Race 2

Monday 19th August

As we headed off to the marina this morning there appeared to be marginally more breeze, although the forecast is still for light winds.

The start is only postponed by around 15 minutes as the wind fills a little, and our course today takes us in the direction of the Molle group of Islands, leaving Pine Island, White Rock and Denman Island to starboard leaving a spinnaker run home to the Dent passage. The start and finishing lines were just off the Hamilton Island Yacht Club .

We have been given a very tough handicap of 1.1, so it is going to be hard work to do any good.

By the time we started, 11.15am, there was a 2 knot current running North through the passage, and the challenge was to dodge all of the other boats in a very crowded Dent Passage, and make sure the tidal current didn't sweep you over the line early.

We had a conservative start, but started to catch up ground quickly as we got into clear air. The vrew was a bit more slick today and errors diminished, but there is still room for improvement, but things were starting to fall into place and we worked our way through the field. The breeze built to 9-14 knots and we were up over 9 knots on quite a few occasions.

We had a bit of a tacking battle with a Hanse 540e, One O Nine, but surged past them once we had a clear run. There was the usual whale sighting off Pine Island, but everyone was intent on the sailing.

Ross trimming the Spinnaker

The finish was a bit like the start with lots of boats crowding into the very narrow Dent passage, with the wind falling dramatically as everyone entered the passage with the wind dead behind us.

We ended up finishing 4th today on handicap, a much better result. One O Nine , who we had left a long way behind, ended up winning on handicap. We are now equal 2nd in our division after 2 races, so the crew is inspired to do better again tomorrow where we expect a bit stronger breeze, which should suit Salacia.

After the finish we had to motor around outside the harbour entrance for an hour, until there was enough water for us to get in. A few of the big boats went in early and were either sitting on the bottom or turned around and came back out.

Overall, it was a great days sailing and Salacia did very well. We were down to a crew of 7 so the girls had to pitch in and did very well. The sailing conditions up here are hard to beat, with spectacular scenery and the odd whale sighting on relatively flat water.