Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Boy could I use a Wednesday trip around the buoys to break this work  
week up! A full crew is signed on; wait, Peter can't show, no problem,  
Eric's ride is bailing and needs a ride; wait Peter CAN make it  
afterall, uh oh overbooked it now. No, check that, now something's  
interfering with Eric's plans. Fine. Five. Whitecaps. Building breeze  
forecast. Perfect.
 
Scott, dammit, you're right again, it's so humbling to be wrong!  
Headsail change, bring up the whomper, winds are fading on us.  
Quickly! Five minutes to start!
 
Now if there's a single thing that this skipper knows about racing a  
sailboat, it's choosing the favored end of a severely biased starting  
line. Port side, ready yourself for Swale. Now if there's a single  
thing that this skipper is entirely incompetent about racing a  
sailboat, it's timing the port end of a starting line WITHOUT getting  
run down by a fleet of like-minded skippers. Tuna, is it really  
necessary to to push us out of a perfectly timed start EVERY SINGLE  
WEEK? Sheesh. Not pretty. Not elegant. One 360 and a port tack duck  
(quack quack!) underneath Maui girl, my perfectly amateur skills were  
under full display. But the Swale crew is top notch, they can pull me  
out of this one like they have on so many other previous  
occasions...that is true, right??? Let's roll, tack to starboard.
 
What the foxtrot??!! Why won't the the mainsheet traveler move? What  
are all these little balls falling out and rolling around in the  
cockpit?! Uh oh. Well, it's holding. For now. Don't touch it! On the  
layline, time to tack back to port. CRACK!! Hey guys, back here, got a  
little problem, mind lending me a helping hand once you tame that  
headsail? Mandy says "Tie that traveler down, we're finishing this  
race!" Aye aye, as you were Swale.
 
Well I'm not gonna lie, we were simply not to be a force on the course  
tonight. And after narrowing, but not quite closing the gap on our  
good foe Silver Wings, the good ship Swale DID manage to overtake both  
Maui Girl and Hotsy Totsy.
 
We'll be back for blood next week. :)
 
 

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Can not believe it. Left the spinnaker sail at home. How will Swale  
even be the slightest bit competitive in tonight's zephyr? My very  
crew. Peter Powers. His Catalina 25 would be happy to lend her  
neighbor a perfectly good spinnaker, yeah? Sure enough, and it's  
superior to Swale's. Could be tonight's secret weapon ;)
 
So we're excited. Speedster is coming down from RCYC to play tonight.  
He REALLY wants a piece of Swale, and my nerves are seriously on edge  
anticipating the shootout. Except the north wind is becalmed down at  
Rush Creek. No Speedster to mix it up with after all tonight.
 
Well as I said, north wind, downwind start. All we've gotta do is make  
the favored port end before everyone else for a golden start. Rented  
Mule, I swear that you are NOT sailing a proper course! But you're  
just as happy as a clam in a shell to push up Swale and a half dozen  
others toward the starboard end, aren't you? 

And that is so BRILLIANT! Sometimes luck trumps a well conceived plan. No boats to muck up the fresher breeze over here on starboard. We're rockin', the remainder of the fleet is stalled, regretting their mass congregation over on the port end.

But today's race is one for the snails; no amount of embellishment can
turn this story into one of thrills. In lieu of Speedster, tonight's
nemesis, that surreptitious Sonar 23 that gives us fits periodically,
maintained her commanding lead on Swale for all but the final rounding
and sprint to the finish. A five second edge for 3rd. Nice.