Century Club: Jonathan Nepini

Ending the keelboat season on a high note with Frostbites #4. With a solid four-person crew we finally had the boat back up and running nearly to full fighting shape. We enjoyed great conditions with ample breeze to get the boat going. The race between us and our fraternal twin Red Baron came down to the last leg, where a messy but early reaching spinnaker set got them an advantage. We hoisted late as conditions were marginal, and once we did it wasn't quite enough to hold our lead. It was a bummer not to catch them, but the boat ran really well today and I was totally satisfied with our performance. A great way to cap off a fantastic and at times quite successful season on Dangerous.

Another quick paddle off Forest Landing. Very similar in route to yesterday, but I took a quick peek around the corner. Nice to still be getting out here on the board deep into November, even if I'm limited by daylight.

Very light conditions for today's frostbite. We started well given the conditions, but things quickly became light and shifty. It took a lot of effort to reach the only mark of the day, including a spinnaker set and douse. The breeze filled in just enough for us to have a pleasant, if rather slow, ride back. Once again the dirty bottom on the boat hindered our progress, and we finished in 13th for the day.

SMSA Frostbites #2. Light conditions and four on the boat meant we were back to flying a spin. We headed out early to get warmed up and put in some practice work to knock the cobwebs off. A touch late to the start as a result of my calling the line badly, but clean nonetheless and off to a fairly tidy race. We had a couple small hiccups but generally sailed well, and had a particularly satisfying spinnaker run, but a dirty bottom and stiff fleet of competitors left us with a 12th place result. This series is proving without a doubt that sailing is a "use it or lose it" sport.