Ugh, a wet night and a less than stellar performance on BOXCAR. Found a hole from hell and watched the entire fleet sail away. Luckily, there is beer. Beer exists.
Earlier that day, paddling on the creek, spotted a bunch of turkey vultures circling shore in the wooded point south of the club. They let me ghost on by very closely, just hung there in the trees a dozen yards away, Kind of creepy and I have no idea why they were hanging around so calmly.
Quick paddle in the creek before a disappointing football game. Oh well, at least one thing was positive that day.
Spent 5 - 6 hours working on the i550 I am selling and then decided to chill out thru rush hour in a kayak instead of a traffic jam. Weird little water snake kept stalking me though. I don't know much about water snakes and I'm not sure if anyone does. I'm sure there's a herpetologist somewhere who knows a helluva lot more than I do, which is: nothing. But if I were a snake, I'd sure as heck want to live on the warm land rather than the cold water.
Anyway, this one kept following me along the small rock jetty out closer to the mouth of the creek. Curiousity? Hunger? Disgust? I have no idea what motivates a water snake.
I do know they bite hard.
Got to weeknight race two days in a row, a bullet the night before and a deuce this evening.
It was light and the RC boat mercifully hoisted the SIERRA flag. We got a 2nd.
Beautiful night!
There are conditions where we know we'll do well if we just don't screw things up. Sept 10 was one of those nights. We stayed in breeze, handled sails adequately and let the boat do it's thing, which is hard to beat in 6-9 kn. TW.
Fun night and even the Orioles won (I think)
I'm not gonna make 100 days this year, that's for sure.
I've spent way too many days working on boats instead of enjoying them on the water. But I actually LIKE working on boats, depending on what the job is. Working below on a hot diesel on a scorching, windless day with a lot of powerboat wakes is about as bad as it gets. I hope to never have to do that again. But other projects are rewarding and can actually be fun. And once the i550 goes to a new owner, I can get down to the business of more sailing.
I did make it to BCYA this week though. It was a light night with pay-offs coming from finding patches or lanes of higher pressure. We failed to do that on the first lap but made up for it in the finishing lap. I think the course was start at D, R, D, R, finish at D. We took a fourth, and that was a large improvement considering where we were the first time around the course. We got a boost from a few competitor's having issues with sail handling.
I may be crazy, but again, the RC boat waited until the entire boat was over the line before signaling our finish. A few weeks ago, I emailed them to politely remind them what the definition of "finish" is in the RRS. They insisted they were following the RRS. But this happens all the time and with different boats I've raced on.
Maybe I'm just wrong. It's certainly possible.
Well, for the first time since 2016 or 2017, the i550 has been reunited with its trailer. And no longer shares a floating dock at PSA. The trailer loading could have gone better, but the deed is done and it's off-premises.
Later on, we finished with the trailer business way too late for me to try to get up to Canton for the BCYA race. So, we rigged a couple of Force 5's to go out and match-race a little. I took the excuse that mine, with a shorter rig, was grossly under-powered for the conditions. But the truth is, Kris is a much better small boat sailor than I am by a couple orders of magnitude. Like 100 X better. But still a nice way to end a long day that wasn't devoid of tension and drama.
Was putting in a kayak when I noticed this little dude next to the pier. Oddly, it did not run/swim away as I approached. Maybe it had a headache or a hangover.
Paddled up to Cedar Island for lunch, in shade and a little breeze.
I have a tentative buyer for the i550 and decided to take a last sail on her in near-perfect conditions: light air, no chop and hardly any power boat wake. Great sail and thanks to Kris U for the help and crew work.
Had to take some measurements off the i550 trailer for repairs, prior to the trip to Maine. Splashed a kayak for a quick paddle.