We arrived on Sat. and met a tropical depression! Conditions as reported were: 35-45k, 18' seas, 10 sec. intervals -- not the stuff you want to launch a beach cat into! After 2 days we moved the boats 2 hrs. south (to Mongot) and re-rigged. We started the first leg on Tuesday in 20k and a 12' confused sea leftover from the storm and the 3k current.
But after about an hour of reaching in that, things settled down quite a bit. Too much actually. We had 4 days of light wind and rain after that. The weather simply did not cooperate. But it was still worth it!
Registration was limited to 20 teams. But 8 cancelled before the big show. Then the Dutch team retired after only 20 min. of sailing due to a combination of issues related to boat rigging. That left only 11 teams.
The Aussies dominated the event. Bob "Squirta" Engwirda won with Brad "Worstie" Wilson crewing. Bruce "Tards" Tardrew was 2nd and Aaron Worrall was 3rd. A local Philippine team, Naki, came in 4th followed by us 5th.
We flipped after the start on Tuesday. That put us 5th and well back after the 1st gate, where the course was shortened. The next day was the only leg fully completed -- a 35-miler down a river and across an open stretch of water. The wind was light (again) and the rich got richer. We watched the top 4 teams sail away while our sails slapped. At one point, we were totally becalmed for 20 min. We gave up 25 min. to the 4th place team (Naki) and that was our undoing.
We won the 3rd leg. There was controversy on this one as Worrall and I each filed redress. In the end, my request prevailed and the race was shortened at the first gate. That gate was crazy. The gate was "Rock Gap" -- a gap between 2 rocks we were told was big enough to fit 2 Hobies. Sure enough, we arrived right in front of Squirta double trapped on a beam reach. After a quick douche, we were on the tramp pushing the boat along one of the rocks as we encountered a 180 wind shift in the gap and were getting pushed onto one of the rocks. My crew, Laura Sullivan, reached out to push off and almost squished a rock crab that scurried off!! When we cleared the rock enough, the double-trap wind hit us again and we nearly flipped! It was crazy!
Later that day we were reaching along in light breeze in 3rd, about a mile and half behind Squirta and Tards and a mile in front of Worrall. All of a sudden a squall hit us. We reached off for about 20 min. and when it passed and we could see again we could not see land, any of our competitors, nothing! We weren't familiar enough with the GPS to trust its information. After about 20 tense min. we got it all figured out and continued racing. But there was a period there where we were totally lost in "the big pond" with no sight of anything or anyone!
Later in the afternoon we got picked up and towed the other 20 miles or so to Suluan Is. This island has a dangerous reef entrance and they wanted to get us in before dark. It didn't happen. To make matters worse, the RIB that was towing us had given up its GPS to someone else. At about 7 p.m. local time, in the night, the RIB stopped near the island. We were smack dab in the middle of the reef broadside to the waves. I looked up to see a 7' wave breaking over our trampoline!! To make matters worse, we were still tied up 2nd in line on the tow. We survived the 1st wave and I told Laura to get the knife out and be ready to cut us free. Our screams to the RIB were not being heard. Finally, before a 2nd wave could crash on us, he got the RIB going and towed us out of there -- right onto a 2nd reef! This one wasn't as big as the 1st and a few more screams and we were off that one without any damage. Talk about seeing your life pass in front of you!!
On the final day they towed us out into open water for about 20 miles, set up a start line, and had us race to the finish. This finish also had a reef. There was a lighted buoy marking the entrance, then a 1-mile beat up a lagoon to the resort where the finish was. This was an exciting finish. Worrall led at the buoy, followed by Tards, us, and Squirta.
But Squirta hardened up to cut the corner. We all followed suit. Worrall got the worst of it as he ended up running aground on a small reef/island in the middle of the lagoon. We got rolled by Squirta, we rolled Tards, who then rolled us. We ended up 3rd that night by 1 boat length to Tards and Squirta. It was an exciting finish!!
There are a ton more stories, but I won't take the time here to go into them all. If/when you see me, ask me and I'll unleash!! Great, great time! Really incredible! Hope to do it next year.
