With smiles and hugs, the 2022 Race to Alaska concluded last Thursday evening when the last two teams still in the race — Fix Oder Nix and Sockeye Voyages — arrived at the finish in Ketchikan’s Thomas Basin.
It had taken both teams more than 21 days to complete the approximately 710-mile distance between Victoria, British Columbia, where the R2AK’s second leg to Ketchikan had begun at noon Pacific time on June 16.
Sails, ores or paddles — no motors allowed.
“We made it,” Joachim Roesler of Team Fix Oder Nix said after their arrival at the Baranof Excursions dock.
“And we’re still talking to each other,” added Zoë Sheeha Saldaña, the other member of Fix Oder Nix.
The couple exchanged big hugs and a kiss before ringing the R2AK bell on the dock to signal the conclusion of their race.
Their lighthearted mood was mirrored by the three-person crew of Team Sockeye Voyages when they arrived at 7:45 p.m.
“We’re the bow on the end of the race,” said Tara Watkins after sharing hugs with teammates John Calogero and Olivia Lord.
The two teams were among the 32 teams that had started the second leg of the 2022 R2AK in Victoria — and were the 18th and 19th teams to complete the race. The rest had exited the competition earlier, several due to vessel damage sustained from striking floating logs in the water along the route early in the race.
Last Thursday’s finishers were far behind the race-winning team of Pure and Wild, whose 44-foot monohull finished the race on June 20 with a time of four days, four hours and 32 minutes.
Team Fix Oder Nix and their 24.5-foot customized stretch Angus RowCruiser finished in 21 days, seven hours and 25 minutes.
“It’s not a race boat,” Roesler said. “It’s not fast, but it’s a floating camping cruiser.”
Team Sockeye Voyages had a similar size vessel and concept, with a 23.5-foot Bolger trimaran that Calogero described as a “wooden gaff-rigged schooner.” They finished in 21 days, eight hours and 45 minutes.
During the course of those 21-plus days, Team Fix Oder Nix had held sizable leads over Sockeye Voyages. Fix Oder Nix tagged the waypoint at Bella Bella, British Columbia, on the evening of June 27, followed by Sockeye Voyages around midday on June 30.
Their routes from Bella Bella diverged, with Fix Oder Nix traveling north along the channels east of Princess Royal and Pitt Islands. That proved a difficult route, with the vessel fighting a strong current for much of the way, said Saldaña.
Sockeye Voyages kept to the west of those islands. By early morning July 5, Sockeye Voyages had inched ahead before being overtaken again by Fix Oder Nix. Both teams were hoping to maintain a pace that would keep them ahead of the “Grim Sweeper” boat that, if it passed them on its way north, would signal the end of their race.
On July 6, Sockeye Voyages passed Fix Oder Nix, but the two-person team caught back up by mid-morning Thursday, July 7. Both teams made good use of southerly winds to cover much of the distance to Ketchikan during the day, with Fix Oder Nix able to widen its lead as the day progressed.
Earlier in the day, R2AK Race Boss Daniel Evans talked about the difficult conditions experienced by participants in this year’s race — the first since 2019.
“It was a trying year,” Evans said. “With (the final two boats) coming in, only 53% of the teams that started in Port Townsend (Washington) are making it. ... That’s hard work. The logs this year were really tremendous, the weather took its toll on some of the smaller boats. And the first day out of Port Townsend was brutal, just brutal — a number of teams didn’t make it past that first day.
“It’s exactly what everyone thinks it is,” Evans continued. “It’s a race to Alaska on a boat without an engine and it’s a lot of work. I think the statistics proved throughout this year that it was tough.”
Ketchikan Daily News writer Kody Malouf contributed to this story.
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