The plan was to take some of Mandy’s old friends out for a cruise to see if they enjoyed the whole sailing thing. We all met at th club and proceeded to go sailing.  It was Mandy, her old friends and their two boys, their cousins from out of town, and their two kidos…and me.  We had 10 on the boat…I was not sure that many could fit.

Wind was great going out and we cruised the lake just flying the main.  We then headed back and noticed that the wind was a bit light, so we put up the 100.  It got us moving…then the wind really died.  We took down the 100 and put up the 155.

Then the wind really died.  We were just sitting there…I am not sure what happened, all day the wind was coming from the north and then all of a sudden the wind started to come in from the south.  And I mean it started to BLOW! Took down the Genny…and tried to make it back to the club with the main.  And if I had my choice we would have reefed that too!  I mean it was blowing…

Appearently the club memebers could see what was happening  and were taking bets on whether we could make it back safely.  WE DID…got the boat tied up and waited for what was to be a KILLER storm that was coming through.

Mandy’s friends escaped to the safety of their cars and headed home.  The regular crew (Dwight, Jamie, Mandy, and Sheryl) decided to wait out the storm to help me put back the boat.  Richy Rich, his new GF Lyn, and her mother were there too.  We all headed into the club and found out that the race had been postponed.

I was not giving up though.  Afterall, it is TEXAS!  Wait 20 minutes and the weather will change!  So it took a little over 20 minutes, but the storm went away…we headed to the boat to drink all the booze we had brought.

I think we were over compensating since the last couple of weeks we stated to run a bit short at the end of the night.  I think there was about 4 or 5 cases of beer…thats a lot of beer for what was to be a 3 hour cruise…even for 8 people!

Mark (barking fish) also joined us at the boat, and we had Yummy Chicken salad that Mandy made while drinking the beer!  All of a sudden we looked up and the sky was Sunny!  Let’s GO people…we rigged the boat and went out for our booze cruise and race…the race committe canceled the race, but we still had our BC…

We even picked up Shannon from Chandliers…Mark brought in the boat to the dock, and she jumped right in…we didn’t even stop! Wooooohoooooooooo….

We proceeded to lose the new pee bucket Sheryl had bought…that’s two in two weeks…

As we headed home, the wind died and we didn’t get back to RCYC till 1 in the morning.  Left the boat in the water…and headed home.  I had been at the club since 3 in the afternoon.  I was DONE!

Ok…Dwight and I took pics and they are now up at the new Picasa Album for the boat…the address is http://pics.MySpeedster.INFO

Pictures don't do her Justice, THE NEW NAV LIGHT!

WooooHooooooooooooooooooooo…We raised Dwight up the mast today and he fixed the NAV light…WE ARE LEGAL BABY!!!  No more “Borrowing” a light.  We also removed the babystay and got some other minor repairs done.

All this so that we can race tonight and not have to come in after the race.  Let me first say, that I am an idiot.  I might have made a couple of tactical errors during last night’s race.  But, what the Hell was going on at the start…I am not sure how that worked, but we got off to a decent start.  Heck we even got to the first mark in a timely manner…from there on things did not go too well.  I might have yelled out something to Barking Fish, when the was no reason for it.  Its just that we were going downwind, and it looked like he was coming across us going the other way kinda.  You’re confused?  No, apparently I was the confused…I had a lesson thought to me by Mark, and I might have touched his boat with part of my spinnaker.  OK so I did…he protested…I didn’t correctly do my penalty turns…we pretty much might have been DQed… I am not sure what happens. Learned my lessons.

We didn’t quite make it back to the club with the rest of the fleet.  We wanted to test out our new/fixed nav light!!!   Did I say how bright that LED bulb is, I think you might be able to see it from the International Space Station.  We cruised across the lake for hours, staring at the LED light, listening to country music, singing, and maybe having a couple of drinks!  We must have been a bit loud though, the people on the RCYC Deck didn’t care too much for our  singing.

Anyways, the Saturday night races are a blast.  You wanna see pictures? Click here…

We were ready for the race this week.  We had 4 out of 5 crew on the boat when we left the dock at RCYC.  Even picked up Bruce from Swale before the prep warning.  I am telling you, we were on the right track.

OK, we were on the right track until they announced the course.  Downwind start?  With 16 boats…a little hairy.  We went against the grain and started on a Port Tack and Gybed soon after the mark…not exactly what you would call GENIUS tactics.  We didn’t hit a boat, and we actually got out pretty good. 

The first and last rounding was great…genoa went up, chute came in, we were moving.  Maybe came across a little early, and that is when things went not so good.  Apparently there was better wind closer to the shore, and we headed away  from there.  Swale stayed there and proceeded to kick the living crap out of us, and the whole fleet.  On every crossing they were getting further and further away from us.   They came in 2nd overall, we came in 6th.  Have to give the Swale crew credit.  They kicked us around like a soccer ball.

As customary, we ended up at the ROAD KILL CAFE and the crew of Speedster cooked burgers and brauts for everyone…YUMMY! After filling our tummies, we needed to head back to RCYC…we might have or not stolen a Nav Light…and I might have forgotten to return that thing.  OOPS!!!  We really need to get the mast light fixed.  Dwight and I are working on it on Saturday.

Pics?  Of coarse we have pics, thanks to Dan on Orion! Click Here.

So we ended up only having the three of us on the boat.  It actually worked out OK…we could have used a bit more weight on the rail, but we launched the chute like champs.  Who needs a crew of 5, when 3 can do it.  Actually I was very impressed with the whole night.  Three months ago, I would have never thought we could handle the boat with three.  Kick Ass.  We almost did catch Swale, but they did keep their position.  That was some fantastic downwind sailing.  They absolutely killed it!

As is customary after the Wed Night races, we docked the boat at bayview and started the BBQ Party.  Look as Scott manning the grill…I would call him the Official HamburgerHelper…We ate, had a couple of beers and decided to take Speedy back to RCYC.  Shannon came along for the ride.  We might have or not “borrowed” a bow light from a boat.  Safety First Kids. I can say that if I had borrowed a light from a boat, I did also return it. Overall I think last night was a great sail…we just need to leave RCYC a bit early.