Last weekend I participated to my third Midsummer Solo Challenge.
This edition had it all. The perfect sailing experience! Breeze, calm, thunderstorms, scenery, strategy, physical challenge, social event.
After one and a half year of social distancing, the event kicked off with a nice dinner together (I mean, together! Can you imagine that?). A weather debrief after dinner told us that we could expect anything, except snowfall. Yeah, well, we got everything, except snowfall.
It took a few minutes to find the starting line in a fog bank. After hearing large invisible ships warning us to get out of the way we had a great start at the gun.
Close reaching, we battled with a few other participants for position. In particular Rebellion (Archibald Gran Surprise).
Heading North after Eggskär in Southwesterly winds, TWA increased and up went our medium spinnaker. With decreasing wind and deeper angle, I decided to peel and change to a light air spinnaker, which I carried all the way to Lysekil. A bit sweaty a couple of times when angle and speed increased way beyond the spinnaker’s range, but all went well.
North of Smögen, swell and lack of wind made for a nerve wrecking couple of hours. Here I decided to keep speed up and sail higher than needed. Wrong tactical choice, but the right one to keep my cool for the remaining 24 hours.
I chose a tiny passage before rounding Testholmarna. Sailing through it turned out not as dramatic as I thought, but rather dramatically beautiful. It also turned out to be the shortest way where I gained about 1NM from my benchmarked participants.
After Testholmarna, a long broad reach straight along the rumbline to Ramskär. A short nap in the cockpit before darkness, dinner and finally a breathtaking hour from sundown to sunset with changing colours from orange to pink. That’s when you know it is all worth it.
Rounding Ramskär is a milestone. And a cheat. You think you are halfway. In fact, the challenge has just begun.
The few hours with no wind at all are a real mental challenge… and they pose usual dilemma: take advantage and rest or be attentive and take advantage of any breath of air?
Once the wind came back and I found speed on a nice long lane, rain, lightnings and thunder began to strike all over the place and all around. In theory, I should have kept my cool and course, straight through it. However, I couldn’t help it and turned a few degrees to avoid the most dangerous area. Here is when you wonder why you do it! Feeling powerless and very small I tried to stay clear of any hardware aboard for a while.
Finally, with the worse over, the spinnaker went up and a few hours later breakfast was served.
South of Smögen, the wind turned to the East. Spinnaker down, genoa up. Beautiful reaching slicing through flat water. After a while, with an approaching squall on the horizon, I thought to take a reef and ride out the squall. It seemed however that the breeze was steadily picking up from the south. Shake out the reef and change headsail. It took about 10 minutes, but it was the right choice and I am certain it paid off for the remaining 5 hours.
Here is when a real battle against a 2kn current straight on my nose began. Beautiful sailing close-hauled in 16kn wind and sun.
Rounding Hätteberget, with Marstrand in sight, the angle opened up and I crossed the line after 28 hours and 54 minutes.
Docked, I ordered a pizza and beer and was totally knocked out until brunch time on the following day!
A big thanks to Marstrand Segelsällskap and the event sponsor Båtagent for making this happen!
Very satisfied with all the new systems and procedures on board, in particular the Pelagic Autopilot which steered about 80% of the race with very good accuracy and reliability. A full review will soon follow.
All results published here Midsummer Solo Challenge