Spring race 4
2003-05-14

It was cold and windy and wet, so it must be Tuesday right? The clouds were so black I had the crew turn on the running lights. We complained about no wind last week, well we were making up for it in spades.

I was showing 28 apparent and we headed for the commitee boat to get the course. The course flag was wrapped around the backstay and we couldn't make it out. I yelled at the RC chair to open up the flag but instead she hold up fingers. Fingers? We're doing 7 freaking knots under just the main and I'm expected to see fingers? Finally she yells ten. We look up ten, it makes sense we sail away and await our gun.

This was easily our bvest start of the season. We stuff one boat, zip around the favored can end and hit the line at full speed exactly as the gun goes off. We are launched We're higher and faster than the rest of the fleet and pull out ot a huge lead hit the first mark perfectly, jibe and head down wind.

Nice huh? Not exactly.... As we pass the starting line, we notice the spin boats are not sailing the same course as us. There was only one flag set, oops... The course wasn't ten, it was nine and we are now in last place.

I blame myself for not demanding that the flag be held out. The RC person said she didn't do it because she was afraid she had put it up upside down. (She had)

We we jibe again, head back upwind and head for the wing mark, all our hard work for nothing. We rounded last but right behind a little 28 footer. I pull up inside and he tries to take us up. Stupid move. I give him two choices, head down and keep your speep up and well be by in a minute, or keep it up, get rolled and we'll be by in a minute. He chooses two and basicly when we are done, he is stopped and in our wind shadow. Silly rabbit...

We reel in all but one boat by the next mark and pass him on the next leg. We start to add distance, but there just isn't enough time left. Still, we try... Just as we are coming up the last leg, the sun comes out and the sky becomes, well sort of indescribable. I've never seen a sky that purple and there were bars of rainbow stuck in them. Even the trees were so green it almost hurt to look at them. Amazing...

We got the gun and waited.. The second boat finished 4 minutes behind, enough to correct out. We lost our first race of the spring. Still a second after all that crap wasn't so bad I guess. We'll get them next time.

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