Harvest Moon Regatta 2021
Upon coming back from Utah in June, we started our preparations for getting the boat into full cruising mode. We had, and still have, the plan of leaving Texas waters to Florida and beyond after the2021 holidays. One quick way to get everything ready was to participate in the Harvest Moon Regatta once more. We were thinking that it would be a great “shake down” cruise to Port Aransas and back, around 300 nautical miles round trip. We were going to be a bit more picky with the weather that we were willing to experience this time around but we were still going to prep for the race and for ultimately leaving Texas. With a mounting to-do list and new regulations put into place by the race committee, we started putting our energy toward and focusing on 10/21/21 at 2:00 pm, race time!
First, we had to nail down our crew for this year. The Harvest Moon Regatta rules state that we have to have a minimum of 4 crew. In 2019, we had 5 on board and though it was great having more “off time” from our watch/helm shifts, we decided that our boat is better designed for having less people on board. We invited our friends, Jeremy and Jamie to join us. Jeremy had been sailing with us around Galveston Bay countless times and Jamie has had a history of sailing and racing and just needed a refresher. With our crew set, we got to prepping the boat, our safety gear and scheduling time to go sailing together.
Next we tackled the to-do list for the boat. Justin had to work through some issues with our batteries and eventually had to replace them altogether. (I’m sure that Justin will make a new blogpost about the firefly batteries and their ultimate demise at some point.) We installed our new Headsail/Jib which was a 115 vs the 90 that came with the boat. Our new headsail increased our overall sail area to increase our speed but mostly was needed to better balance our boat under sail (make it so that we don’t have to work so hard to keep her on course). It was also time to get a new bottom paint job so we had her hauled out of the water. We also did a major inspection of the engine, generator, rigging, thru-hulls, keel bolts, and updated our autopilot and navigation software, just to name a few. The last thing was to provision food and clean out all of our extraneous items in preparation for our crew to come aboard.
Justin installing new lithium batteries 
Nymeria getting hauled out for a new bottom job. 
Our new jib. Direwolf logo complements of Jeremy.
The morning of race day, we set out around 4:30 AM toward the start line at the Galveston Pleasure Pier. The fog was so dense that we could barely see the channel markers and had to rely on flashlights, radar and navigation charts. The fog lingered until just after sunrise making for a very slow and tedious start to our journey. The fog lifted to a beautiful blue sky and we were at the starting area with plenty of time to play with the wind and sails and even make lunch before our start time of 2:00 PM.
Jeremy and Jamie at the bow keeping a lookout for channel markers. 
Justin at the helm navigating through the fog.
To make the almost 150 miles to Port Aransas, we used PredictWind to help determine our course. With finishing times ranging from 26 to 34 hours, depending on wind speed predictions, we placed ourselves on 4 hour shifts. 4 hours of “rest”, 2 hours of watch + 2 hours driving at the helm. Justin and I were never scheduled to be in the cockpit at the same time and we both had the pleasure of working with each of our crew as we went through our rotations. Since I made the schedule, I was fortunate to see each sunset, moonrise and sunrise.
Just a beautiful sunset 
One of the last PredictWind screenshots prior to the race start.
Throughout the race, we had shifty winds of variable speed. We had times when we were sitting and bobbing in the water and times when we were approaching our max boat speed of 6.7 knots with 15 knots of wind. We even had some thunder clouds which threatened us as we approached the end of our trip causing us to reef the sails, just in case. Luckily, the storms dissipated before hitting us and we had a crew that could adapt to whatever the weather or the Erickson’s could throw at them.
We were able to finish the race at 11:19 PM Friday night with 32.5 hours of sailing and close to 150 nautical miles down the Texas Coast to Port Aransas. We thoroughly enjoyed our shower and champagne once we were safely tucked into the city marina. We didn’t know it at the time, but we were able to keep other boats in our class at bay and were in fact “racing” them to the finish. Of the 6 boats in our class, 5 finished and we were able to win by only 4 seconds, with our handicap.
The fun part of being part of a Regatta is always having boats on the water around you. Of course during the day, we could see them clearly but, by night, we could only see them on the radar and know who they were only if they had AIS (Automatic Identification System) or if we were in cell range to use our tracking app. There were even a couple of times that we were only a few boat lengths away from other sailboats. We also had some fun racing moments with others passing us by and with at least 2 of the boats in our class, Alegria and Sea Gypsy. With us being the slowest boat in our class, we felt very proud to keep them in our sights throughout the race and not just let them blow past us.
Beginning of the race. We’re in front cause we got to go first we’re one of the slowest boats out there. 
Middle of the race, falling to the back of the pack. 
Coming in 3rd in our class, but 1st overall, due to our handicap. (We’re the purple one)
Other than a few blips and blunders and being in need of a good night’s sleep, we had a pretty amazing Harvest Moon. We couldn’t have asked for better weather, a better crew and a better boat to get us there. Nymeria may be slow and deliberate but she continues to increase our confidence in her capabilities every time we’re away from the slip.
