by Clayton Cook
A few facts:
Race To Alaska starts in Port Townsend Washington and ends in Ketchikan Alaska, 750 miles in total. It’s broken down between a “proving ground”, a 40 mile run from Port Townsend to Victoria BC Across The Strait of Juan de Fuca and the remainder of the race from Victoria to Ketchikan. Not a lot of rules involved, except no engine on the boat and no support that is not available to anyone. So that means you can stop anywhere you want and eat and or buy things as long as that’s available to everyone.
We completed the proving ground yesterday so now there’s a few days of activities and rest in Victoria prior to the main event. That kicks off with a Le mans start on Wednesday at noon.
Anyone interested in the Race can look it up and see more detail and or follow along. (https://cf.yb.tl/r2ak2026)
Our team name is Nothing to Sea Here. My buddy Brian and I are doing the race on my Hobie Tandem Island. You can look it up if you’re interested in seeing what it is, it’s not a lot of boat for this adventure. With a maximum payload of 600 pounds you have to be very intentional in what you bring. We dehydrated all of our own meals, with the exception of lunches, which are tortillas with various components. And lots of snack items, burning a lot of calories, you need to eat a lot. Last year we did the Washington 360 race, a smaller sister Race to this one, and we each lost about 10 pounds.
We will stop and camp each night, so we have everything we need to do that in relative safety.
We expect to average about 40 miles a day, but that can be quite challenging some days. The tides up here are much greater than the Bay Area, which means the resulting currents are no joke. Yesterday we got 2 miles from Victoria before the ebb turned to a flood, and instead of going forward, we went sideways.
If you want to follow the race, YB Races is the place to do so. You have to add the Race to Alaska to your “races“, then you can see where each team is, at any given time.
If you want to follow us specifically, we have an Instagram page that we post to. https://www.instagram.com/nothing_to_sea_here_wa360?utm_source=qr
