Sunday, July 13– Timing is everything– and today, it was exactly wrong. The plan was to do the second half of the counterclockwise course, from Cape Poge to Aquinnah, and measure the effect of the favorable ebb current down Vineyard Sound vs the afternoon southwest wind smack in the face…. to determine what my true forward speed is likely to be if similar conditions are encountered on August 9th.
The tide shift was 2 hours later on 7/13, though, so I couldn’t start from Cape Poge until 11:30 AM; by then, the south/southwest wind was blowing 15 knots and building, which made for a very fast warmup paddle out from Eel Pond with following seas and speeds 8-10 mph on small surfing runs; I tucked around the east side of Cape Poge to land out of the wind, check glucose, take insulin and eat lunch, as I plan to on 8/9 (albeit ideally before 10AM). I then launched, hit the GPS and stopwatch, rounded the Cape heading straight towards East Chop– and saw the whole expanse of Nantucket Sound ahead filled with sails broad-reaching just north of my course line– Vineyard Cup Regatta!
I hadn’t checked their schedule– nor course maps– and feared the worst; sure enough, the lead boat rounded the mark (which I presume was R “2”, the outermost Edgartown channel buoy), onto the port tack, close-hauled and screaming towards the next mark somewhere off State Beach…. converging on my course line (which I’d modified a bit towards Harthaven so as not to take the sizable seas dead on the port beam).
The die was cast; if I held my course, I’d end up having to cross the middle of the fleet– and those boats were moving MUCH faster than the 5 or so mph I was making punching at angle into the strengthening wind. While I presume the rules of the road give a kayaker right of way over sailing vessels on a converging course, I was not going to test that theory in exceedingly dicey sea conditions. Calculating that even if I did succeed in threading the needle, I would a) almost certainly find myself right back on a converging course with the rear guard of racers making for East Chop after their second turn, and b) would get absolutely pummeled by the later headwind down Vineyard Sound were I to make it around the Chops, I made the executive decision to abort while I still could, and retreat back towards Eel Pond. The slow punch directly into the wind, with speeds below 4 mph, and heart rate well over my intended pace for the long paddle, confirmed that I had made the reasonable, albeit disappointing choice.
Valuable takeaways from the aborted effort were that indeed I can keep the boat upright, albeit at reduced speed, on the toughest leg I’ll likely encounter with stiff winds and big seas on the port bow (coming ahead and from from the left)…. but also that there’s no point in being out there if the wind is blowing southwest in excess of 15 knots on that Cape Poge-to-East Chop leg; a check with NOAA once ashore confirmed that conditions had indeed increased to 15-20 knots, with gusts to 25, on the slow pound straight into it back to Eel Pond. Although I would no doubt have enjoyed assistance of the strengthening ebb current around East and West Chops and onwards down Vineyard Sound, experience and sound judgement concur that it would have been a losing battle to try and fight that much wind (and no doubt chaotic sea states as tide and wind fought it out)…. had the racers not been out there, it would have been a challenging but fun trip at least as far as Lake Tashmoo, where I could have tucked it up if need be; but on balance, each captain must make the wisest decision… mine was the “mature” one, and I lived to paddle another day!