Mas Racing

See that boat in the background? We passed them!!

We went out for yet another race on Saturday. Even though we've been working on an ever growing pile of boat projects, Vlad and I have decided that racing with our awesome neighbors is most certainly worth the time. Just from going out a couple of times with some experienced sailors, we've learned invaluable information on sail trim, sail combinations, wind direction, working as a team while tacking and this week, alas, losing.

Yep, you heard right. We got schooled on Saturday's race. Our intrepid captain started out on the starboard tack (yes, I've learned what that means too), thinking we could get closer to the first mark and pick up the shore wind. That was some serious strategic thinking. Unfortunately, that fickle beast known as the wind refused to cooperate. 

The view from the back of the pack.

And to make matter worse, we blew out the napkin! Our secret weapon, our power animal, our tiny little spinnaker gone with one snap of the sheet! Of course, we are racing in a heavy cruising boat against J boats and light-weight coastal cruisers, so perhaps it's not that surprising that we came in pretty close to last this time what with the uncooperative wind. We will just have to wait until the races start up again in March to redeem ourselves.

Remember, kids, always put two turns around the winch.

And this time I was the wounded warrior! In moment of short-sightedness, I didn't put the spinnaker sheet around the winch before we popped the chute. Rookie mistake, but, hey, I'm a rookie. Have you ever had a line yanked through your hands by 16 knot winds while you stupidly try to hang onto it? It might not sound like much, but let me just say that it burns. I mean, really, really burns. By the time we got back to the dock, I was like one of those cartoon characters pouring aspirin into my mouth straight from the bottle. Vlad patched me up with some burn cream and an ice pack and even more duct tape. We've really got to stop using duct tape on our wounds. And I'm getting some sailing gloves.