The social paddle was once again cancelled due to chance of rain, but Joe and I went anyway. Lots of debris and a low tide meant we went out into Breton Bay, and we did a nice ~6mi paddle. Pleasant conditions and an easy trip. Trying to take it easy and relax this week with Gov Cup approaching quickly.
Century Club: Jonathan Nepini
Saturday, July 23, 2022 to Sunday, July 24, 2022
Number of days:
2 days
Halyard Swinging
Ahead at the start
Getting back into it after swim call
Probably the most challenging race I've ever done. Due to the light forecasted winds and hot weather only one other boat turned up. The first couple hours of the race were a light beat north, and around noon our only competition dropped out. At the skipper's request, we continued the race and faced lightening conditions into the afternoon. The wind dropped off completely, and we set an anchor to keep from losing our progress to the adverse current. We had a nice swim call, and dove off the boat for about an hour until the wind filled back in. We ghosted along until late evening, and finally reached the lighthouse around 7pm. We threaded the needle between the light and an anchored fishing boat, and finally found some decent breeze for about an hour on the way back. We got parked again for an hour around Prince Frederick, followed by a small squall after dark with gusts up to 26kts. Parked a third time just north of Cove Point, and we finally found enough breeze to get moving and finish the race at 1:30am. A loooooonnnnnnggg day on the water, this one made up for a few of my short Century Club days earlier this month.
Thursday, July 21, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
The fleet at the start
Helped out with RC for smallboat races this evening. The threat of storms led us to start a little late, but we had great breeeze all evening and were able to get four races in. We had an excellent turnout, with 10 boats on the line, and lots of interesting racing.
Wednesday, July 20, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
A great fleet tonight
Steve signed up for RC today so he left me in charge of running the Barba Roja in tonight's fun race. The race format is a sprint to a pre-determined mark, and once the first boat rounds everyone turns around and races back to the finish, making for an "out" winner and a "back" winner. No classes, a single start for the fleet. Since I knew there was no chance of us going toe-to-toe with a pair of Melges 32's and a custom ocean racing yacht, I opted to go for "back" honors. We set a spinnaker for a fashionably late downwind start, and planned an early douse to give us time to head back as soon as possible. No luck on "back" honors, but the crew worked well together, we sailed the boat fast, and our RC got some epic photos of the 17-boat fleet sailing into the sunset and the Solomons bridge under spinnakers. A great fun race and a nice change of pace to break up the season.
Tuesday, July 19, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
Great turnout for today's social paddle. I took a little swim beforehand to cool off, and had a short but relaxing trip a little ways up McIntosh Run and back
Monday, July 18, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
Today's route
Just a quick lap today, a thunderstorm brewed up right after I left the dock. Got out to the mouth of the harbor and got to take a look at an old Naval Academy yawl project that's currently for sale. Not having great luck lately with my paddling weather.
Friday, July 15, 2022 to Sunday, July 17, 2022
Number of days:
3 days
Duking it out with Jahazi
Doing my thing at the helm
Relaxing after the finish Sunday
This weekend I participated in the 30th running of the Screwpile Lighthouse Challenge. After poor perfromance on windward/leeward courses last year, we participated in the CRCA fleet, running longer distance races around mid-Bay government marks.
We didn't end up getting to race Friday due to a lack of wind, but we got some sailing in while waiting on postponement in an effort to convince RC to start a race. No luck.
Conditions started out very light Saturday morning, but filled in and allowed a delayed start. In the meantime, several of the crew swam off the back of the boat and cooled off. The race started light, but wind steadily built throughout the day and we ended up with ideal racing conditions. We pushed a Bavaria 38 off the line at the start, and we had some friendly competition with them throughout the day, ultimately catching them on corrected time. We sailed a great, clean race, and managed a 4th place finish.
Conditions started light Sunday morning as well. We set up for a spinnaker reach at the start, but the wind shifted, and a strong current very nearly pushed me into the RC boat. After the hectic start, we carried our reaching kite at a very high angle, but still couldn't get high enough to reach our mark. We doused and ran two solid beating legs and two reaching legs. RC shortened course before our last mark, and we never got in a spinnaker run where we hoped to make up time. Great crew work from everyone on the boat, but we only managed a 6th place today.
All in all a solid weekend of racing. The whole crew worked hard and we sailed fast, clean races. I hope to see our place improve as we continue to tighten up details in our crew work and upgrade sails & equipment on the boat.
(Photos courtesy of Steven Birchfield)
Thursday, July 14, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
Mostly a boat work day today, I scrubbed the Barba Roja from stem to stern to get it looking great for Screwpile, and unloaded a ton of unnecessary junk from the boat. Took a quick trip across the harbor to empty the holding tank & got to see a nice sunset.
Wednesday, July 13, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
Sailing into the sunset
Rigged the boat up with all the sails we plan to use for Screwpile this weekend so the crew could practice with them. A nice course tonight, taking us through several points of sail. Finished the race on a screaming, knife-edge reach with a spinnaker and genoa, and I had a real workout keeping the boat from rounding up. A good practice session & tune up for the weekend festivities.
Tuesday, July 12, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
Today's route
Planned on attending a full moon paddle at Leonardtown Wharf but it was cancelled due to coming weather. A couple friends and I decided to take a lap anyway, and we got about a mile in before lightning and thunder in the distance convinced us to come in.