Nine down. One to go.
That's the situation for Tripp Tease, the Comox Bay Sailing Club entry in the 2013 Black Press Van Isle 360 International Yacht Race.
Tripp Tease completed leg nine (Ucluelet to Victoria) of the 10-leg race around the Island early Thursday morning and now preparing for the final leg (Victoria to Nanaimo) which starts at 9 a.m. June 21.
The 580 nautical mile race started June 8 in Nanaimo and wraps up there June 22. Here's the latest from Tripp Tease, filed on their blog Thursday:
"Made it to Victoria at 1 a.m. Most of the leg we had light to moderate winds in reaching conditions. 10 miles out of Race Rocks the wind started to build. Peeled to our heavy air spinnaker in the dark as we approached Race Rocks.
"Then a number of gybes in 20-plus knots. Wind built to 30 and after a broach which took a long time to come out of, we changed to number 3. Good move. TT saw 13.5 knots!!!
"Overall we did not do well in the leg. Made a bad call at Carmanah Point and fell into a hole with Radical Departure who were a point behind us in the overall standings as we came into this Leg. We beat them boat for boat over the line. TT 9th and RD 10th. Next leg is big points and now a podium finish is up for grabs by many boats!"
Leg nine results were unavailable at press time. In the overall standings after eight legs, Tripp Tease was third in Division 1 with 302 points. Terremoto led with 385, White Cloud was second with 347 and Radical Departure was just one point back of Tripp Tease in fourth place.
Fans can follow the race on the ship's blog tripptease.wordpress.com, online at www.vanisle360.com, on Twitter @2013Van and on Facebook at facebook.com/VanIsle360.