Medium distance race to Ajax weather buoy (4.3 miles off shore). Rita crewed with me. Winds were from E 7 knots, so it would be a reach there and back with full sail. This was teh final race that counts to the overall for the year.
Only one start, so all the boats piled up on the starboard side of the start line on a starboard tack. Rita did not like the traffic, so we tried to do a starboard middle line start, and duck the boats coming accross the mark. There was so much traffic, that we had to tack to port. Not much speed pounding into the waves. It was 5 or 6 minutes before we crossed the line that was setup at mark #3.
After the traffic cleared, I went to check the upper tell tales to check the car positions, a one of the hanks was not put in! I was pissed at myself, as we had done a bunch of sailing before the start, and should have checked that! We luffed up, dropped the #1 partially to get the hank hooked up and re-hoisted. Our tack after this was slow, could not get the headsail in fast enough. Last around the first mark (mark 9). Even Gruntled (the committe boat that started 10 minutes after us) got the first mark before us!
As we tacked around mark 9, we got the jib sheet crossed in the winch, and could not get the jib in at all. It took a little while to get that jam uncleared, as Gruntled went past us.
I was frustrated, Rita went below for a nap. I got the boat going on a beam/close reach at around 4.5 knots the entire time to the Ajax weather buoy. There was just enough wind to overcome the 1-2 ft waves.
We were last to the buoy, but were slowing gaining on Bananas, a C&C 29 MK1.
We finishied the race just behind Bananas, and continued sailing into the channel.
Rita and I had a "chapter 7" when I went to tack near the channel wall, and she let the jib sheet fly!
Trip Odometer: 14.73 miles
Moving Avg: 3.9 knots
Moving Time: 03:43:09
Google Earth track: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/20110911.kmz
BTW, the entire moring and afternoon, there were search and rescue planes/helicopters/boats, even a couple of Hurcules buzzing around low. We heard on the radio that there is a missing person in the water somewhere between Toronto Island and Oshawa.
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