The Story
Comfortably Numb had it's best finish in it's 5th Mackinac Race finishing 3rd in class and 3rd overall. The race started in medium to light easterly winds as we worked our we up the lake. The winds gradually increased and clocked around to the southwest as we changed from our reaching spinnaker to our new .6 oz runner. Taking advantage of our position we jibed to port which enabled us to cross in front of many boats in our class
After night fell we found increasing winds as we reached up the lake at a record pace. The increasing velocity and the continued clocking of the wind to the west forced us to make a sail change during the night. As day light broke we were only miles from Thunder Bay light and there were only two other boats with us one ahead and one behind. This was quite a thrill considering in years past we didn't reach this point until much later in the day.
We were the 2nd boat to pass Thunder Bay light at around 8:30 Sunday morning. The only boat ahead and by only 5 minutes was Insatiable a Tartan 46 and a multiple Mackinac winner. Three minutes behind was the Tartan 42 Dog Dayz last years winner. We were in pretty good company.
The wind began to lighten as we headed up the Michigan shoreline past Presque Isle and then up to Roger City. With less than forty miles to go we could still finish by last call at the Pink Pony but the weather was not cooperating. The wind continued to fade as boats that were well behind us started to grow on the horizon. The first and only boat to catch us was The Great Whisper an older Tartan 42 that was extremely fast in these light air conditions. Our hopes of making last call faded with the winds. We continued to work the boat hard trying to eek out every little bit of speed we could.
As the sun sank lower and lower in the sky we decided to take a gamble and sail north in hopes of getting to a forecasted northerly wind. The Great whisper followed and soon past us as we sailed to what appeared to be a fog bank. We which the fog bank which happened to be low clouds instead and caught a nice although short lived wind line that help us put many of the boats that had caught up to us back off the horizon. As the sun set we could see other boats from the long course including some 70 footers and well as some open class Multihulls
Night fell and so did the wind. With around 30 miles to go we had no idea when we would finish. The wind continued to come and go throughout the night as we made steady progress towards the Island.
The morning twilight brought a light but steady south easterly breeze as we closed in on the island. With less than 12 miles to go we could only wonder and hope that we didn't get past by more boats during the night. We figured there was a good chance that the Whisper was ahead but what about Dog Dayz and Insatiable? The sun lit up the sky and we could now clearly see the island and a half a dozen boats finishing in front of us.
At 6:00 am the radio in which we were listen to confirmed our assumption as The Great Whisper radioed her finish. We quickly pulled out the binoculars to search for other boats in our class. We still had a chance for second and Third. The binoculars confirmed the worst. we could see Dog Dayz about a mile ahead. Although someone disappointed we were ecstatic as we looked behind us to find Insatiable at our stern. We sailed an outstanding race and considering that the Whisper, Dog Dayz and Insatiable had all won in previous years we proved that we were up to the task.
Look out next year!
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