A little more breeze than we'd expected (and hoped for), but despite an awful first leg, plagued by vexing shifts and holes as we approached the top mark, we pulled off a 3rd. Just shows to go ya, working hard and making better decisions can get you back in a race, even if you were among the last to round the first mark.
The top mark was in the lee of a massive ship snuggled up against the DMT dock, which was worst-case scenario with the NE breeze. We should have recognized that an approach from directly downwind of the ship was a losing proposition. Next time around, we stayed farther offshore, which paid off massively.
Beautiful night and very fun to reel in a boat or two on the last leg to, at least, eek out a moral victory.