Red faced, and not just because of the sun
2002-09-23

Tell me why, I don't like Mondays..

It's going to be a tough day. I was really tired after racing all day. My face dispite sun screen is red as a beet except for the racoon like circles from my sun glasses. And to top it all off, we had thunderstorms all night so puppy was crazed and we all didn't get much sleep. Sigh..

We spent most of the day Saturday stripping out the boat for yesterdays big team race. One of M.E.s friends was in town to ge ther hair done (don't ask) and she stopped by the boat to check it out. Ann, is a serious runner and has the legs to prove it. With her new doo, she looked good too. She and M.E. chatted while I continued to work getting stuff taken care of.

I had promised Neil I'd help him move the Chins boat (Chin is in Bermuda) from the marina next door where it was dropped off after a charter back to his slip at the club. Ann had never been out on a boat so we invited her along. Of course Neil wanted to go sailing, and I hadn't been in a week so we ended up taking the scenic route and sailed for a couple of hours. Nice except it was hot and Chins cooler was empty. M.E. drove and did a pretty good job. Ann loved the feeling and got hooked. Looks like thay and a bunch of co-workers will be joining a week from Sunday for a play day. When we got back, I finished my chores, we unloaded the truck at home, went out for dinner and had an early night.

The weather for yesterdays team race was great. We had to tow out one of our team mates on a J-22 out to the start, about 8 miles. I really didn't even notice he was there until we hit a big wake and snapped the tow line... oops.. The rest of the delivery was uneventful.

We checked in with the Race Commitee and we notice that the starting line is WAY short. We have 18 boats all of them local hot shots in our class and this looks to be VERY ugly. It was... When the gun went off the entire line was filled with boats and there just weren't any holes. We were trying desperately to make the pin end of the line and going slow in bad air. suddenly a hole opened up and we tacked on port, ducked one boat and were on our way. We headed right. A good chunk of the fleet went left. We were sailing a double winward leeward (up down, up down, finish) and by the time we got to the upwind mark we realized the the boats to the left had made out MUCH better. Sigh...

We jibbed around the mark third and set the pole which promptly collapsed. We set it again and again it let go. Damn... I picked up an extra guy just to be a Mr Fix it kind of person and I got the right one. Rod got some line and managed to lash the pole open. It worked for the rest of the race.

We got the lead back on the down wind side and slowly gained ground. We had several lengths on the second place boat in 18 knots true and choppy waters. Up wind we had problems again. We couldn't get the damn back stay tight enough and head stay sag was killing our ability to go up wind. We went the right way this time but didn't gain any ground. Not much changed on the last leg. We were heading right to the commitee boat and getting ready to roll a J-22. We would have killed him... Except he was one of ours. I tacked and then had to tack again. he made the committe boat, we lost probably a minute. We got the gun, but knew we were going to correct out poorly. I was hoping for third, we ended up 6th. Yeech. At least Charlie thanked us for getting out of the way, still, I was disapointed.

Then we had sandwiches and water tighened up the turnbuckle on the backstay some and waited for the slow boats to finish. The second race the start was even uglier. It was a total free for all with boats every where. After almost running over a J-24 we hit a hole and had a perfect start, until we heard the horn. Somebody was over early. Well it wasn't us, we kept going. Except thay they called a general recall, well sort of. They didn't do it right. When they finally fired a gun, we figured they were trying to fix their mistake and postpone. But they only fired one, not two. WTF? At the next gun we set our watches. Sailed behind the line and started to jockey for position. With one minute to go, a gun went off and at least half the fleet started, and they were right. Damn... No we are scrambling.

We head for the line at full speed and are aiming for the commitee boat. Maria on the bow yells something, but I can't hear her. then I see it, a little blue boat right in front and dead in the water. I yell tacking and swing the helm over. the jib gets released just in time and we barly miss sinking this guy.

We complete the circle, finally start and head right again. We're deep and only going around once. We're also in the dreaded right side again. Ugh, well we finally get a lane and head left. We start picking off boats and are moving OK. Then the wind starts to die. Not good. We rounded the windward mark 4th and the two boats from Barrington are taking turns sitting on us. We finally break free and move right where there is breeze. We gain some, and pass all but one boat. At the bottom mark, the other boat goes right, we go left back into the breeze we sailed down in. We made out. He got to the line barely ahead. we were second to finish and corrected out to fourth.

The wind had died almost completely and we motored home. The cold Sam lights really hit the spot and I polished off three or four on the 45 minute ride. then we hung around the club waiting for results. When they finally came the news wasn't good. In both classes, we finished second to our bitter rivals Barrington. Sigh... It was close in both cases. Here, close does not count. We'll get them next year. Maybe...

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