Campomanes is only 30 minutes south of our marina at Calpe, and today's race was forecast to be fresh.

It was.

Fortunately we had taken our heavy AP jib to use. Unfortunately got lulled into thinking the forecast was wrong as we enjoyed breakfast pre race in almost 20C sun, almost zero wind, at 0930.

As a result we left the needed sail on the dock along with other surplus kit. As we headed out for the 1200 start it peaked to 20+ knots. Hmmmm. Bit of a bugger getting that wrong.....and it was to prove our undoing in a race with plenty of upwind beating.

But what a great race it was. Brilliant sun, good competition.

The course set was of one shortish windward / leeward circuit, then upwind to Alteas fish farm to port, then run back to Campomanes fish farm to starboard, out to Calpe fish farm to port, and home to the finish off Campomanes 'Greenwich Marina'. Almost the 'standard' for these 5 Clubs events.

With the combined fleet reaching at pace up and down the line, it became obvious most had got it wrong bunching at the start boat. A big back at the 4 minute gun saw us head to the other end, and whilst maybe 30 seconds late, we got an almost perfect position on port at the pin end, which saw us break through the head of the starboard tack fleet and away into clear air just about laying the windward mark on the one board - looking like heroes. Well for 5 minutes anyway.

Unfortunately half way up the beat the wind veered back and just died. Arghhhhh. We oh so gently slid into the wind hole created and frustratingly then wallowed around in a sloppy sea as boats from behind, yes - both those offshore and those inshore - powered past still in fresh winds.

But it didn't last too long, and maybe 15 minutes later we found the breeze and off we bashed chasing primarily the two Division B boats who had got ahead, and that we earnestly wanted to beat.

Pajuelin - a Salona 37, and Dale Andar - a Dufour 36P.

It was a struggle in the 20 gusting 25 knot winds keeping Jumbuck upright with the big No 1 Genoa. Both our rivals got to the windward mark before us, and despite or maybe because of a smooth but only partial hoist of our big A2 kite, they remained in front as we all slid off at pace back down the first windward / leeward sausage.

We still did better than the following boats, but did not feel quite as fast as we usually are running tight in such conditions. The wind was maybe 130 on the boat, and we should have been smoking. But guess it was partly due to the time it took to fully hoist the kite 😯. And on reflection, guess we were over trimmed, due to not having it fully up......

Winds were still hovering at 20 but we were seeing some lulls on the short run, so it seemed like only seconds after we finally got the boat settled we were then enjoying a tussle dropping it shy, before turning back upwind still with the fully deployed Genoa. This time we hung onto both our rivals on the longer beat back south to the Altea fish farm. In fact we all three did well up that beat, taking time out of some much faster yachts (like Farr 40.7s, Grand Soleil 40s, and X44s). But Jumbuck didn't make enough of a gain on our two Division 2 rivals, and as we slid around the Altea fish farm for the longish run back north, both remained tantalisingly ahead. Again on reflection, we could maybe have gone faster / pointed higher had we part furled the Genoa......

Smooth hoist of the A2 for the long run, but the wind began to ease further so we couldn't use our lighter weight to catch any surf and make any gains. Both our rivals carried symmetric kites and could sail deeper than we could, and although we zipped along sailing shyer, and perhaps going faster, we never managed to catch either of them. Gybe, gybe, gybe again. All to no avail. And the winds just kept getting softer.

Pajuelin still led Division 2 with Dale Andar maybe 2 minutes behind her, and us a further 3 minutes back, at both the Campomanes and then the Calpe fish farms.

On the cracked beat back from Calpe to Campomanes we gained a little, but the finishing order remained as was and Pajuelin led Division B over the line to get line honours and 1st place. Dale Andar got her 2nd and we got our 3rd both on the water and as we later learned, all got the same spots on handicap. On reflection, as the beat back turned into a broad reach, we could / should have swopped the Genoa for the Code 0.......oh, don't we we continue to learn!

Brilliant dockside party after off Pajuelins transom (think it was someone's birthday) and then before sunset it was trophy time up in the smart trendy clubhouse.

So with four races completed in this series and allowing one discard, Dale Andar lead with a 1,1,2 - 4 points. Pajuelin have earned 3,2 and now 1 - 6 points. And Jumbuck has a 2,2,3 - 7 points. The next closest has 12 points so unless things go really wrong, we should share the podium with Dale Andar and Pajuelin. Fingers crossed we can improve on the 3rd - but Dale Andar will need to really screw up and we need to sail way above our norm for us to get 1st.

It's close and makes the last and final race from our home Club at Calpe end May, quite important.....

So big thanks to all the crew today for a most enjoyable day on the water. Richard and Phil (who jumped on board at late notice and did great things), Sue (top job in the pit in heavy conditions), Laurent and Eric up front (super job on hoists and a couple of great recoveries from drops that could have gone well wrong) and of course Kevin trimming for all he was worth.

A shame we didn't take the heavy AP and sad we hit the wind hole, but a good start and the crew did a good job managing the big headsail in the heavy winds. Crew work almost top notch and it's given us a solid safe series result with no breakages, and I think we are all in a good place for the final showdown at series end. If we can all (including me) just continue to recall what we could have done this race, and make sure we apply it at Calpe, we might just get that elusive 1st!

On. On.