The last leg to the finish
If you look close there is a crescent moon showing
The Potapskut Sailing Association Moonlight Race is a regular highlight of the summer sailing year. The race starts at 4pm on a Saturday at Baltimore Light (abreast of Gibson Island), then weaves around government buoys north of the Bay Bridge. The date of the race is chosen so that there will be a moon out after dusk. The finish is usually in the dark which makes it fun trying to keep track of your competitors. After the race everyone motors up the Magothy for a big sailor's breakfast on the clubhouse porch.
This was my third PSA Moonlight Race and Tom P sailed with me this year, which made it especially fun. Before meeting Tom I was a die hard cruising sailor and he made it a mission to convert me into a racing sailor. It partly took. It was a riot sailing with Tom because I would find myself thinking the spinnaker pole ought to go forward a bit and before the words got out of my mouth the spinnaker pole magically crept forward a few inches.
Sailing with my son Pete is a little like this. We sailed a lot together on "Old Blue" in younger days and he is kind enough to still stow the lines, winch handles, autopilot, etc. in the exact place that I have always put them forever, even if the places we put them make no sense. Pete is a hugely accomplished sailor on his own, he has taught sailing, sailed through the South Seas Islands in a boat that he rebuilt and a dozen other accolades. But we both still clip the main halyard to the same lifeline stanchion base.
Back to the race - it started with five knots from the North then went to zero an hour or so later. Boats were pointing in the wrong direction abreast of Love Point, with no steerage way and several dropped out. About two hours later we had five knots from the South and managed to keep the spinnaker flying. We finished the shortened course just as it got dark up near Bodkins Point. We were beaten by a J/95 and a C&C 99. They seemed to ghost along in the right direction in zero wind. Maybe the tall rigs helped.
Anyway, it was a great sail. We motored back to the club for the famous breakfast, I slept in the boat at the dock and in the morning, had a frisky close reach back to Whitehall Bay with a 20 knot West wind I should have hanked on my little jib but was too lazy and just slogged along with a flagging reefed main and big jib.
Another great PSA Moonlight Race for the books.