Its Thursday April 21st 2016 and the main thing on my mind is the Newport to Ensenada International Yacht Race. I will be aboard the Santa Cruz 50 Horizon, the boat is ready and looking like she is doing ten knots of boat speed just sitting in her slip. Hope you all noticed Hannah Fry story “Newport to Ensenada yacht race sets sail Friday” in the Daily Pilot on Thursday the 21st.
I just sent out my final email to the crew reminding them to bring their passports and reviewed the food menu with them. Now our menu is not even in the same league as the Tres Gordo Sailing teams vessel It’s OK with its five course dinner and wine pairing. Their menu looks like it has been printed at Newport Stationers and handed out to each crew member on their arrival to the boat in the morning. The It’s OK menu Lunch C'est Si Bon assorted sandwiches. Dinner Small Plates and Appetizers. Gulf Prawns with horseradish cocktail sauce. Spinach and Feta Cheese phyllo triangles (spanakopita), Bacon wrapped jalapeno “poppers”, Muldoons "Sindi Rae's" gourmet sliders, Warm pastry cheese sticks a la Pacific Club, Gilroy Valley Fresh Artichokes with spicy aioli, Assorted domestic and imported cheeses with gourmet cracker selection.
Wines are listed below (actual wine pairing with each item an ITS OK! secret)
2015 Fragile Catalan Rose
2013 Mer Soleil Santa Barbara Co. "Reserve" Chardonnay
2013 Beran California Zinfandel
2014 Runquist "Salman Vineyard", Clarksburg, Petite Syrah
Our crew receives an email and reads as follows “I am headed out to provision the boat in a couple of hours, Great Mex breakfast burritos, C’est Si Bon sandwiches for lunch, home made Pasta Bake for dinner. For grazing food I will stop by Trader Joes for dried fruit, trail mix, chocolate covered espresso beans and a couple of others things that catch my eye. We will have instant coffee and hot chocolate along with a handle of Mount Gay Rum for our arrival.”
As I travel around town today the excitement level has been high with the two big trimarans in front of the Newport Harbor Yacht Club, Marina Park has fifteen race boats in their guest slips and Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club docks are filled to capacity. The talk around town is always about the weather and this year looks like a better than average race. The true test on these participating yachtsman will not be the race it will be the delivery home. Looking into my crystal ball, the weather will and should make the big boats have their crews jump off the dock on their arrival and head for the barn. We call that turning and burning, for the smaller boats don’t even think about coming home until early Wednesday morning. So for all you people that have love ones, friends doing the race and the delivery home. I would not be surprised if you get a phone call informing you that they will be a little late coming home.
For use on Horizon the race is looking pretty good that we can three-peat for the overall win but that would be bad luck for me to say. As most of my readers know I am very superstitious and I have found the perfect karma ingredient. On the day of the race I will pick up three pieces of plastic out of the water. That could be anything from a plastic water bottle or a grocery bag while walking down the dock. I even try changing course just a little bit, while racing, to pick up that plastic ballon out of the water. You should try this sometime and see if it as lucky for you as it is for me. I still do not know why the race committee does not give a time allowance to the cruisers, who are allowed to run their engines during the race, for picking up plastic along the race course.
So if you are reading this story on Saturday morning we should have finished the race before 3:00 AM and we are probably checked into our rooms talking about where we messed up our how good of sailors we are. I am sure there will be plenty of conversation on how spectacular it is to sail at night under a full moon and how gnarly that last jibe was in twenty knots of wind was.
As always the competitors need to give a big shout out to the Newport Ocean Sailing Association for all their hard work finding participants, sponsors, cleaning trophies and coming up with new ways for making this race better for everyone. If you are looking for more reading about the race head over to my blog site at lenboseyachts.blogspot.com I wrote a story for the race program “Reflections on Winning” and I posted what our strategy will be on race day.
As always wish us luck.
Sea ya
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