On the waves: What the Bayview Mackinac Race was like for boaters

that our Fox 2 crew was hanging out at Mackinac Island, where we were showing you the awesome looking bridge. It looks like the air quality is getting better there. And hey, it's not a rumor. We actually really are right in Mackinac. Our very own Fox 2's Lauren Edwards is setting sail. Is that what you're doing, Lauren? Friends, it's not a rumor. I'm actually here in Mackinac Island covering the Bay View Mackinac Rays. Ronya, it's been so much fun. Outside of me and Brett Lee Dickey, our dear photojournalist, fighting, even though we get along so well. It's been great. And I want to show you, can I quickly introduce you to two friends? I've got two Canadian friends here. I'm so excited. This is Dalton right here, and this is Jonah. Guys, how much fun are you having? We're having a lot more fun now. Yeah, it's definitely nice to be on the island. It was a long, brutal race for the first half, so. And you were out there. Let's talk about this long, brutal race for the first half. Tell me what happened. I'll start with you. Yeah, sure. So we started Saturday afternoon. We finished at 6 a.m., 11 a.m. this morning. It was like 41 hours. The first kind of 12 hours was right into the wind, kind of 60 kilometer per hour winds, which is what, like 30, 35 miles an hour. 12 foot waves. It was just perfect, kind of right for people to get seasick and break stuff. And it was definitely kind of tough. Was it tough and scary? It was very tough and scary. And we're just thankful that we managed to get through without breaking anything and relatively unscathed. This is, in my lifetime, this is kind of a historic race in the fact that almost, what, 40, 50% of the boats that started didn't even finish. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, they broke something. Their crew was seasick. They just had to kind of turn back and go home or find the nearest port and, you know, get to dock. That was only like 193 started. And then by Sunday morning, like 85. Yeah, that's right. Hadn't dropped out, right? A normal amount for like a tough Mac is like max, like 10 boats dropping out. So 80, yeah, 80 plus is pretty unprecedented. And it wasn't for nothing either. People were breaking their masts. They keep the sails up and, you know, holes in the hulls and it was pretty intense. That is, oh yeah, that's really scary. And also too, we'll keep it clean, but there was some puking things came up, uptown, right? Oh yeah, over the side of the boat. Five out of six of us. This is the only one that managed it through unscathed. Yeah, some, yeah. But you're going like this, like pretty hard. And those waves are very harsh, right? Absolutely, yeah. We were pounding. They looked like just cliff faces coming at you, you know, these 12 footers. 12 footers every once in a while. On average, it was about six feet, but about every like five minutes or so, you'd get a big 12 footer or two combined. And the whole time you're racing, right? So you're not just trying to get through them and stay safe. You're trying to just pound into it and keep the boat moving as quick as you can, right? Did at any moment you guys freak out that maybe, maybe, you know, you guys are gonna get like turned over or you guys aren't gonna make it? It's not our first rodeo. And we've sailed in harder conditions, but this is one of the longest, like prolonged difficult conditions we've sailed in. So that's what made it like especially hard. And I can see why a lot of boats made the call to like, you know, protect their crew and stay safe. You're definitely always worried about breaking things. Like, especially the boat was built in 1979. Some of these rigging systems are getting older, but we were more concerned about just like crew morale and people wanting to turn back. Cause you look at your clock, you got 12 hours of just pure misery slamming into these waters, getting splashed every two seconds, you know? But yeah. Well, thanks for sharing your story with us. Wow, I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here ashore. Thanks for having us. Have some bubbly, go to the Pink Pony, have a good time. Ronya, I'm going to send things back to you. Lauren, real quick, before we go, how fast are these boats going? How fast are the boats going? How fast were they going? I don't know, maybe like seven, seven, six, maybe? 7.6 miles per hour. I think the max speed we hit was probably nine miles per hour. A lot of it, when there's no wind, you're doing like two miles per hour. Not nine miles per hour, two when there's no wind. Yeah. All right, there you go. We could probably run there faster.