The day started with the wind predicted to be 20-30. We all went out and got three races started. One race was abandoned due to extreme barging and we had to not race in the third because we broke a traveller block and the mast chock came out.
The breeze was steady over 20. We started out strong again getting a 4th in the first race. We went left again due to the better current. When we were coming down on the port tack layline (or almost), we were able to foot off because the current was pushing us above the mark. This was good beacuse the waves were tough on this tack and we were able to foot through them better. Howard was hooting up a storm from the adrenaline and the fact that he got to sleep the night before. The crew work was great with the occational 6 more feet call from the bow to get the chute up. Lisa let us know where every wave was downwind and prevented me from killing everyone as I sailed much by the lee.
Race 2 started off much the same, we were again in the top 5 of the fleet getting close to the top mark. As we got close, a tug and barge decided to join our race. Rusty told us that it could go anywhere in the harbor, unlike around us where we basically know in advance where they are going. The RC told us to stay to the tug's port side but that was going to be difficult seeing that it was now heading towards us and turning further to port. We decided to tack and get out of its way. We then ended up above the port tack layline, just like last year. However, this year we waited for our opportunity to pounce. We ended up rounding the mark in 11th place. When we rounded, we had about 6 inches to the mark and about 4 feet to the aft starbord corner of the barge. The RC abandoned the race as they should have.
It was when we were tooling around waiting for the next race to start that we noticed that one of our traveller blocks had gotten squashed flat by the traveller car during one of our gybes. We also noticed that the mast chock had come out of the partners. This we could not fix on the race course. The only way to fix it is to loosen all the shrouds and slip it back in. We will fix this soon. We decided to bag the rest of the races that day and head in to make our repairs. On our way in, we saw gusts up to 32 and sustained over 25. I know that other boats do not believe this but I have confidence.
During the day, Killshot did not race the next race because I think they broke their backstay and Hustler lost their masthead fly.
After fixing everything, we got our crew picture taken, which can be seen above and we went to the seafood buffet that the club was having that night. It was very good and a grand time was had by all. After dinner, some of the crews headed over to Hooters to watch the Yankees beat the Red Sox. I think it was the last time that that happened.
Day three and the trip home next.