The weather has been crappy for the last two weeks with showers everyday and for the last week, the showers have been all day. I still needed to sail considering last weeks dockside NO sail, so I went to Davis Island for the Thursday Night races hoping the weather would permit. The weather had been rainy all day and especially around race time. The race was delayed for 30 minutes and when the weather improved the race was set.

We sailed on Pirate Girl because the repairs on Rocket have still not been completed and as usual, I worked as Jib trimmer. The course was short but fast due to the good breeze. Winds were probably in the 10-15 Knots range. Our first leg was a beat with a very intense start and extremely healed over. We gained control and made good time and position on the competition.

Our second leg was a run and we set the Spinnaker, making real good time. The clouds had been building all along and we decided to take the Spinnaker down just in case things got crazy. We had some trouble getting the Spinnaker down but we worked together to get it down and it all worked out just in time. The rain started coming down but once we rounded the mark things got really intense. The rain fall was a downpour. We could barely see infront of the boat and this would be the tone for the rest of the race. After we rounded the next mark, things settled back down and we made up some ground and time on the remaining competition.

Jib trimming in these conditions was intense and defintely an experience. When it was all said and done, we placed second in our class. That was pretty good for a crew of 6 that had little or no experience racing Pirate Girl. I came to realization again that I need to work on dropping some pounds and getting in some better shape for exactly these types of occasions. It is one thing when cruising but racing can be intense and a lot of work. I really need to work on that for my health, racing and for some long range thoughts that I'll share in a later post.

Hopefully I can do some sailing this week with Jessie on her boat in St Pete. Lets see what the weather does and if there is a window of opportunity.