Crew (Doug, Gemma, Annabel, Emma and Jeff)

Well, the night before was our Mexican Crew Party, so you can say as we gathered at the boat the crew was kinda seedy. I do have to say I didn't feel that hung over, the joy of top shelf liquor! Less impurities, less hangover. We lost a few souls that were supposed to race, but five of us come out to play. We get the boat rigged for pretty light feeling wind and take to the harbor. Our guest helm is Gemma, she is a friend of Doug's and aptly takes the helm for the day. We do a nice prestart warm up, setting up our start and testing the time it will take to get there. All is looking good in 6-7 knots of wind. Silver Minx sails by for a chat, and we shout over a few comments in good fun. The fleet has a good vibe, must all the lack of testosterone on the helms :)

Speaking of testosterone, another boat, Viva, comes under us under motor sail just as we are trying to start. The wind is dying out and we are struggling for the line. A older guy is shouting at me to ask what time we start?!? Stealing the little wind we have under motor sail! I end up telling him and think I should have told him the old Eddie Murphy line (time? You want the time? What do you think I look like, Big F'n Ben!) Viva is supposed to start four minutes after us at 38 minutes after. Funny how she didn't take her penalty turn for motoring up to the start line! Well, we got our payback by pinning him below us as we hold our tack and head towards Point Piper after starting over five minutes late. The wind had just died, glassing out the harbor. With barely 2.5 knots of breeze, we struggle to keep one knot of boat speed. As the wind dies more, we leave poor Viva to her own deserved fate, with us having just enough momentum to roll-tack out into the channel and the last of the incoming tide. Viva ends up stuck with no wind and floats back thru the start line, several times over the next hour! :) Poetic justice, I'd call it!

Silver Minx passes us in the light wind, but Gemma is able to barely keep us moving. An hour after our start time we are barely 100 meters from the starting line! We finally start to overtake Minx in barely any wind. It's just a bobbing bunch of boats, pointing in different directions. You can really pick out the light boats, as they are the only ones kinda on course. Funny thing, we are now on Starboard tack but Minx is still on Port Tack only forty meters away! It takes another half an hour to come up and slightly above Minx, the overtaking of thirty meters having took that long! Weave above her, there are a few other boats on port, so we call starboard on them as we match race Minx from a few feet away from her. Being so close, we have time for a pleasant chat with her crew. The Champagne is popping on Minx, all good! Even better, we sneak by her just a bit and are almost in front when she comes back under us again. This is the second time this season we are able to pass Silver Minx in virtually no wind. Finally we get just clear ahead of her by poling out our headie. Doesn't seem like this is the right move, but the wind is averaging behind our starboard beam most of the time. Just enough consistency to keep us moving forward and with more momentum maintained than Minx can keep.

We keep catching just enough breeze to slowly sneak away from her and head to the first mark under Clark Island. Confusion reigns as we pass the island and there is NO mark laid where it normally sits during a course A race. Scratching our heads, we finally drop the pole and reach toward the only mark around where everyone else is heading, that being Garden Island. As we near the mark, the huge red ship from previous weeks, Ocean Explorer, is slowly steaming right into the fleet and directly where we are going! We get lucky when she stops before our lay-line and turns away from us. We are still ahead of Minx so all is good as we turn on the mark.

After getting around the ship and the mark, we have a nice run back to towards Shark Island. Just enough breeze to keep us moving. But we get a little pause as our mate honks three times indicating that she is backing up. Nothing like several hundred feet of ship towering above you and backing up towards where you'd like your course to be! Having dodged well clear of a backing up Ocean Explorer, we are able to continue our leg of the race.

We tack up the harbor towards Sow and Pigs, with everything looking good. The wind has picked up and we are finally hitting mid 6's of speed. Gemma is keeping us moving well. Our mate Minx stays on course as we tack across the harbor to line up the Sow and Pigs mark. The pretty blue boat, Wallop is in our sights ahead and Inkonkoni is tacking up the harbor just behind us (she was supposed to be a minute after us at the start, but this is the first we even saw her this race).

We reach the Sow and Pigs mark and we are way ahead of Minx, as she is still working her way up the harbor, almost past Sow and Pigs! After rounding we are on a nice beam reach but I'm watching Inkonkoni continue past Sow and Pigs... Dread fills me as I also see Minx passing Sow and Pigs reef by. I look way beyond and see a white and red CYCA mark, and realize that the tequila has fogged our brains. I call for a quick tack back towards Manly because we are on the wrong course!?! Hmmm busy week and I didn't check and see if the Course "A" we are racing was the same Course "A" of every other week! What a hung-over rookie mistake. We quickly tack and start heading for the proper course, I see the yellow Sow and Pigs mark slide right by the boat and we just barely bump her. Bugger, we hit a mark!

We get lined up on the proper turning mark with Wallop, Minx and Inkonkoni already coming back for the long leg to the finish line. At the mark we round and take our penalty turn for hitting a mark. Finally we are reaching back for Shark Island and in vain trying to regain the ground lost to the boat in front of us. It's not to be, we make up some ground, but there is just not enough time or course left to allow it. We tack up the last leg to the finish line, I look behind and there are very few boats behind us.

Ah, what a finish to a very challenging season. Great helming by Gemma and excellent crew work by Annabel and Emma (it being Emma's first time on a sailboat!). Doug gets kudos as well, between the two of us we sweated out our Tequila from the night before on all those tacks. I go below and dig out a bottle of Mount Gay rum that I believe Dan had left behind during a previous week. Rum and cokes all around as we cheer a fun race. Well done crew, well done!