ABW Dec 2020-1

course in clear air. Light winds are usually shifty, so I rode
the lifters and tacked on the headers. Looking at my gps
track at the end of the trip it did show curves in my tracks
where I stayed on the lifters, I counted a total of 32 tacks
on this trip. (On the last one I did less than 10.) The fleet
was all over the place, as the skippers tried to find their way
back home. This was a challenge for the
rescue boat, but they knew which sailors
to look out for, while I kept tabs on those
who were in front including Paulo and
Thom, their red and blue sails were easy
to spot from miles away.
There will be no lunch stop, the sailors
brought handy lunches to consume while
on the trip, I had corned beef sandwiches
and a couple of bananas. My strategy
seemed to work as I found myself ahead of everyone else
when I got to the south east corner of volcano island at
round 13:00. Then the wind started to pick up, it was
starting to become the exercise session that we justified it
to be, it did take some effort to get to Bubuin island, I could
only imagine the rest of the fleet was having a hell of a
workout too.
When I got to Bubuin at around 14:00 I waited for around
five minutes for Paul and Jason to catch up, while waiting,
I counted the sails that I could see and found all of them,
had a smoke and a snack and bailed out the water in the
boat that came in when the wind picked up on the way to
Bubuin. At around the same time, Eli was able to complete
his RTV trip and was back at the club, he had an equally
challenging time crossing the section between Bubuin and
TLYC. As Paul and Jason passed me I followed them, but it
was already clear that we had to go through white cap city
to get back to TLYC.
It was blowing more than 20 knots in the open section
between Bubuin and TLYC, what was usually a close reach
Bong chose a path close to volcano island
...like almost on cue,
Ari capsized too, his
centerboard kept
falling out of its slot
and he didn’t have
the strength to right
the boat...
to the club turned to a tacking battle against the weather.
The tired skippers were having difficulty sheeting in tight
and were being blown downwind of their objective. We
were in survival mode.
Over behind Pulo the rest of the fleet were having a
challenging time getting through the gap
between Pulo and Bubuin. Bong and Ari
were being ghosted by the safety boat
as it was clear they were having trouble.
Sure enough, Bong capsized first, he was
immediately helped up by the safety boat,
and then like almost on cue, Ari capsized
too, his centerboard kept falling out of its
slot and he didn’t have the strength to right
the boat much less get back in, Michael and
the safety boat helped Ari right his boat and
got him back on board, Storer stayed on with Ari and sailed
all the way back, Ari getting a hands on lesson on heavy
weather sailing from his boat’s designer.
At 15:55 Paul and I arrived at the club, followed by Jason,
then Thom, then Lito with Job, Joy with Junard, then Ari
with Michael and at 16:36 Bong was back on dry ground.
The 10 boat, 8 hour, 45 kilometer adventure around Pulo
Volcano island was complete. Time to break out the grog
and celebrate and plan the next exercise with the Goose.
Thom summarized the trip best when he said ““Rounding
Taal volcano island in a simple small dinghy like a Goose
is a memorable feat. Not only the physical endeavor and
achievement of 7.5 hours non-stop sailing, but also the thrill
of a mile by mile changing lakescape: rounding the baby
Volcano first, shifting into the Mad Max parallel universe
of Fishpen Alley continuing to the lahar domination of the
southside of the Volcano - a wrecked and still uninhabitable
landscape. I was impressed by the dominance of Mt
Makulot, a towering presence over the lake. Glad to be back
safely after the last hour of strong winds I gave initially way
to the physical experience, but now a few days later, it is the
full geography package that impresses me.”
Sunrise at TLYC, complete with a piper on the jetty
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