No wind. Cloudy. 66 degrees. Have to get up at 4:30am tomorrow for a flight to California. Should not sail. Decided to scooter down to the marina anyway.
DT, PL, RS are waiting, later IR and AR show up. Talked to DK and they are coming out too. Then the winds pick up and it got sunny. No choice – gotta go. Darn!- have to race sailboats.
Set course off Evergreen Point in SW at 5~11kt. Several boats stopped to watch and compliment us (including a 20′ custom wooden yawl with a lug rig, BlueStem). This is the bragging part – it costs us nothing to go race and we did it just off some of the most expensive real estate on the West Coast. I would guess our audience at hundreds watching from living rooms and boats and beaches around the lake (though we could not see them watching). We were the only show out there and we are entertaining because we sail so close.
Absolutely hammered the 1st start and extended the lead and won by a bundle. Won the 2nd start but could not hold the advantage. Came back and ran up the prop of Bullet but still could not consolidate. After the 2nd race I tried to quit but when I said I had a 6am flight the reply was – it is not 6am yet! So I ran a 3rd start and got stuffed at the start line. Pride forced me to race the upwind leg to try a comeback (the first one is always free?) I did on Moya but not on Bullet. Wind died at sunset but came back strong afterwards and we had a great and very fast 3 mile+ spin run back to Kirkland – but wait! I have a 6am flight! It is after 9. Raced home on the scooter and the cool breeze made me realize that I was overheated from racing even though it probably never got above 70.
Lessons: Evergreen is a great place to race but bite it and use a port pole to get back into the wind when it is from the south.
