Was a light air affair… it was like sailing at home except the extra 900 boats on the two lines.

We had a miserable start in 2kts of breeze and were caught on the wrong side of where the breeze filled in from. I think we rounded the 1st leeward mark in about 11th (it was another downwind start) of about 17.

Moving up the course, we started picking off boats one by one using San Diego boat speed in the San Diego light air. We finish seconds behind 5th for another 6th place finish.

Also on Friday is the big fireworks display. I think we are a bit jaded being from San Diego and getting fireworks every night from Sea World all summer long and we don’t have high expectations (how good could they be- they’re English?). Tim and his family invite us on their 27’ cruiser moored in the harbor for the show and being as we’d rather do anything on a boat vs. land, we accepted. An hour before the show- the streets coming into town are full of people waking into town… it looks like the masses of people all walking towards a downtown ball park before the game- except this downtown won’t hold this many people! A short water taxi ride and we have the best seat in the house and the show does not disappoint- one of the best I have ever seen, over 30 mins long and rivals any of our 4th of July shows for color, length and closeness. Following the show the party gets into full force with the biggest display of public drunkenness yet in the regatta. When in Rome….

About the picture of the race committee… here’s how it works. The PRO and spotters are in the castle under the red/white awning (Royal Yacht Squadron) and have boats with more spotters calling OCS on the line. They never (well, almost never) do general recalls and they have video stills of the start that clearly shows if a boat is OCS so there is no(t much) doubt. The course boards are on either side with the first symbol being the class flag and the next 5 being symbols corresponding to marks to round. The “3” on the board is not Mark 3, it is symbol “3” corresponding to Mark 19 which is on the chart as Mark Elephant(for example). Super simple! Red and yellow symbols denote port or stbd roundings. You have 10 minutes- GO! Use the table that you hopefully remembered to bring onboard, match the symbol with a name and then plot it on the map on the reverse side of table. Connect dots and race. Simple really- oh yeah, and I forgot to mention that while you are doing this, you are also avoiding the bazillion boats on the line, all of which are also doing exactly the same thing meaning ½ the crew is not paying attention to what is going on or calling traffic. If the crews were not this good, it’d be a demolition derby. The lights on the flag pole and the building denote the line… line them up vertically and that is the start line, not the big orange buoy (out of the pic)- it denotes the inside limit of the line but not the line itself. At the base of the flag pole is the Flag Dude who coolly manages the flags and loads the cannon (like I said earlier- coolest job in RC ever!) All the other people on shore are tourists taking pictures of the silly sailors and their boats. Whew- I get tired just thinking about the starts.

Day 8

The final day is forecast to be more of the same- light wind. Unfortunately, we need like 12 points to move up in the rankings but have like 14 behind us so the only way to move up at this time is for the top guys to sink… not likely. Worse yet, there is another postponement for the white group boats (us) which does not look promising. At 2pm, the RC cancels racing and we are done for the week. We are not happy with not getting a podium finish but we are happy it went as well as it did- given the fact that none of us have ever even seen a Sonar before. The prize-giving is fun and the Sonar fleet is there in force. Also very cool to see Moose Sanderson get his trophy for First in Class O IRC.

We also are convinced we are coming back next year- it’s an awesome regatta and the people we met were some of the nicest we’ve ever met in sailing. The Wiggins family, with Tim doing bow and spin trim all week and mom Michele getting out one day and dad David helping out two days. We had Phil and Rebecca for a couple days as well and met their super-nice and fun family too. They all want to come play with us next year as well so we should be fully crewed so all we need is a boat and accommodations. 12 months to go…

Cheers,

jefe