Sunday was the monthly race for the Veleros de Baja racing club. I served as timekeeper and chief flag raiser on the race committee boat which was Al's 16 foot panga with a 60 horse motor. The race course was an 8.4 mile triangle with the downwind start off the light house at Punta Prieta, which is at the harbor channel entrance, a reach to the old blue tuna boat anchored off the Magote by the condos, upwind to the harbor entrance at Pichilingue and then a run down to the finish line between the first red and green entrance buoys.
We had 16 boats signed up and 15 showed up so it was a great turnout. The wind cooperated with 8-12 knots with some light spots here and there to make it more interesting. We got the group started and then went through the fleet taking pictures and sat at the tuna boat and watched some of the roundings. Then as the boats went out on a long starboard tack, Al and I donned our foulies and blasted up wind and up wave. I was glad that I remembered to bring a sweatshirt and a foul weather jacket as it was wet and chilly. We ducked into the harbor at Pichilingue for some calm water to relieve ourselves and then went out and waited for the first boat to round the mark. Since it was a 52' cat we took off so that we would be at the finish line to greet them and take their finish time. The finished the race in 1 hour and 39 minutes and the last boat took just over 3 hours to finish. Judging by the thanks we got it looks like all had a good time.