Every bell ringing in Ketchikan is now performed by people who have spent a full fortnight on the race course, and currently look (and aggressively smell) like it.
Yesterday dragged four additional survivors across the line:
First in was Sea Peas, the third and final Olson 25 to reach Racer Valhalla. Greg and Michelle stepped onto the dock looking like people who had spent two weeks detaching from the concept of comfort. Michelle’s hair deserves its own finisher’s medal, if not designation by the EPA as a Superfund site. If you’re unfamiliar with the aesthetic, search “bird nest sailor hair.” You’ll know it when you see it.
Later, Team Jackalope completed the final tacks into Thomas Basin carrying precisely half of its original four-person crew. Back in Campbell River, the team dropped to two and unofficially rebranded as Team Halfalope. In adventure racing, division does, in fact, multiply suffering.
Nick and Brandon made it ashore just in time for fish and chips at the Alaska Fish House. The restaurant graciously ignored its own closing time, a heroic act we choose to believe was an expression of civic duty rather than the result of a well-placed bribe from the dry half of the team.
This morning, Team Salmon Hat rang the bell after taking one of the more adventurous and scenic routes through the rulebook.
The R2AK law reads, more or less: If your boat shatters into pieces and you require assistance, you may accept a tow to a safe harbor to fix it. However, if you wish to remain a racer and not a quitter, you must return to the GPS coordinate where everything went sideways before continuing under your own power.
Salmon Hat took that deal.
While sailing through northern Queen Charlotte Strait under a jib and a deeply reefed main, the rudder attachment decided it no longer wished to participate. The pintles (pointy bits that fit into the hole-part) departed for a swim. After a session involving lashings, crusty exclamations, and a tow to Port Hardy from the Coast Guard, the team found a fabricator, repaired the damage, sailed back to the exact place where the rudder had made its escape, and only then pointed the bow toward Ketchikan.
Teams don’t often voluntarily sail further from the finish line. But if the Racer Packet says that’s where you have to go before you can keep racing, that’s where you go.
With every bell that rings, the fleet on the course grows a little smaller. According to our Staff Astrologer, the Grim Sweeper has reached French Creek, just north of Nanaimo, and is sharpening their broom.
Photos by: Elleyna Thompson