Had to get things straightened out after Sat. with the RC gear and then kayak fished with one of the kids - hooked a really nice pickerell but my light line must've met its teeth and it departed with my lure in its mouth. I hate that...feel bad for the fish.
Beautiful little dragonfly whose coloration perfectly matched the kayaks made a cameo, too. Photo: EM Ford
We were happy to see 21 boats registered for our Moonlight Race, as we only had 8 last year. And as PRO, I was really psyched about the weather forecast, and the likelihood we wouldn't need the "S" flag. A few glitches including a request to delay a start b/c one boat was late (we kicked them back to the end of the line), a smoky cabin due to a fried alternator, and having to sail to repositoin the finish line, but all-in-all it went well. Great night and there was even a little bit of food left when we finally got to the club around midnight.
Oh, and a note to Region 2 racers: "Y" is actually a mark on the course and was added last year (2022) to the CBYRA Reg. 2 list of marks, complete with Lat/Lons and distances to other Region 2 marks. (But we did have to improvise a new course board)
First "sail" of the season on the i550 -- was more of just a trial run to see all the things I need to fix. Busy dock with the FS sailors all getting ready. But alas, no breeze in the river.
Note to osprey: you built a nest on a shoal pole that everyone crosses closely dozens of times a day. So don't holler at us, we're just passing thru.
Took a brief paddle and then raced on a club member's boat. It was windy and we broke stuff. Lots of dolphins in the river!
Nice day with puffy breeze and a bit of drama.
Always fun when a ship has to transit your starting area just before the normal warning signal. I sometimes wonder how much patience it takes for the ship's master to deal with a bunch of sailboats moving randomly in very near proximity. We remained a politely distant proximity. Have a safe voyage.
Wow I was psyched that the tide was so high. I figured there'd be fish. The fish figured otherwise. I also paddled to the stern of my sailboat just to check the condition of it, since I rarely see it due to the way it is docked. It looks ugly and I need to clean it up...one day in the future.
I will. Sure thing.
Persistant haze and big storms wobbling by to the northeast. A lot of breeze (12-19 kn) that died down toward the last third of the race (< 10 kn). We were doing pretty well until a ship came in with its destination being the Coal Pier at Lazaretto Point. That burried us. We had to duck their stern and that not only added a few hundred yards to our last leg, but also put us in a ghastly wind shadow for a mniute or two. Game over man, game over. Still a nice night despite the weird smoky haze.
Kinda, On Friday, as a large T-storm wobbled down the northen part of Delmarva, I worried about it crossing the bay and inflicting damage to my god-awful job of lashing the uppers the day before (see below).
So the first thing I did when arriving at PSA yesterday was triple the lashing. That done, I did another thing that SHOULD have been done when the rig went up -- inspect each toggle, especially at the hounds, with binoculars toi make sure each one was seated properly. Big relief, they are.
So one more boat work day. That and I am convinced there are some snakeheads in the grasses near the pier. There are plenty of snakes, that's for sure. Well, there's one less, as we heard a big splash and saw an osprey carry one off in late afternoon.
Taking another boat work day...was on the floating dock for almost five hours dealing with getting my mast stepped. Thanks to a bunch of fellow PSA sailors.
It went well, with one person, positioned well forward of the stem, pulling on the masthead spinn halyard to bring mast to a vertical position, two people wrestling the butt of the mast on to the mast step and one person on another line to keep the butt in position until the forestay can get pinned. Went pretty well...well, except somehow the starboard upper shroud's T-Toggle pin got severely bent and will need to be replaced. Hope to do so tomorrow, and hoping Fawcetts has it. In the meantime the lower and a very questionable lashing will have to suffice...praying for no severe weather or wind until I can get it repaired.
Oh boy, another very light air evening. Certainly not INC's sweet spot, but other boats did well and sometimes we were just in the wrong spot with the worng breeze...or no breeze at all. Such is light air racing and folks just gotta remember it's a bit of crap shoot out there when the peak gust is 4.8 kn.