Some Days You Just Don't Feel Like Going Sailing . . . .

. . . . you go anyway and have a great time!

I was not looking forward to today's sailing. Lack of energy factored in. Also, I never look forward that much to sailing without Trophy Wife being aboard. But I took most of the day off from work and caught a good mid-day nap. That helped me get down to the harbor an hour earlier than I usually do. I staggered down to the slip, carrying ice in my backpack. The middling wind seemed overwhelming. Put the boat together with all deliberate speed. The crew arrived on time. So, off to the races we went. Without TW aboard, I could not feel relaxed at the helm.

The weather leg turned out to be exciting. Wind was steady, 13-16 knots. Das Boot started on starboard in clean air. 90 seconds after the gun, the Hunter ducked us on port. Fine, I thought. But inexplicably he flopped over into our bad air. The result was he trapped us into on long starboard tack, preventing us from tacking on to port side and going into the beach. Conditions were optimal for blasting through the kelp straits: high tide and a decent breeze.

Nevertheless, it was interesting: a number of close tacking situations with the C&C. At the weather mark we trapped the C&C and the Tri on the mark. The latter had to do a penalty turn and the former had to re-round the mark.

Then my mood changed: I was free from tactical stress & drama on the beat.  On the miraculous reaching legs, I reached for a beer and wondered who wouldn't want to go for a sail? Crew was delightful. The day was beautiful. What more could be asked for?

Then the wind dropped to 10 knots. Bob Marley caught up to us, but couldn't break through our overlap to leeward. A smooth tack at the leeward mark gave me confidence we could force Bob to tack out, away from the beach. When he did, I thought we had a chance to hold him off. But in the falling breeze, he caught us.

We finished in the middle of the fleet (Again!)

I skipped the bar and went home to TW and barbecued dinner.