The weather has settled into pattern with little or no wind overnight, then a gentle breeze in to the morning that builds by mid afternoon as the thermal conditions cause the sea breeze. Today was a perfect example. We set off in next to nothing, but soon had the main and jib doing their jobs. Once we had cleared the initial islands we were able to put up the cruising chute / spinnaker / gennaker, call it what you like. The conditions were perfect, and soon we were in a race, even if the opposition did not know it. We could see 4 or 5 boats a couple of miles ahead, going in the same direction. Over the course of a coupe of hours, we closed in and then started to pick off the slower ones. We were heading for a buoy field and it became obvious that this group were going to the same place. All of a sudden the race took on a meaning. We wanted to be first there to ensure this we would get a buoy of the supply was limited. In the last half mile we passed the last and fastest of the group, all the time knowing that we would have to slow while taking our sails down, as we would probably do this before the others did. The spinnaker came down faster than ever before and the main was furled in similarly quick time. As we headed into the mooring we were alongside one of the boats we had raced. A guy on the foredeck shouted "Was that you with the spinnaker? That was awesome, you just kept coming and coming". We must have taken about 3 miles out of them in 2+ hours. Fabulous.
When were arrived there were buoys for all, so we need not have worried, but it had been fun to set a goal. We picked up a buoy and then settled to watch the port theatre. Chris was particularly amused by one boat, crewed by a number of men. They were trying to get their outboard to run, while it was still in its location on the boats guardrail, never a good manoeuvre. One guy had several pulls on the starter without success, only to be pushed aside by one of the others, who did the same thing. Then the scene repeated with another of the crew, and then again with another. It was an exercise in macho stupidity, and probably they either did not have the kill chord in place or the fuel wasn't turned on. They gave up in the end.
We all then watched another boat crewed by a man and a woman. They decided to attempt to capture the buoy by reversing up to it, with the woman on the bathing platform trying to reach the buoy. Each time they got close the buoy was pushed away by the wind or waves so that she could not reach it. She tried to waft the buoy and boat closer together by waving her arms and then trying to paddle the boat towards the buoy with her hand. It was never going to work, but was funny to watch.
Miles Today - 14
Miles 2022 - 967
Steve
(Tricia and Chris)
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