Day 2

Wow, another long day on the water. I got to the club at 10:30, and once again, blue sky was popping through the clouds in places. However, after our very long sail to the race circle, the clouds were thick and the wind was out of the south around 10 knots. The RC set a course and started the Apprentice Master fleet with one general recall and immediate black flag. They then started the Masters red fleet, who also had a general recall. Before they could start another sequence, the wind went from 195 to 245 to 270 in short order. They abandoned the Apprentice Master race, and proceeded to reset the course.

It takes a while to move a couple of hundred Lasers and all the marks needed for a trapezoid course with gates. While they were moving their water toys, the sun started to shine, and I joked with Andy Roy that it was going to go back to the south as the sea breeze started to fill. Sure enough it did, so we had to wait again while they reset the course again.

Finally around 3:00 they got our race off, after another general recall for the Apprentice Masters. The wind had not gone all the way to the south yet, so I felt that the left side would be favored as the sea breeze filled from that direction with a left shift. I won the pin in good shape, unfortunately we were in a bit of a right phase and things didn't look too good initially. Once the left shift came in, things looked brighter, and I held off the last boat on that side and tacked on his windward hip. Sure enough we got more of a left shift, and after battling through the spinnakers of the fleet in front of us, I rounded the windward mark in 16. I held my position on the reach leg, and on the next downwind, I was able to pass a few boats, rounding the leeward gate in 12. Things were looking good, but the wind was fading fast. The next upwind was light and very shifty. I tacked on every shift, since I didn't mind roll tacking at all, it kept my speed going, although roll tacking in rolling swells with choppy waves on top is interesting to say the least. I held my position downwind, but right at the leeward mark, the wind shifted hard to the left (finally the seabreeze coming in) and although I had the inside at the mark, I was hung out to dry in everyone's bad air. Finally after the jibe, we had to run down on what should have been a reach leg, and had a reach to the finish. I lost a lot of boats on the last two legs, and finished 22. Not too bad, better than yesterday, but it felt good to be playing with the front of the fleet.

Sea breeze now fills in and starts to honk at around 15 knots, and they get another start off after another general recall for the Apprentice Masters. By the time we got started the wind had dropped to 10 and was very shifty. Working the shifts up the first upwind was difficult, and the reach and downwind were slow, but the next upwind, it dropped out completely, and left the fleet scattered all across the course struggling to get to the windward mark. They sounded the three horns for the abandonment shortly thereafter, although we weren't sure until a judge boat told us to go home.

I was lucky to hitch a tow with a faster powerboat and talked him into planing us his tow string in. We were first to the beach of all the Standard rigs by a long shot.

Tomorrow looks sketchy at best, not around 68 for a high with partly cloudy skies and a light northerly breeze. Not much chance of a sea breeze apparently. So let's see what the light and shifty on the Chesapeake has taught me.