SIGHTINGS made in alviso
sea stories from the clipper race
continued on outside column of next sightings page Page 62 •
Latitude 38
• August, 2018
At Santa Cruz Yacht Club's pop-up museum during Made in Santa Cruz Race Week in late May, SCYC historian Niels Kisling related a story about one of the museum's artifacts on display. "I found out years later that I was hanging out with hippies. Then I thought, wow, hanging out with hippies, that's really cool. I'd heard about hippies, and I'd heard about why I should not hang out with hippies. The people I was hanging out with didn't fit that description at all. I think all of us — 47 years ago — were pretty proud
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY HARMON SHRAGGE
Going through the Panama Canal was one of the highlights of Leg 7, Seattle to New York, in the 11-boat Clipper Race around the world. Harmon Shragge, a 'legger', rejoined Garmin for the Panama to New York section. "You combine an ocean race, where your timing is subject to sea conditions, with the crossing through the Canal that is fixed — you have these dates that have been made months in advance," says Harmon. "Logistically, it was a feat for Clipper to pull off, and it required everyone completing the first part of Leg 7 from Seattle to Panama, and then you got three or four different dates and rafted up three boats at a time to go through. The whole process took about four or five days, and we were lucky enough to go in the first group. "Each boat gets its own pilot. Because we are sailboats we go through the Canal more slowly than the big ships. We started at 5:30 in the morning. They pair three sailboats up with a containership, so the Harmon Shragge aboard 'Garmin'. first half of the Canal the ship goes in front of you and you go right behind them. Then you go through the lock. That was a fascinating experience, to see it in action, especially from the level of a sailboat coupled with a big ship. You get to the first half at Lake Gatun. The pilot gets off, and we had to wait for the next pilot. "They have these mooring balls you tie up to. We waited like six and a half hours in scorching heat and humidity, plus a huge thunderstorm. We thought we might have to stay the whole night there, but they found another pilot and picked us up along with a freighter. The pilots get on board and their first question is, 'What's for lunch? What's for dinner?' We had one pilot who, as soon as he came on board, it was raining and he just went down below the whole time. "The first half you go up through three different locks to the lake, and now you're going down three locks, the sailboats ahead of the freighter. You go into the lock first, then this huge ship pulls up right behind you and you're hoping that they are going to stop. We were pulled along manually by old-fashioned ropes; we were roped in but we are under our own power, so it required a feat of coordination between the three Clipper skippers at the wheel of each boat. "We didn't get through to the Caribbean side till 2 a.m. We had to wait another four days for the rest of the others. You can't go into Colón. Panama City is a great place to hang out, a modern, flourishing city. Colón is, like, the murder capital of Central America." The race restarted in the open ocean, LeMans style. "The boats draw straws for who's to port and who's to starboard. First they are motoring together, then they turn off their motors; the main is up, and everybody is at the back of the boat. At a predetermined time everybody runs forward and raises the sails. You're all in a line together and still on the same course, then you're allowed to set your own course. It's quite exciting." The most difficult part of the leg for the native San Franciscan was the heat. "I was miserable. It was in the 90s above deck and the humidity was 80-90%. As long as the boat was moving you were OK above deck. Below deck was like 110 degrees. It isn't ventilated." The stove was on to cook meals. "I was soaking wet the entire time. Even as we traveled north, there was almost no cooling until we got close to New York. I figured it would cool gradually, and it did not. There are no showers. You had to be dead tired to sleep. "The sailing was moderate. Rarely did we get wind over 20 knots and we had just your typical pounding into the waves and weather
