Good breeze from the south; started out in the 10 range and dropped to 4, as is typical on a Wednesday night. Course was ACA, which felt short at 6 pm, but made sense, since the wind died, as predicted. Didn't do great, but had a great night. Our spin sets are getting better; made progress on the genoa furling and unfurling, and may have finally fixed it. We'll see.
Entered the Maryland Cures Cancer regatta, and prepared the boat as best I could, including putting water into the tank in the porta-pottie and figuring out how it works. Found out the night before the race tht I only had 64% power in my engine's battery, instead of 100%, so it was clear we would not be able to use the engine both ways, which had been the plan.
With 10-15 winds from the North all morning, we were able to leave my dock at 8:10 am and arrive at Tolly Point, where the RC was stationed by 10:20 -- pretty good time for about 9.5 miles. Made about 4.3 knots across Round Bay with the main and Genoa up, and then 3.5 knots through the narrows, but 5 knots once the river opened up in Annapolis, and 6 knots once we cleared Greenbury point. Only used tiny bit of battery whilst getting the main up, so arrived with 62%.
First race went ok, though it was marred by a repeated problem with our furling line -- it kept putting extra wraps below the drum once we furled the genoa. Had problems both furling and unfurling. Did ok figuring out where the marks were, and jibing once down the course to get to the finish -- though could have jibed sooner and stlll made the finish. Wind 10 knots.
RC started the 1st class of boats on their second race while we were still finishing our first. We spent most of the 8 minutes until we were in sequence again fighting to get the genoa untangled and furled again. Then in sequence.
Second race we did better, though still had furling problems. Spin hoist and jibes were cleaner. More wind gave us a faster time around the course, but then, it did so for everyone. Ended both races 4th out of 5.
Then sailed back into 10 knots of breeze from the North. Doing fine at 5 knots until we were between the Academy and the 1st bridge, at which point the wind died and we had to motor sail. Got down to 54% battery once we'd gone past the 2nd bridge, at which point we had enough wind -- 6 to 10 knots -- to tack our way up the river. Had a nice ride once we hit Round Bay.
Home by 5:30. Tuckered out, but we all felt it was great to be racing on the Bay -- exhilirating to be bouncing amongst the waves, beautiful other boats and great weather.
After using the powerboat as a base from which to lean over and put three 3' bumpers on 3 pilings on my new dock, took the boat out for a glorious spin around Round Bay. Bliss!
Beautiful sunny evening with wind and no rain. Second best thing to sailing in such weather would be running Race Committee for our Round Bay Sailing Association. Took two of my crew out and got three starts for our three fleets off in good order, and then watched them as they sailed the length of Round Bay and back, twice. So fun to watch the spinnakers billow out, and then see how some boats sailed high angles while others sailed low. Beautiful!
Arrived at BWI at 5:30, got my bags by 6:00, got home by 6:45, and went kayaking at 7:30 for an hour. Great to be home!
Had a great time out after one set of rainstorms before the next ones came. 2 sets of geese parents with little fleglings, paddling hard to keep up.
Saw two heron, 6 baby ducklings following their parents, and 3 baby geese following their parents. Not all in the same place, but over a nice evening ride up Valentine Creek. Lucky to live right her amidst beautiful nature!
Went out around 6pm to 8 pm. Had a lovely 10 knot breeze, and four other sailboats playing in Round Bay. Started near mark e, sailed to b then v then d, then back to b and then home. Great to arrive back at 8 in full daylight!
Love these evenings that have daylight that lasts so long. Went out at 6:30 pm to breeze in the 5-8 knot range and had a wonderful run up and down Round Bay for 90 minutes, which was quite a restorative.
Powerful storm swept through from 4-4:30, leaving sprinkles in its wake. Assembled crew and went out at 5:25 for a 6:00 start, and made it in plenty of time. Rain was gone by the time the race started, at A, headed to D and back. After rounding the windward mark and jibing, found spin on wrong side, jibed again, then eventually headed in right direction. Then found that we were headed upwind when this was the downwind leg. Took down the spin and moved along with the genoa, but lost a lot of ground to those boats who took down their spins earlier. Weird night, but nice to get a race in.