Where WhimSea Takes Us

Posted by Karen A. Brown

Our intended destination for this weekend was the Knife River Marina. The marina is located about 14 miles north of Duluth along the Minnesota side. We had called ahead and arranged for a slip to be available and were looking forward to trying the local restaurant, Emily's, for the first time.

The day was promising to be sunny and hot with variable winds out of the East. We left the marina, motoring out the Superior entrance, set the sails and shaped a course for Knife River. We were slowly sailing a broad reach almost due north relaxing yet lamenting the hotness of the day. The wind was not being cooperative as it kept swinging further South. Eventually the wind was blowing from due South when it died all together. Moments after the south wind deserted us, the North wind started blowing and blowing pretty good. Our wind instruments hadn't been set-up yet but our hand held windex was giving us readings in the 20 knot range.

So, our leisurely broad reach turned into a fierce beat to windward. Whim Sea went from a negligible heel to 20 degrees in no time. We reduced sail twice and the wind continued to build. So, we decided to call it a day, turned on our heel and made for the Superior entry. We were thinking it would be much easier to dowse the sails within the protection of the harbor than to mess around taking everything down outside the Duluth entry.

While we were sailing towards Knife River, we were watching a mini-regatta of three good sized boats headed for Duluth from the Apostle Islands. They had stopped and seemed to be just hanging out for a while. Though we were aware of them, we weren't paying much attention to them as they weren't near enough to be a concern to us. Once we turned around, however, they were again a part of our considerations. Two of the three vessels bore away from the third on a course for the Duluth Entry. On that tack they were sailing a converging course with us. We got to within a mile when they tacked and made for the Superior entry. The Race was on. We were sailing with one reef in the main and a 100% jenny. One of our unsuspecting competitors was sailing with a 140% jenny and the other just the full main. We all seemed to be in about the same size class and we were all three of us sloops.

We were a mile behind when they shaped up the same course we were sailing so we were all on the same line and we were gaining. The waves were building but the wind seemed to stay pretty constant at about 20 knots gusting to 25 or so. The waves were in the 4-6 foot neighborhood and building. It was exhilarating with the Whim Sea flying before the wind. Whim Sea is such a fast ship it made us feel like pirates running down our prey. We could imagine what it felt like to swoop down on unsuspecting ships like this. We were about two miles outside the entrance when we caught up and started passing. We passed them both by the time we were a half mile outside the entrance and had a nice easy sail the rest of the way into and down the harbor when we dropped our sails and went home.

We didn't make it Knife River but we had a pretty awesome sail. Chances are we would have lost a real race with those guys, more than likely they weren't interested in making the extra effort of adding sail. After all, who wants to race back to the dock? Never-the-less, it was awesome to 'run down on 'em.'