Just to echo what Todd said above.
Good luck and have fun! I'll be participating in the Queen's Cup too. This is my first season racing on Wed/Fri, it's my first time in a long-distance race AND my first time across the lake in a sailboat. VERY excited apparently -- I actually couldn't sleep last night. I feel like a kid right before the first vacation of the summer.

-John

Cool John. It may be lite air on the way across but I've always enjoyed that race.

My family use to sail across the lake often, I remember one very clear night when we saw the northern lights from horizon to horizon, right across the bowl of the sky. It was fantastic.

To all, watch your forecast for Sunday if you're planing on returning then. Looks like quite a blow for awhile. You can check wind and wave forecasts here www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/glcfs/

Muskegon can get pretty hairy with a 5 foot swell rolling in out of the west. Those waves will have a short period and be very steep. Turning around and heading back in can be problematic.

Great site, Todd. Thanks! Looks like the race is going to be a heck of an experience from beginning to end!

-John

Hey Tursiops Crew. Heard you withdraw on Friday night after the maddingly light airs. I was sorry to hear that. We pushed on and finally finished the race in 19 hours. Came in 10th out of 15 in our division, so I guess that's pretty good. Hope everyone had a good time and sailed/motored safely.
-John

Sounds like a good result to me John. Glad it went well.

19 hours actually sounds quite respectable for the crossing, considering the lack of air I seem to recall last Friday. Wish I'd been with, sounds like good fun! Did you use the Symm, or the Asymm Friday (I can't remember wind direction)??

Congrats on the finish.

I was happy to have a legal start without getting in the way of the racer crowd. The race was a lot of fun for about two hours then the wind went completely away.

The result was an affirmation of my lack of desire to be competitive in this arena.

As stated many times, my goal was to have fun and eat well. Bobbing around for hours on end waiting for any kind of wind was not my idea of fun. I'm sure others found it challenging.

It was fun striking out for Michigan. Finding the harbor and seeing the sites. The beam reach most of the way home on Saturday was icing on the cake.

My crew was fantastic and I'd highly recommend any one of them to anyone wanting/needing good companionship, good seamanship, and flexibility.

Had I decided to remain in the race, I'm sure I would have had no problem getting guys to scan the telltales throughout the night.

I do have to say that watching the fast boats moving so quickly in the fleeting puffs was awe inspiring. As was the 200 some sailboats flying everything in their arsenals framed against the Milwaukee twilight.

Hey Gary. Yah, we flew the A-symm three times during the race. Once before sunset before the wind died; once in the middle of the night (which was a feat); and right at the finish to make up some time. Got better at it each time and our foredeck crew was amazing.
The slow start was very frustrating but we were all glad that we kept at it. Interestingly, we found that we were much faster when the crew was laughing, which was a lot. Great stuff.

Anyway, great race and great experience. But I'm glad it's only once a year!

-John