There were great winds from the S/SE (5-12)…the perfect scenario to have the start and finish line at the “keyhole”. Two windward marks were placed in case there was a wind shift...we could use either one. The same was done for the leeward marks. The buoys were in place by about 9:45…thanks Craig and Eric. There were 6 boats ready to race…then Judd found the shallow spot with his boat. Fred took the controls and tried to free it...a last attempt was made by Judd casting his "Retriever" (tennis ball attached to a fishing rod)...that did the trick at about 10:15. Our brief skippers meeting went something like this; “Hey, we already have two windward and two leeward marks out…why don't we use them all”. That was about it, so the course was a windward start between the two green marks, port rounds on all the other marks and back through the green marks. Oh, and the start/finish line was open…so you could sail between or around the green buoys…your choice! We were real sophisticated, actually used an AMYA one-minute start CD. Alex ran the starts, recorded the finishes, took photos and helped with buoys…thanks, thanks, thanks. We were off at about 10:30…did I mention the great winds? It was a little brisk all day, getting to a high near 58. Some of us gloved-up…did I mention it was brisk? Larry had to leave after race 9, but the rest of us got 11 races in before a lunch/warm-up break…Went to Quiznos, their steak sandwich missed the mark (voted by Judd and me)…yuk! Back racing by 1:00…burp! Yuk!

Alex raced my #386 for a while…out of 6 races he had a couple bullets (1st place). I think he had some fun and gave me some time to take more pix. We raced by the rules, but there were a few unintentional bumps with ensuing penalty turns. Unless there was a need to adjust sails, empty water or repair something…the CD started as soon as all boats finished. The last 6 or 8 race courses were called by different sailors…”through the greens, starboard round on the first buoy and a port round on the tall orange one then home”, “downwind start and do the course in reverse twice” , “sprint to the first buoy then straight back to the finish”, etc. That was new and interesting! At one point we even switched boats! By 3:00 we had documented 28 races! We also did a few 3-4 lappers that didn't count. Hard to stop…it was getting warmer 58 1/2 degrees by now? Thanks to Dale Johnson, Paul Olsen and Dave Bros for spending some time with us. See PHOTOS for more shots. PS. Bob Hollenzers just called me to explain why he didn't make the event. He's recovering from a heart attack he had last month while he was getting a check up at his Doctor's office (good timing)!! He's doing fine…we all wish you a speedy recovery.