Even Before Tonight's Rain We Had a Washout

I've reproduced a chart of tonight's twilight race. It's very amateurish -- my first attempt at down-loading from a GPS. In any event, if it works or doesn't, it's not going to be a picture worth a thousand words.

The chart does:

• not reveal anything about the prevailing weather conditions. Weather was what you would expect in advance of a rainstorm; it was warm, cloudy and windy.
• not reveal that the race committee was indecisive (and ultimately incompetent) in selecting the course to be sailed: after the warning signal, they took down a course number that would have worked and replaced it with one that couldn't work.
• not depict the fact that the entire fleet of about a dozen yachts elected a conservative start in the winds gusting to 20 knots: they all sought out empty space between boats and started late [Fp].
• not reveal that Das Boot rounded the weather [Dp] mark in fourth place.
• not reveal that crew had a 'learning experience' in sail handling. Muffing in the spinnaker set is that kind of experience which must come to each boat in its turn and tonight it was our turn.
• not reveal that we went seriously off course to the starboard side of the DDW leg, while the spinnaker drammar was resolving its self. I just could not find the nerve in 15 knots to gibe with the 90% of the onboard talent forward of the mast.
• not reveal that we eventually gibed in time to fetch the downwind gate [Xs], thereafter managing to retain our 4th place as we continued, wing-on-wing fashion.
• not reveal that the boats in front, one by one, reported via VHS, that the leeward mark [Cp] was not in place and that the race, alas, would have to be abandoned.

Finally, this track cannot reveal how indifferent I have become to victory or defeat after two wonderful decades of sailing & racing Das Boot against lighter and faster boats and increasingly younger and smarter sailors.