Yes, I am looking forward to doing the run on an east wind. We'll see how it goes. I was thinking that guys will have to focus on making to windward or offshore to allow adequate leeway around piers and inlets. Hopefully, we should be able to clear the Juno pier easily enough before we come up on it but if guys aren't trying to work offshore, maybe not. Then they'll have to ride back northward to tack further east. I think a few guys even had to do this last year with a more favorable wind. Once you are out of the nearshore break this should be easier. Then again we hit some bars at quite a few points along the run last year that setup waves further from shore at points. We should try to stay at least 300 ft. from piers to avoid legal hassles also some of those buggers have special "kiter hook rigs." They try to hook us and have in the past quite a few times that I have heard about.
The seas are forecast to be 2 to 4 ft. and a bit larger further offshore. Quite a bit mellower than the 15 ft. seas of the pre-race or 9 ft. of the actual race last year. It was interesting to see the waves smooth out the further south we went. In effect things became easier the more ground we covered. Waves may be even less of an issue this year by the forecast.
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