Race 4

Thursday 22nd August

Sadly, when we looked out off the balcony this morning, the strong breeze of yesterday was gone and it looks like we are back into another race in light winds. The wind did appear a little stronger than the earlier races.

We met up on Salacia at the usual time ( just after 9 am) to find out from Ross that we will be sailing a longer course today, 27.1 nm which will take us out of the Northern end of Dent passage, then heading to Pentacost Island before heading down the western coast of Lindeman Island, rounding a mark for a spinnaker run back to the finish opposite the yacht club.

Today the current in the passage is running against us at the start, and we are starting in the 6th start , behind the slower divisions. We got off to quite a good start with spinnakers up early and, not surprisingly, we quickly caught the earlier fleets in a huge jam up at the exit of the passage. We did a remarkable job of weaving our way through the mess without drama, but heard a lot of strong language around us from others not doing as well. Nevertheless, it cost us time.

Finally out into some clear air we started picking up ground and steered a good course to Pentacost Island, with a brief run with the shy spinnaker, before we hit a dead spot near the island. All of a sudden the fleet came to a halt and there was lots of tacking and seeking out the best position to maximise the current and fluky breeze.

                                                                       Where is the wind ?

Once the island was clear , there was a brief period where things were moving again, but at the next mark, it looked like a parking lot. We all struggled through this section and finally, we were back on the wind and making our way to the last mark, before turning to run home. It was not looking to be a good day for the high handicapped boats, with the race taking around 4 hours to complete.

The handicap winner overall was Sir Thomas Sopwith, a lovely old restored ketch which crossed the line last on time, but had a handicap ideal for todays conditions. Salacia finished 18th on handicap, Condor 19th, Eureka 11 20th and Hammer of QLD 21st. Whitebirds put in great performance blitzing the field with line honours, but it was only worth a 15th place on handicap.

We are now 3rd in the series, after a count back. There are 3 of us on 35 points.

It was probably not our best days sailing but I am sure we will improve in the last 2 races. It wasn't through lack effort, trying anything and everything to try and deal with very frustrating conditions. At least we got better at tacking.