Sunset Cruise

It seemed we were on the water for hours and hours tonight. We never saw 7 knots that I can remember. The south-easterly direction of what wind there was, favored a port tack start. I was sorely tempted even though Das Boot is heavier in displacement than most of the fleet. Displacement sometimes gives you an advantage, once you get some momentum up. With 90 seconds to the start, I regretted my temerity: I saw that J-24 setting up to cross the fleet on port.

We actually did pretty well. I'm getting the hang of tacking this 38-ft Laser in 2 knots of wind. But the fleet was slow. Race Committee had picked the nearest weather mark, of course. But the faster fleets starting behind us eventually created enough bumper-to-bumper traffic around K-Mark to rival any crowded start line.

Once around, the six of us aboard experienced a delicious solitude rare for twilight sailing. Instead of sailing amidst four or five boats there were only four or five boats in sight. Plus a small pod of jumping dolphins.

But it was not boring or depressing, as it would have been had we just been drifting. The breeze never dropped completely and we were able to maintain way. I followed parting instructions from Trophy Wife who is still landlocked with her broken wrist:

• Keep the rudder as straight as possible & only move it slowly.
• Don't pinch.
• Exercise patience.

Crew exhibited marvellously in this slo-motion game of team-chess. As soon as we could hoist spinnaker, we even passed some boats!

The sun set when we still had 1½ legs on the course to go. We finished under running lights, 7th out of a fleet of 15 starters. 2nd in our group of boats. Important and well-sailed boats had dropped out.

Nice.