Not quite sure what went wrong with this race...Late start but we were one of the first boats to host the spinnaker (Yes! on the way out!!), slowly catching up to boats. We tacked away from the North shore (and the no wind area) and kept going where the wind seemed to be, kicking ass.
The wind then started to drop and we weren't sure whether it would pick up from the North West as planned or not. It seemed to be taking forever and wouldn't want to just fill from the right direction. looking at the boat further North, there didn't seem to be any wind on that side of the course.
We narrowly avoided a ship (we were well clear and out of the channel, just impressive to be so close to a big tanker) but that didn't really take us off course.
We had a few minutes of dueling with Diane, and then for some reason seems to just be stuck in the same place for 20 minutes...Not going anywhere and no breeze in heavy swell was a little 'barfy' (Nathan's description but my experience) - things were fine again as soon as the boat started moving again. By then, though, we had lost 20 minutes. I am still not sure where those went. We were further South than a lot of boats by then (part of it was our bet, the other part was kind of bad timing) so this can explain the discrepancy between us and other boats.
However, there is no reason why we fell behind Diane and Witchy Woman that I can find! Maybe just a bad day...or just losing concentration. Or again, feeling so elated that we kind of lost track of the race? Not sure.
We had a really nice downwind, kissed the South shore up until the bridge (to benefit from favorable current) , and Witchy Woman went the other way at that point, despite them having to cross the channel, in heavy ebb, they were still faster than we were and beat us to the finish.
Don't let this post mislead you - disappointed by the finish because we started strong and can totally do better. I have this nagging feeling that it is something that I did that kind of made us take a turn for the worse...but I can't pinpoint it. So apologies Nathan!
The fact that we could keep the spinnaker full nearly 1/3 of the way up to the lightship and then all the way down to the finish, surfing up and passing much larger boats was so much fun, that I even forgot that I hadn't had lunch...It was kind of a mini-Pac Cup. The waves were just perfect for the day. Overall, I had a great time and I wouldn't have traded that day for anything in the world.
France forges ahead
A little duel with Witchy Woman I think
Things were looking up at that time...Purchased from Lyons Imaging (www.lyonsimaging.com)
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