Race to Alaska Day 3 on Bad Kitty

Our second night at sea was spent beating north in a building wind. About 3am we overtook Turnpoint and then, as we approached Campbell River, still hard on the wind, we passed two anchored R2Ak boats who were waiting for the tide change. We decided to reef before passing through the notorious Seymour Narrows, fortunately we got through at first light. Although the wind and waves were not as extreme as last year the gusts blowing down off the western cliffs were often vicious and the whirlpools caused by the 8 knot tide with us caused us to be thrown around and we had to sail very cautiously. We then faced a 90mile beat up Johnstone Strait. We were buzzed by a helicopter, not as bad as the one who interferred at the Port Townsend start, but even so it was obvious the pilot had no idea how dangerous the downdraft could be on a fast moving multihull. The wind was still increasing but the water stayed flat so we could sail at high speed. First 9 knots to windward, then 10, then 11 and finally 12.5 knots hard on the wind. Fast enough to overtake a motoring Andrews 68 monohull. It was cold in the bright sunshine, a foretaste of the Alaskan weather to come. Finally, late in the evening we cleared the end of Johnstone Strait and started heading north into a very sloppy sea covered with logs and weed. I was steering as the sun started to set. We didn't hit anything but suddenly there was a bang and a lurch and the tiller was nearly ripped out of my hand. Looking back I saw the starboard rudder underwater held to the boat by one 6mm (1/4in) tiller bar bolt. It would be a real disaster if we lost any of it so we had a desperate race to get it all safely on board. Once we had it safe we discovered the rudder pintles had sheer off. Bob contacted race control to explain why our tracker now showed us sailing south. Fortunately Port Hardy was on a close reach, maybe 7 miles away, and somewhere we knew would be an easy entrance under sail in the dark. We were even less manouverable than usual, and I found it very tricky sailing with just one rudder. I could manage when the speed was over 6 knots but below that we had to mainly steer with the sails or the boat would weathercock. That was a challenge in the dark. The wind slowly dropped and by 11am we were pedalling into a confusion of lights, not quite sure where the government dock really was. A few minutes after midnight we tied up to the dock, tired, cold and very depressed. "Team meeting at 5am" said Bob. I know I didn't sleep, instead tossing and turning, what to do, why did it break... So we officially retired and began to make the repairs. See our return trip in the next video and see r2ak.com for more on the race.