Bayview - Mackinac Summary

We are here on Mackinac Island. We arrived at about 5:40 this morning. Our elapsed time for the race was about 41 hours which put us in 13th place out of 16 boats in our division. We had obviously hoped to do better but this was our first Bayview - Mackinac race. The race was fast, wet and cold. We started in a local squall and downpour and spent most of the first day with the main reefed and high winds. We would get Reboot set up with one or two reefs and then the wind would die. We would shake out the reefs and the wind would come back up. We are all pretty tired from the constant sail work. Two events reminded us that this sport has its dangers. The first night the foredeck guy from one of the boats was thrown overboard and dragged for about 1/2 hour. We listened to the radio transmissions and watched the Coast Guard first bring a helo and then a cutter to try to get him out of the water. They were ultimately successful and he is still alive and in the hospital in Alpina. The second event happened last night when we were about 20 miles from the finish line. Another competitor ran aground just about 3 miles north of where we were sailing. Scary. We are off tomorrow for Chicago and the Chicago - Mackinac race. We will keep you posted. Roger