Easy come....
2002-06-20

Ah yes things are not always as they seem. When I left work he sun was out and the wind very light. It was going to be an easy night on the race course. I left a little early and headed right to the club to try to scoff up one of the precious end slips. Then the music stops on the radio and that damn emergency broadcast system beeeeeeeeep comes on. There is a massive thunderstorm right over our house. Puppy is deathly afraid of thunder. I call M.E. who is also on her way home. She put puppy out for the day. Oops

So she tries to rush home but the traffic is awful. I head for the boat but the traffic is awful. UGH. She gets to the house before I get to the boat. Puppy is MIA. She figures he paniced and broke lose or maybe just died from fright. She starts calling his name and a big black nose pokes its way out of the dog house that he NEVER has used before. He is soaking wet and shaking but fine. So she dries him off and life goes on.

I get down to the boat finally and it is pouring rain and the sky is black, really black. I check out the slip situation, one left. The launch is out so I get some ice and wait. Finally he shows up and the driver gives me this look, like.. You want to go out now? Yes, I do. I got drenched. I was so wet that by the time I got to the boat there was no reason to put on my foul weather gear. I iced up the beer and got the boat into the dock and then went home to dry off. The rain is tapering off and the wind is completely gone.

We start setting up for racing and waiting on crew. I hate waiting... We all discuss the lack of wind and get the new light sail on deck. We are missing three people. I find three replacements and cast off a few minutes late. Of course the three show up and we have to head back. UGH! Now we are really late and way over crewed for the light air. We have to motor about 4 miles to the starting area. I've got it floored. We get there just in time to see the A class start. There is a huge pile up at the starting bouy, lots of screaming and yelling. The we see a person in the water amidst all the charging boats. Someone on Relentless has fallin in. The chase boat goes over and eventually pulls them out. Scary.

The wind of which there was none is now blowing 18. Too much for the light sail so we make a change. It goes smoothly. The extra people now come in handy as extra weight to keep the boat flat. Something was wrong with our starting sequence and as we head for the line the gun goes off a minute early. There is a big pile up at our mark too. Three boats including Evil 42 for the second week in a row get stuffed out. We start clean but late for the second week in a row. UGH!!! As soon as we get a clean lane, we tack into clean air and the favored side of the course. We are moving well and gaining ground fast. Soon, only Evil 42 and us are around. But of corse things change. The wind starts to get lighter, and lighter. Evil 42 reaches the first mark 5 seconds ahead of us. We both bear off down wind in good shape until a spinnaker boat comes bearing in right at us. I figure we are ok, but Evil panics, causes the other boat to do some radical stuff and us to have to do the same. Evil and Spinnaker yell a lot. We keep sailing.

The right side looks good early and we pull ahead. Of course things are not always as they seem. The wind gets lighter and lighter and we switch sails yet again. What little breeze threre is comes in from the left. DAMN!! We are barely moving. The extra weight isn't helping either. The boats in the back are slowly gaining. We work hard, do our best, but finish fourth out of the ten entries. Not great... I should have sailed hotter angles and probably sat on Evil most of the race. live and learn. It's late, the sun has gone down and by the time we get everything put away it is almost ten. We hit the club for drinks and results. I thank the crew, invite one of the three new people back next week and have a beer. We finally leave at 11:00,go home, eat and sleep, ahhh sleep. Damn I hate the alarm clock.

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