CREW
Audrey & Katheen - foredeck
Susan - main sheet
Nansi & Jay - jib winches
Ron - steering and incomprehensible unhelpful bleating and whimpering in times of crisis
Pam - laid up with her hand injury
THE RACE
The forecast was for light air but there was a nice breeze on the bay when we left the dock. The usual suspects were out, Blue Streak, Abracadabra, Veloce, Alpha Omega, and Amelia. The course was windward leeward 4x around.,We held off on jib selection as long as we could but when we got out there it was a pretty steady 10 knot breeze out of the east so we opted for the heavy #1.
We were a little early at the start line but so was Abra to leeward so we both ran the line for a few seconds before hardening on to a fairly good start in the middle of the line. Veloce was to weather and Alpha to weather of that. Then we noticed the ferry coming from Wards to the City on an intersecting course. We watched it closely as it converged and decided the likelihood of crossing it was diminishing by the second. We called for room to tack on Veloce and Alpha and tacked onto port and they followed suit.
We got to the weather mark third behind BS and Abra but not far behind. It was wing and wing to the leeward mark and Alpha was sitting on our transom in a fading breeze but we stayed high on the mark to frustrate an inside overlap and rounded just ahead of Alpha with Veloce not far behind her. We stayed on port tack into the island and Alpha and Veloce tacked over to starboard. The wind was dropping so we rigged the light #1 inside the heavy and rigged the light sheets. We almost got it perfect. We then tacked to cover Alpha and Veloce and dropped the heavy #1 and stayed on starboard. We hadn't lost too much on the sail change because after both Alpha and Veloce tacked onto port we managed to just cross them on starboard, then we tacked soon after for the mark. Then we discovered the one thing we hadn't got perfect.
In the macrame of weaving the new jib sheets between shrouds, lifelines, and the old sheets, the starboard sheet had got lead under the lifelines and we couldn't sheet it in. On went the breaks. Circe crew got it sorted out as in pretty quick order despite the distracting bleating and whimpering of the Skipper but both Alpha and Veloce had got ahead and rounded the mark in front. The course was shortened to 2x around.
In the now almost airless conditions Amelia ghosted around the mark behind us and came within a boat length. But our light #1 paid dividends again as it was filling when other sails around us weren't. We pulled away from Amelia, passed to leeward of Veloce, managed to close the gap with Alpha but in the end couldn't catch her.
RESULTS
Much to our amazement we finished second on corrected time behind Alpha Omega. Blue Streak was third, Veloce 4th, Abra 5th, ans Amelia 6th.
Again, Well done Circe Crew!
Skipper Ron
POST SCRIPT
On the way in we picked up Adam in the RS400 he was sailing in and towed them to the dinghy dock in the now completely windless night. But much to our embarrassment he came to the Circe crew table after in the Great hall with a pitcher of beer for us all in appreciation. Circe Crew did not go thirsty that night. Except for Kathleen that is. Thank you Adam. But don't do that again.