Well, for once there was very little doubt about what jib to put up last race. There wasn't much wind before the start and even less after, so we went with the light #1. Circe was short handed for the first time all season but we picked a good night for that. Audrey was on her own on the foredeck. Pam was on the main, Kathleen was with Steve on the winches, and yours truly was helming yet again. Kathleen went forward to assist Audrey with the pole as required.
Blue streak was away on holiday but Abra and Veloche were out. It was buoys to Starboard and a heavily pin end favoured line. Abra and Veloche got to the pin first but early. Abra forced Veloche to the wrong side of the mark but had to bear away to avoid crossing early. That left a nice space for Circe to sneak into right at the pin. A good start but the J-80 got the jug at the wrong end of the line at the committee boat. We hung onto the starboard tack with Abra to leeward. But Abra was going slightly faster and slightly higher, so when it got to the point where we felt we were getting some backwind we tacked onto port and Abra did the same to windward of us. We carried on to the lay line not wanting to tack before Abra and giving her the opportunity to cover us. When we were past the lay line and starting to get close to the Sharks coming down on the next leg it looked like Abra would have difficulty tacking and avoiding them we went over. Abra hung on a little further before she could tack. We picked up a nice little breeze coming from the gap and picked up to almost 2 knots both speed and Abra stopped dead. We rounded the weather mark first in our division with Abra and Veloche well behind.
Then the wind died completely. At one point Veloche was pointing backwards having lost all steerage way. We inched along for an hour trying to use every available ounce of wind from all points of the compass to keep Circe moving along. The tension and monotony was only broken by Allan Rae on Voules Vous ahead of us going ass over tea kettle into the water when the life line he was leaning against gave way. He then swam to the back of the boat, climbed up the ladder, and sat down where he had been like nothing happened. Abra got bored and dropped out, we picked up a little zepher and managed to streak across the line at 1 knot. Veloche finished some time later.
So, Circe picked up another bullet and is comfortably in second place for the series. If we can pick up another bullet next week we could win the series.
So, who's on for next week?
Skipper Ron