Day 3

What a beautiful day of sailing, albeit a little frustrating. We were greeted at the club with beautiful sunny skies, crisp cool temperatures and a solid northerly breeze. We got on the water around 11:30 a.m. and for a change had a nice reach out to the race circles which they tucked away in the NW corner of the bay. I think they were concerned that the sea breeze would compete with the prevailing northerly, so they tried to set the course as far from where the sea breeze fills from as possible. It was a long sail to the course, but it was lots of fun, 15-20 knot reach planing all the way across the bay. The ride was so quick we got there 1/2 hour early. I ended up having a very nice conversation on the water with a local that was just getting into soft water sailing (he is a long time ice boater). I learned a lot about the area from him.

RC had a short postponent as the wind went to the right and set the course at 20 degrees. No general recalls, and I got a good start toward the pin end. I was able to pinch off an Italian at the start, and was treated to some delightfully colorful swear words in Italian, I wasn't sure if he was upset with me, but when I glanced back, he was clearly upset with himself and his poor start. We immediately saw a left shift, and tacked right away, in very good position, with most of the fleet to leeward on the right. It was quite shifty, and spent most of the first upwind crossing tacks with Andy Roy and a New Zealander. I went right at the top of the leg, and that was a mistake, as I lost about 10 boats, rounding the windward mark in 12 overall. Downwind was solid, held my position, and on the next upwind, playing the shifts kept pushing me to the right side, which is not where I wanted to be, and sure enough lost a lot of boats on that upwind. I was able to pass a couple boats on the reach, and took one more on the downwind, but then on the reach leg, which was very puffy, I sailed into a puff and jumped out to hike, unfortunately, I missed the hiking strap, and went in the water backwards. Not a pretty site! Lost two boats as I righted the boat, and ended up 36 in that race, disappointing because I was in good shape after the first upwind and downwind.

The next race was started shortly after we finished. For some reason, once again, we had a huge left shift at the start, and we could not make the line on Starboard. I tacked immediately onto port, and again had most of the fleet to my right. Again worked the shifts and rounded the windward mark in 10th. Much better, downwind was solid, held my place, and on the upwind, I worked the shifts, but made the mistake of going right at the top of the leg, and lost some boats. I went very low with Ari Barshi on the reach leg, and we passed about three boats, and started downwind. I was able to pass about three boats, and put some distance on the boats behind us downwind, and I was quite happy with myself, until I looked up and saw that Ari had launched on the downwind and had put a significant amount of distance on me. Wow, I thought I was doing well, and in fact was since I did pass three boats, but not nearly as well as he did. About half way down the downwind leg, I was to leeward of an Aussie, I pointed out, politely, that I was leeward and pointing straight at the gate so please don't come down. We both held our course, and there was no contact although we were close, and he started chattering away, and to be honest, I didn't understand a word he said (and I thought I was pretty good at understanding Aussie accents). Anyway that was fun for a while, and on the reach leg, a Swedish boat was able to work down on me with speed and just break the overlap. On the short upwind leg to the finish, I went to the left, and the Swedish boat went right, and I passed him before the finish, and ended 21.

Beautiful day of sailing, very challenging as it was quite shifty, but we had about 10-15 knots all day. We had a nice reach back to the club as well, after going around the Radial race circle, and got in at a very reasonable time around 5 p.m. Great day of sailing! Best of all, I was entertained by a frustrated Italian and his colorful language, he was not very loud, but he talked to himself for quite a while, fun! Then I learned a lot about the local area from Bob (the ice boater), and he has invited me up for some hard sailing (ice boating) some time. He races DN ice boats, and builds everything except the spars and sail himself. He even builds his own blades (skates). Oh, and I also apparently had a conversation with an Aussie, but didn't understand a word he said. All in all, a very fun international day.

Tomorrow is our "rest day", so no racing scheduled. I think I will take a ride down the coast of Nova Scotia and check out some of the lighthouses they have here, should be fun. Samson will get to come along, so he will be quite happy about that. Around 5 p.m. they have a band and social at the club tomorrow, so will try to make it back for that. Thursday we are back on the water for three more days of racing. Now let's see if I can find me a therapeutic massage somewhere tomorrow, I need it.