Plenty of wind tonight! And unlike Tuesday, mother nature reminded us that Autumn is just two days away. Long pants and sweaters worn by all except the most hardy (Bert and me :-)), We had the #2 up with a full mainsail, and it took both David and Skootch to manage the gusts. Up on the foredeck some strange tall dutch guy showed up. He seemed to know what he was doing, so we left him up there (and David went forward to pitch in for the big maneuvers).
The net result was a very physical and very satisfying night on the water with some very memorable moments:
- Perfectly timed start in clear air at the middle of the line
- Holding our lane on Battlewagon for a long drag race. Eventually they nosed ahead and we tacked away
- Crash tack to avoid Legacy. Too bad I didn’t spot them earlier or we could have dipped them neatly. This cost us some precious boat lengths, but we recovered quickly. The crew was awesome responding quickly to a tack with absolutely no warning — I just had to turn the boat to avoid T-boning Legacy.
- Finding a big Tartan in irons at the windward mark. Good thing we got a nice lift and could steer around them!
- A fantastic, long and fast Spinnaker run with top speed of 8.6 knots. We quickly overtook Battlewagon and then Sandpiper who both left their kites in their bags. We made up ground on Legacy, but they were still well ahead
- Smooth jibe with sheets and guys
- A hasty, but flawless douse that gave us a nice lane leaving the leeward mark. Legacy was ahead but to leeward…for a while, I believed we had a shot at them, but they out-pointed us to finish ahead.
- Claiming a very satisfying third place finish.
We were all happy and excited, and feeling great. Nearly everyone had gone for a spill on the wet and slopey deck, and we needed three attempts to dock properly in the strong easterly breeze, but no harm came from any of that, and we chatted long after dark, savouring the inner glow.