{"id":3062,"date":"2015-06-08T12:06:02","date_gmt":"2015-06-08T19:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/?p=3062"},"modified":"2015-06-08T17:05:51","modified_gmt":"2015-06-09T00:05:51","slug":"and-they-are-off-on-the-race-to-alaska","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/?p=3062","title":{"rendered":"And they are OFF …. on the Race to Alaska"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_7191\"<\/a>\"Pt_to_Victoria\"<\/a>We sailed in our catamaran, Cat’s Cradle, to Victoria last week to watch the start of the R2AK, the first (annual?) race from Port Townsend, Washington to Ketchikan, Alaska. The first leg, from Port Townsend to Victoria BC is a qualifying leg — if your boat makes it, you are qualified to Race to Alaska (www.r2ak.com<\/a>) That first race day, we came upon Scott, his friend, Thomas, and Abe Streep (an editor from Outside magazine, traveling with Sea Runners only on the first leg) in their boat tied to some kelp off Discovery Island as strong currents tried (unsuccessfully) to pull them far away from their goal, Victoria BC. Team Sea Runners has been designing, building and testing a vessel for this race for the past year. They have blogged extensively during this process (www.searunners.net<\/a>) and if you don’t know Scott or Thomas, check out the lead paragraph of this New York Times story about the race<\/a><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The rules for this race are minimal: no motors of any kind, two required checkpoints, no assistance that is not available to all racers (e.g. you can go to a grocery store but you can’t have your friend bring things to you), and most cool, if the race committee has to think about calling a lawyer, you are disqualified!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_7249\"<\/a>As the first day progressed, more and more boats of all sizes and shapes appeared in Victoria and more and more didn’t. Ten teams dropped out of the race the first day after breaking things, capsizing, being swept to the north and east by strong currents, etc.. Over the next two days the 29 surviving teams and their friends finished things, fixed things, procured more supplies, offloaded extras and generally busily prepared for the 750 mile adventure about to start.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_7336\"<\/a>Scott’s Aunt Barbara from Chicago asks, “What do they eat?” Scott and Thomas tried to share food on some of their shakedown cruises, but Scott is a vegetarian and Thomas a supreme carnivore. We know that Thomas is relying heavily on olive oil and his famous oatmeal concoction. Scott has two large rounds of cheese, simple dinners to which he can add water, fresh and dried fruit, crackers, and 2 high-energy recipes Leslie made for him: 18 cups of granola with dried milk plus 2 dozen Everest Cookies. They started with enough water for 3 days and will get other water along the way, either in marina or grocery stores or finding it at natural sources and purifying it.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_7378\"<\/a>The fleet ranges from one person kayak-based devices to large multiple-crew catamarans with a standout including a 6 man paddling team in a very long canoe equipped with pontoons and a mast with sail. Team Sea Runners’ boat was made in Scott’s garage and backyard with basic materials (the hull is 1\/8″ thick marine plywood reinforced with fiberglass and the mainsail and storm sail are both tarps from Home Depot) and the whole works cost $2000. We viewed very large, sleek and expensive catamarans and trimarans which were designed specifically for this race. There are also boats which boast crews which have sailed in many international races and which have won prizes – truly a bunch of competent and experienced crews!<\/p>\n