Audrey's delicious hand-made roti didn't last long

Skipper Ron a bit unhappy when told he shouldn't have chocolate before dinner

Bar kisses! This may or may not be Audrey's last Wednesday night race...ever?! We are in denial.

She sure won't miss the cooking! Tartar sauce anyone?

CREW
Foredeck - Audrey, Kathleen, Nansi, Pam
Main Sheet - Susan
Winches - Steve & Jay
Tiller - Skipper Ron
That's right, a crew of EIGHT. All active crew showed up! That might be a first.

THE RACE
This is the second last Wednesday night race of the year and started 30 minutes earlier than normal. To ensure everyone was able to make it we organized a special VIP crew pick up on the city side for Steve, Susan, and Jay at 5:20. As the Island contingent of Ron, Pam, Kathleen, and Audrey were preparing Circe to leave the mooring we got an email that Nansi was miraculously free tonight to sail and was on the 4:45 club boat. We waited a few extra minutes and Nansi jumped on board. We then went to pick up the others.
On the way across the Bay we managed to clear the weeds off the prop by a strong reversal so Skipper Ron was spared diving on the prop on a cool evening.
Not our most stellar race. All the usual competitors were out. We were a mass of indecision before the start as to what jib to fly. The forecast was for 8 knots out of the NW but the wind strength was very light out of the south when we went out so we rigged up the light #1. And then increased to 8 knots out of the SE shortly after so we switched to the heavy #1. Then it seemed to drop again so we switched back to the light #1 and decided to stick with that. But the wind didn't cooperate and increased again to 8+ knots for much of the race. That poor light jib was severely stressed at times going up wind and in those conditions may not have been our fastest sail.
The course was a buoys to starboard triangle 2X around. There was a mix up on flags at the start so we didn't start the time sequence until 3 minutes left and we got caught below Abra and much of the rest of the fleet with 2 minutes left. In an attempt to get back to the line in time we were forced to gybe around away from the line and found we couldn't even lay the line on starboard tack. and were below the rest of our fleet. We had to tack to clear the line then tack back again soon after to avoid Kokoro on starboard and then were forced to sail in dirty air for much of that tack. We were in last place but managed to cross Kokoro when we tacked back to port tack again to clear our air. So we were second last. Then the wind did finally die as we approached the weather mark and we watched the boats ahead pull away even more on the second leg.
But we did manage to reel in both Alpha Omega and Veloce by the last leg and got just ahead of Veloce at the finish and about a boat length behind Alpha Omega.

THE RESULTS
We finished 6th on corrected time just 1 second behind Veloce, 8 seconds behind Alpha, and 14 seconds behind Abra. Close but still a 6th.
That leaves us with 10 points for the series assuming we don't sail next week and that's our drop race. Blue Streak now has 10 points too with one drop race. But if next week's race is cancelled for any reason our drop race becomes this race and we win the series handily with 4 bullets. If next weeks race is held and BS wins that gives them 11 points with their one drop race so we still win.
But I'm always nervous of the math in these situation so to ensure our win Circe could race next week without R&P and if we do better than a 6th that would mean we could drop the 6th and that should ensure our win. More to follow on this option.

Skipper Ron