Race to Alaska has entered its Things Falling Off Boats phase, which is either deeply concerning or a cherished tradition, depending on your relationship with marine hardware.
Triple Threat’s rudder is now somewhere near Waldron Island. Without a rudder the boat doesn’t steer, and without steering you’re not racing to Alaska. They’ve DNF’d.
Moana MoProblems got more problems in the form of a missing leeboard. Then, apparently, she got fewer problems. Which is not how this race usually works. She’s waiting out the wind now, boat intact, details murky. We’re choosing to believe the repair involved driftwood, determination, bubble gum, and a complete disregard for conventional engineering.
Team Perseverance had a rough night at Boat Harbour Marina. A gust pushed him onto the rocks on the way in, taking out the Hobie Mirage drive, dinging the rudder, and somehow breaking a batten on the mainsail. That’s an impressive amount of damage for a single gust. He’s currently sorting through what’s repairable and what’s just a story now. The silver lining, if you want to call it that, is that Dodd Narrows is impassable right now anyway, so he would have had the day off regardless.
Meanwhile, the race has leveled up.
Several teams have pushed through Seymour Narrows and into a Johnstone Strait northerly. Wind in your face. The current, as usual, is doing whatever it feels like. Spectacular scenery you’re too tired to appreciate. Some teams are eating miles. Some teams are eating it.
This is where the gap between best-laid plans and the actual water becomes impossible to ignore.
Teams Outliers, Much Ado About Muffin, Pas Si Vite, Minnesorta Nice, Celerity, Mistakes Were Made, and the surprisingly quick Wet Leg, currently sitting in second, have now all passed Campbell River. Up front, those Northbound Nutters continue to lead, with the pack grinding into the teeth of the northerly.
Back in Nanaimo, a different race is underway. Newcastle Island has become something between a weather hold, a support group, and a small independent nation. Some teams are waiting on weather, which is smart. Some are waiting a little longer, which is becoming a lifestyle choice. Someone got ice cream. Then someone else got ice cream.
Team Dog Smile Adventures appears to be conducting a garage sale on top of their boat, and we heard a rumor one of the crew was touring an apartment. The bold and unwary left hours ago. The patient are still waiting, warm, dry, eating nachos at the marina and poring over the forecasts, wondering at what point waiting for the right weather window just becomes living in Nanaimo.
The race is stretched across two hundred miles of Inside Passage right now, from the leaders punching into a Johnstone Strait northerly to the Nanaimo. Broken gear. Shattered ambitions. Aching knees. Tired jokes, and a whole lot of dehydrated food. Likewise whale sightings, good northward progress, and charmingly cozy camaraderie.
Every version of this race is happening at the same time. And somehow, all of them are R2AK.
Header photo by Taylor Amble | Video by Garret Weintrob