Canada was a welcome sight for the crew who also had a send off in Victoria of 22 enthusiastic well-wishers.
Once the greeting parties wind up and the crews freshen up, the tone on the docks quickly transforms into one where the return crews enter into preparation mode for the equally long passage home or onwards to future destinations. Immediate repairs, re-fueling, provisioning and logistical detail is on the minds of each crew in advance of Saturday evening\'s final wind-up banquet.
For the return trip, the weather patterns that challenged the racers on the way to Hawaii appear to be continuing. The "Pacific High" that is characteristic of summer in the northeast pacific continues to be weak and poorly defined. The westerly jet stream in the upper atmosphere is unusually far south this year and continues to spin off unpredictable low pressure systems. Returning crews will be either faced with powering through the doldrums or getting thrashed by choosing to navigate through stormy conditions around the centre of the lows. But the return crews have one big advantage: they are allowed to use their engines to keep the boat moving through light airs to both get home faster and also to maneuver around potential bad weather.
Weather is something that none of us control, and while the usual trade wind surfing conditions that Vic-Maui is reputed for didn't ever formulate this year, the storm that replaced the high made for a legendary navigational and sailing challenge. Highs and lows define distance sailing, for both weather and crew psychology. This race had plenty of wind and we\'ve heard some impressive stories of big seas, but then there was hardly any wind at all. Nothing suffers a sailor more than days on end of slapping sails through light air, waiting for wind that never seems to come. A storm may bring out physical toughness in a sailor, but the doldrums bring out mental toughness. The 2008 Vic-Maui racers deserve our respect on both counts.
This from Black Watch on her last day out of Maui:
Race Day 7-10-08
The miles slip slowly beneath the sharp prow of Black Watch, the hesitant wind providing just enough forward progress to keep us hopeful. But there is only so much a boat and its crew can do with the elements at hand and we now realize that the appointed hour of 2355 will arrive and expire without us. Disappointed? Of course. Defeated? Never! Black Watch will sail on into Lahaina proud and defiant. For it is the journey, not the destination, that lures us offshore to pursue these madcap adventures. It is the camaraderie, the forging of new and lasting friendships, the spirit and hearts of men and women who undertake these journeys and survive what the gods have placed before them, that transcends the importance of arbitrary schedules and appointments. It is to escape such impediments, cast off conformity and leave such constraints behind, preferring to endure the uncertainty of winds and tides and currents, always with an eye to weather, that we sail on, and on, and on. We are modern day Magellans, discovering not new worlds, but new horizons within ourselves, facing our fears, celebrating our triumphs and never, never bowing to defeat.