A milestone quietly slipped astern on Saturday afternoon: every remaining team is now north of Dodd Narrows. Salish Seasters was the last to tick the box, passing through around 3 p.m. Saturday and officially moving the entire fleet into the next chapter of this particular bad idea.
About fifteen teams are currently winding their way through Johnstone Strait, where conditions have alternated between rowdy and awesome, sometimes with very little warning between the two.
After the tub-thumping administered to nearly every floating object during the opening days of the race, the southerly that settled in on Saturday was a welcome change. Teams that had spent days getting slapped around suddenly found themselves moving north with something resembling dignity. Mike, Marty and the Bonesaw—who had spent a fair amount of time pinned against the mainland shore waiting for an opening—were among the teams happy to finally point the bow north and make some miles.
Saturday was also apparently Whale Day. Humpbacks were reported by what felt like half the fleet, with sightings stretching from Texada Island all the way to Port McNeill. Whether those were the same whales covering 150 miles in a few hours or a coordinated cetacean hospitality committee remains unclear. Either way, the race briefly became a wildlife tour.
The reports of trail magic keep piling up.
Katie Gaut of 2024’s Sail Like A Mother somehow managed an entirely unplanned, completely rule-compliant cookie delivery to Tips Up as they pedaled past Alert Bay. Meanwhile, Team Perseverance’s Doug Shoup received a magical replacement pedal drive after he may or may not have converted his original one into modern art on some breakwater riprap.
For those keeping one eye on the leaderboard and the other on their spreadsheet, there is a race happening.
Team Northbound Nutters continues to disappear over the horizon aboard their giant yellow rocketship, now roughly 100 miles ahead of the next closest competitor. Behind them, though, a battle appears to be brewing. Team Wet Leg has occupied the #2 spot since Day 2, but Team Celerity has been steadily chipping away at that lead and the race for the Steak Knives is suddenly looking a lot less settled.
It’s a fun matchup. Wet Leg’s Soverel 33 and Celerity’s Hobie 33 are both products of the era when yacht designers looked at a perfectly good cruising interior and said, “what if we got rid of most of this and went faster instead?” The Soverel brings a little more displacement and a reputation for charging through ugly conditions. The Hobie is lighter, twitchier, and generally behaves like it was designed after someone consumed three espressos and a dare. Both boats are plenty capable of making miles disappear when conditions line up, and with hundreds of miles still to go, nobody is measuring the gap between them in days anymore.
The DNF list continues to grow.
Saturday afternoon brought news that many fans had been fearing. Moana MoProblems, a bit of a fan favorite, officially retired from the race. After her leeboard failed a few days earlier, she managed to keep going thanks to a repair involving a ratchet strap, determination, and forces not fully understood by modern science. After days of fighting the boat and making painfully slow progress, she ultimately decided enough was enough.
Then at 8:45 Sunday morning came the call from Hell ‘N Ready. Following a pedal-drive disaster, they too called it a day and turned toward home. The road to Ketchikan is littered with broken gear, broken plans, and occasionally broken dreams.
Northbound they go. Some with fresh wind. Some with fresh cookies.
Header photo by Mark Cole | Video by Garret Weintrob