Full Tilt Sailing Team

Thursday Nite Race: August 11th

It must be August in Long Island Sound...temps in the 90's, winds around 4-7 kts., lots of boats. Yup, it's that time o' year!

The course tonight was Start (in the Gulf), to E (green can NE of the island) to Welches Point, back to Start, back to E, then back to Start. The wind started out of the South (what there was of it), then in clocked to West, died, was reborn out of the NW, died again, came out of the SW for a few minutes, then settled on the West when we finished. Yup, it's August alright!

Joyce is steering because next week is the "Woman at the Helm" race. She did good. Pete's ready on the winch for a quick tack...at least I think he is. He may LOOK like he's relaxing, but I can see he's ready to pounce on that winch the SECOND we need to tack. Trust me.

"Audacious" is right behind us as we approach the mark.

It got a bit crowded at the windward mark (as usual).

"Caliente" passes us going toward the 2nd mark.

A couple boats decided to fly their spinnakers...we would have too, if I brought it! I guess we're going to keep it on the boat from now on to stave off mutinies.

"Gael Wind" is trucking toward the finish in the 26- class. We had two more legs to go in our class.

Joyce helms us towards the finish, seconds behind "Schock Therapy"...I would have taken a picture of the finish, but our bow was mere inches from their stern, and I was busy looking for our insurance policy at the time.

After the finish, the fun doesn't end! Here's the crew rolling up the main, as the skipper enjoys a mini-cigar and a brewski. Ah, the benefits of racing a boat (and providing beer and pizza to the crew!)

We had a good race, and Joyce kicked ass helming us...she's getting both braver at the helm, and more assertive when she doesn't agree with us. When we were all screaming at her to try to push some boats off the mark (wrongly, it turned out), she snarled at us "I'm falling off whether you like it or not!"

Good lord, I've created a monster! But if she keeps sailing like that, it's fine with me. I'm proud of you, babe.

Tonight the crew was Joyce and me, along with Teri, Pete, and Tim. Great job guys! Always a pleasure to sail with you!

posted by CT Bob @ 9:42 PM