Wow.. even more wind! At least we had sunshine today… 20 plus knots all day and sunny so we could see where we were headed… That big cold front that is moving through still has some kick to it… Two weeks ago it walloped the US with snow and then a Nor’easter with gusts to 119 mph in the Atlantic. Here it is 1500 miles SE and still honkin’!
We are doing really well considering our boat likes medium to light breeze. The crew was beat by the end of the day from hair raising rides both upwind and down.
The most spectacular wipe out for us so far was after we gybed our big orange asymmetrical spinnaker and the boat laid over far enough for the rudder to come out of the water. This puts us sideways to the wind with our sails flogging and the mast at 45 to 50 degrees over! That starts to feel normal after we have done it a few times (especially after seeing many others do it and eventually recover).
Here is the kicker… The J100 “Bad Girl” from St. Croix did one too and we were pointed at each other and on a collision course like two drunks trying to go past each other on a narrow sidewalk! They are clinging to lifelines all big-eyed as they try to recover, and we are doing the same… both helmsmen flapping rudders in the breeze… praying for a miss as the tangle would likely bring down both masts if it were to happen… and our flogging spinnaker slips by mere inches away (or slid across their rigging- we could not tell or care as long as it did not snag).
In a moment they are past and our boats recover and we scramble to trim and get back racing – 2 days of this and it is almost “normal!”
3 races today and a long one to Sandy Cay and back (which we figured the race committee did so they could have a long lunch) left us whooped like tired puppies.
We sit in 4th in class and hope for a little less wind today in order to move back onto the podium for the awards. Never say “done” till it truly is!
Kai and I will jump the ferry today and get back to St. Thomas by dark and then can slip back into daily life away from the weekend warrior mob that we love to fight against.
Serious highlight was seeing the TP52 “Highland Fling” going past with all sail up, all crew hiking off the back and half the boat out of the water screaming along at 20 plus knots – a 52 foot dinghy loving the breeze!
Of course the smile my brother Peter wears while standing in that cockpit can be seen a mile away!
