Crew: Geoff, Bruno, Eduardo.
Forecast: Southerly 20 knots, but 15 knots about the harbour. Becoming southeast 15 knots but 10 knots in the harbour this evening. Moderate sea easing. High tide: 1708 hrs, Low tide 2317 hrs.
After doing a safety briefing with Bruno (first time on Halo) and fitting a MOB light on his lifejacket we cast off from Chaffers at 1805 hrs with the No. 2 Jib and full Mainsail. The race sailing instructions required that we sign on for the race by sailing past the start box between 1840 and 1850hrs with navigation lights switched on. The race start would be 1900 hrs. The course was Start – Somes Island – Ward Island – Shoal Pile – Finish. We passed the box at 1847 and confirmed our POB via VHF radio to race officer Neil Currie.
Wind was 15-20 kts southeasterly. Crew positions were Bruno on helm with Eduardo and Geoff on sail trim. We decided against using the spinnaker and crossed the start line at 1901 hrs and hoisted the No.1 HW Genoa as a second headsail poled out on the windward side. This worked well up to Pt Halswell but then we had to take in the Genoa and continue up the harbour on a beam reach at around 6 kts with the No. 2 Jib. We rounded the top of Somes Island at 1949 hrs and started tacking back into the wind close hauled. As we neared Ward Island it was getting dark and we enjoyed beautiful views of the sun setting over the city. The wind dropped and our speed dropped to around 3 kts as we zig zagged around the island as we changed our headsail up the the larger No. 1 HW Genoa.
Once we cleared Ward Island we made good progress in the pitch black night at a good 6 kts but in our excitement overshot the Shoal Pile mark a bit before turning up north. We rounded Pt. Halswell at 2156 and after two tacks crossed the finish line at 2227 hrs.
Results have not been published yet and as we couldn’t see the other boats not sure how well we did but we thoroughly enjoyed the night sail experience. Great practice for the 24 Hour Endurance Race in two weeks time!
Halo Log Book 