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Winds were relatively stable today at about 12-15 knots. Steve Moreci and Jason Teller fought a flood current on M-8 all the way out to the bridge. What was interesting was that Jason noticed the waves appeared rougher the farther East they went. Combining this observation with the fact that historically any waves slowed the boat down, he decided to tack every time he noticed increased wave activity heading East. If you take a look at the track (and if you could see the depths…) it’s pretty obvious that wave activity increased as the deep part of the channel became very shallow. So the new hypothesis is that it’s faster to sail inside the deep part of the channel…or at least much smoother.

After they turned around at the bridge they had a really nice set of deep reaches back to the channel. Steve took the power line leg today and came face to face with the cargo ship CSL Tecumseh at the narrowest part of the channel, with leeway carrying them nearer the downwind side. At a very tight close haul they narrowly cleared the bow of the cargo ship and got a really good look at it. Enjoy the video (being the responsible crewman Jason did not feel it appropriate to be filming as they crossed her bow and only started the video once they were safely clear).