It has been three days of very competitive racing, with excellent breeze for the fleet, The breeze on Monday from Deepwater Bay across from Brown’s Bay Resort to the Kelsey Bay Pier was significant. With wind against tide, large standing waves formed in Race Passage, rivaling the waves seen in the 2015 race when winds were sustained at 35 knots for 3 days in a row.

Some competitors chose to sail on jib’s alone, while others used various reefed sail plans. Unfortunately two boats withdrew from the leg, Maelstrom skippered by Dan Kaseler from Seattle has withdrawn from the race and Ripple, co-skippered by Christina and Justin Wolfe of Orcas Island returned to Campbell River to assess damage to the masthead instruments. The Shadow II finished the leg and continued to Telegraph Cove to assess sail repairs. Sorceress, co-skippered by Andrew and Jim Allan has joined the fleet in Browns Bay after a 20 hour motor from Steveston.

A planned delivery of refreshments by the race committee, which included a bottle of Gosling’s Rum by our sponsor to the fleet anchored in Port Neville had to be abandoned for safety reasons. A large tug came into the Kelsey Bay marina with the center window, which is approximately 15 feet off the deck, completely blown in due to taking a wave over the bow. The refreshments will now be delivered to the competitors in Telegraph Cove.