Bittersweet evening, even though we had great wind -- 6-11 knots apparent -- consistently through the evening, and no rain. Full crew of four, who had been racing together for most of September, and it showed. Decent start but not great. Wanted to start at the boat, but early, so went down the line and just made it inside the pin. Pulled ahead and above boat to windward, and then moved out. Tacked early since headed to shallow water; better wind out in the center of Round Bay. Good raise on the spin on the way back, and decent speed the whole way. Next upwind was twice as long, and fine until the wind hole near the windward mark. Overstood to starboard beautifully, in that we caught a fortuitous breeze on that side and made it nicely up to the mark while other boats coming in on port were not so lucky. Wind pooped out after we rounded and got the spin up. Finally got some breeze and had a pretty good run all the way down to the finish, holding off a Johnson 18 and a Dehler 39 -- both of which in other circumstances would have passed us. The race was long enough that the finish was by moonlight, and in this case that worked out since the moon was full. Enjoyed Dark and Stormies on the way home, and talked about things we need to fix on the boat for next year. Great race, even if it was the last of the Wednesdays!
Century Club: Richard Turman
Travelled to historic Charleston, SC for work and ended up taking a boat ride out to Ft. Sumpter, towards which the first shots of the Civil War were fired. Passed several boat races on the way there and back -- Charleston Harbor looks like a great place for boating!
Now that it was fixed, returned the powerboat to its boatel. Beautiful ride down the Severn; took about 25 minutes. Nice to be out there when there are no other boats!
Light breezes turned into no breezes as we approached the finish line, where we sat in a wind hole for 10 minutes, watching other boats further away waft their way over the finish. Not great....
And it was great to drive it and have reverse again!
Went out for 45 minutes after one thunderstorm today and before the next one. The Severn was nearly flat calm, and it was a joy to paddle along and check things out. Only saw one powerboat -- you can really tell it is now after Labor Day.
Picked up my 21' Sea Ray from its Boatel in Annapolis and drove it up the Severn to Crownsville to our dock on Thursday afternoon, and on Friday I drove it to Absolute Marine so my mechanic could put it on a trailer and take it to their shop to fix it, since we found last weekend that it no longer has reverse.
Some weeks things go our way, some weeks not. This was a 'not' week, in that we had to do two penalty turns after mis-judging a port-starboard situation, and then on the downwind run, we ended up in a localized wind hole where we weren't moving, within 100 yards of the finish, while 3 other boats came down on the right side of the course, with wind, and finished ahead of us. Darn!
One can never get enough 'time on water,' so took Lark out late in the afternoon for some practice, and found 12 knots apparent, which was enough to keep me busy!
Picked up the boat on Friday from the boatel, so we'd have it for the weekend. Drove up the Severn to Smith's Marina, where I put in $25 gallons of regular for $115. Then nice ride home.
Took a bottle of wine and some cheese and crackers out and enjoyed the sunset after wandering around Valentine and Plum Creeks a bit. Great lifestyle!
Took the boat back on Monday. Found that reverse gear had failed on the boat, which made all the manuevering that much more interesting.