We left the boat at RCYC when the race got canceled. So today we had to take it back to Chandler’s for the race. As soon as I got the motor up and running, Peter found some wind and we started hauling down. Just my luck.

The Start- I hit the start mark. Had to go around and try that again. Giranimo proceeded to do the same thing. By the time we got an offical start, we were so far behind. Popped the chute and started heading towards the first mark. I hate that mark… I am not sure why, but I am just not a big fan of it. We rounded and stalled the boat. I mean we were not going anywhere…we just sat there.

I am having issues reaching on that boat in light wind. I think maybe the sails are trimmed in too tight. Dwight tried to rig up the VMG spin, but it was a short leg and by the time it was done, we were too close to the second mark. I looked behind us…there was not a single boat back there. Somehow we were in dead last again. Son of a BITCH!

Rounded the mark, tightned up the boat and all of a sudden we started to speed up to the third mark. We were headed right for it, didn’t even have to tack one time. And we were fast, we started passing boats. Really!

Came to the third mark and saw Swale going down to the finish. They had us by at least 10 or 20 boat lengths. Barking Fish was right there too…we setup the VMG spinnaker and rounded the mark. I guess we picked the right sail. We started to haul ass! Passed a couple of boats and were trying to take over MasCaliente when we were foiled. They kept pushing us up and I started heading lower. While we were messing around here, Giranimo came in from behind. and tried to go above us. Now I had two boats trying to take our wind. SOB.

We fought Giranimo off and were actually taking over MasCaliente, when I lost all concentration. Out of nowhere, Giranimo sped by us and took all our wind….there we were barley moving. All because I stopped paying attention for a minute. ROOKIE MISTAKE!!!

Well that was it, we lost a spot to Giranimo, another to Mas Caliente, and another to Barking Fish. I AM SO PISSED AT MYSELF.

The crew was perfect tonight. Peter and Virginia kicked ass. Spencer and Dwight had that boat moving. The only thing that slowed us down was me. HATE THAT!

Still one of the most enjoyable days of racing/sailing. The battles were awesome. We did beat Swale, but let Barking Fish by. I was all by myself today. I made my mistakes and let’s hope I learned form them.

The Skipper