Liberty is being free from the things we don't like in order to be slaves of the things we do like.--Ernest Benn

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Gracias a las Tres Lime-A-Ritas!

Sailing together for the first time ever, Las Tres Lime-A-Ritas brought wind, luck and spirit together to produce a triumph of horizon proportions over 20 other boats.

For Dave's Memorial Race, and annual event we are given a 6nm+ race which traverses the marks in our venue in unusual sequence. It is also a pursuit race with a downwind start.

Today, I cancelled my game plan of tacking back up the coast to avoid the adverse current. I just couldn't bring myself to settle on a course away from the second mark. This leg is very deceptive because your GPS tells you you can fetch the H-Mark when you begin the leg on starboard, but you are progressively pushed down by the invisible hand of the current on a higher path. Remaining on the starboard tack, for some reason we found ourselves much higher than the many boats ahead of us. The conclusion is that Das Boot can really point in 16 knots.

By the time it came to tack on to port to fetch H-Mark, there were only two boats. Ahead of us. One we sailed over on the following spinnaker run; the other could not get their spinnaker down following the run.

As Das Boot approached the finish line I was confounded by yet another boat ahead us on the finish line. "How can that be?" I asked aloud? It turned out to be Dave's boat and crew, not competing, but just sailing his course ahead of Dave's Fleet.

Stellar.

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