On the podium
Sailing on the Bay close to the Potomac at sunrise
Finishing under spinnaker with the Dove
Gov Cup! As always, a major highlight of my sailing year. This was Red Baron's first time making the run from Annapolis, and we were joined by Dion's good friend and frequent cruiser to help us run the race. After some delicious pit beef sandwiches on the way up, and stripping the boat of all non-essentials, we headed out of the West River and towards our start. Light conditions prevailed for the first couple hours of the race, and we put a lot of tactical thought into maximizing what breeze did exist. The breeze finally started to build as we approached Thomas Point, and we found Diablo had gotten ahead by going west. We sailed a long starboard tack down to Rose Haven, and tacked east at moonrise. A few more legs back and forth, and by the wee hours of the morning we found ourselves skirting the shallows on the Eastern Shore. We started to encounter some wave state, so we tacked in towards Cedar Point, and the breeze dipped a bit as we went west. We tacked back out, and stayed in the middle of the Bay until south of the targets. One more ill-advised tack in and back out, and we were ready to round Point No Point by daybreak. We continued plodding south, and finally hit the Potomac in the morning. As the breeze dropped off, we worked hard to keep the boat moving and make the junction mark. We were able to fly a spinnaker in the St. Mary's River, and sailed hot angles to keep the boat moving. We squeaked by an A boat right at the end, and ultimately managed a third place finish in our class.
Overall the race as an excellent first effort for Red Baron's first full-scale Gov Cup run, and we had a good crew and enjoyed the race.
Our delivery back Sunday morning was wet getting out of the Potomac, but pleasant once we made it to the Bay. We landed just in time to avoid the coming afternoon thunderstorms.