Drakes Bay - Sunday - main race course

Fog lifts up on the race course but we can see it over the city in the distance.

Photos courtesy of Nathan

Drakes Bay - race part 1 - Sunday morning - the Fog

Racing alongside the big boats and keeping up!! In light air, and particularly in swell, one crew will often sit on the boom to prevent the main sail from flapping around. Keeping it full and out will help the boat go faster!

Fog in the morning and light air...Deja-vu!!

Photos courtesy of Nathan

Drakes Bay - Sunday morning - nice ballet

The boats were on two different tacks.

Photos courtesy of Nathan

Drakes Bay - Sunday - The Start

Finally we were off - the start line was a bit confusing as it was supposed to be between the committee boat and a point on land. Turned out to be a committee boat/pin line.

Slow start. Nat and NathanD took the first shift. Required a lot of attention as the wind was very light. There was enough to fill the spinnaker though so Elise was going at a pretty good clip.

Giving you a view of our competition too (J105, 1D35, etc...)

Photos courtesy of Nathan

Drakes Bay - Sunday morning - getting ready for the start

On Sunday  night, the cows walked toward the Bay side to check out the boat. We were their local 'train'. The only unfortunate thing about that is that they brought a very characteristic odor with them. It feels so strange, sitting on a boat and smelling of fresh pastures and mountains.

On Sunday morning, the Bay was misty again - we broke the raft and other boats lifted anchor, putting up sails and getting ready for the start. We weren't too late to our start this time around...and it looks like the other boats in our division slept in a little because even though we crossed the line a min or so after the gun (yes...we were a little late...) we were the only boat crossing the line at that time.

Photos courtesy of Nathan

Anchoring (rafting up) in Drakes Bay - Saturday night

On Elise, we had split up the responsibilities for the various meals.
Nat: sandwich for Sat lunch, snacks and drinks
Heather: Sat dinner
Nathan: Sunday breakfast
NateD: Sunday lunch

There was one feature of Red Sky which was very inviting....the grill :-))

Quiet - a boat at anchor

I had never done Drakes Bay and it is a fabulous camping trip!!! (and you get anywhere between 30 to 50 miles of downwind/reach on the Sunday, depending on where the race committee decides to send you)

Photos courtesy of Nathan

Drakes Bay - Saturday - arrival at Drakes Bay

The arrival is beautiful. The closer you get to the Bay, the better you smell the cows...

By then, we had put up the genoa again and we tacking our way to the finish line. The wind was feeble but there was plenty for the boat to move which was fantastic. Pretty long day (30+ miles) so people were tired by then.

Drakes Bay - Saturday upwind leg - fog lifts up and wind picks up

Photos courtesy of Nathan

The fog finally lifted up and the wind picked up. We even had to take down the genoa at some point and switched to the jib. When the evening came, we had to do the reverse operation.

Since we had started so late, we had pretty much written off that day from a result perspective and were trying to give an opportunity to everyone to steer and trim, as an offshore practice and 'get to know to the boat' day. Rather surprised to hear of a 2nd place result!

Drakes Bay - part 1 - The Fog

Photos courtesy of Nathan

After we went under the gate where it was nice and sunny, we entered a very foggy and windless area. This helped us catch up with the other boats that were parked there (remember that we started 35 min late).

Fortunately there was a strong ebb current (as you can see on the channel marker pictured above) which helped us round Point Bonita very nicely.

This part of the Saturday upwind leg was pretty much:

• stay super still on the boat
• weight to leeward
• try not to move the tiller instead actively trim the genoa
• actively trim the main
• eat popcorn