As Ketchikan fills up with ever more racers, Race Boss Jesse juggles a heavy in-person social schedule on top of the ever-present ringing of the all-important Race Boss Bat Phone. He sent us these telegrams from the field for your reading pleasure:
- Teams Ruf Duck and Ship of Fools arrived yesterday at 5:30am and 5:50am respectively. Beers all around, including an extra supplement from the Ship of Fools’ beer stash when the supply on the dock ran out. Twenty people greeted them from the dock and hundreds more online.
- Ship of Fools and Ruf Duck were neck and neck in the middle of the night until Ruf Duck got in a good solid spinnaker run. Then the wind died and they both pedaled to the finish. Ruf Duck’s pedal drive–developed in the RDRD (Ruf Duck R&D department) over the last several years—proved superior.
- Ship of Fools team member Ian took a boom block to the face during a freak jibe near Prince Rupert. The friendly Canadian Coast Guard arrived to get him to the place with all the stitches (seven!), and accidentally poked a hole in one of the rigid inflatable boat’s inflatable parts. To which the Canadian’s said: “Eh”
- The Fools got back underway in incredible time (I guess stitches are NBD), and carried on, only staying ahead of Ruf Duck because they were sleeping in some beautiful anchorage somewhere.
- Yesterday morning, Teams Ruf Duck and Pestou were found debating tactics over coffee at the New York Cafe. A chess game broke out, and the Race Boss won.
- Budgie Smugglers flew back to their nests about four or five pm. All of Ketchikan breathed a sigh of relief, knowing they were no longer accomplices to groin-based avian contraband.
- Team Buckeye left the race. A failing forestay chainplate meant they had no choice to throw in the towel. For the non-sailors, the forestay chainplate is to a sailboat as a belt buckle is to a belt – lose it, and your pants fall down. Kinda vital. Rob shared on social media: “Part of me is gutted, I have wanted to ring the bell in Ketchikan since first discovering the race in 2015. Part of me is exhilarated. The time spent here was amazing. I have no doubt that this crew and even this boat (after repair) can make it to Ketchikan. Just not in the parameters of this race this year.”
- Team Monkey Fist had their second travelift haul out of R2AK 2023. This may be an R2AK record for haul outs. All they found was a four-inch cosmetic gash from a deadhead stump. They’re racing on.
- All human powered teams rounded Cape Caution, except Lillian, who is vacationing deeply.
- Dacron and Denim were honored by Team Fashionably Late from afar; Kelsey of TFL created “The Dacron and Denim”—a custom purple cocktail for the team. This cocktail was served to the team at Uncharted Alaska Distillery and is now part of the menu, alongside the “Fashionably Late” which has remained on the menu since it was added during the last R2AK.
Header photo by Ian Greenwood