2011 Key West Race Week: Day 6

Today was a rough day on the water.  It started out with an intense fog that limited visibility to only a couple hundred feet.  We were postponed on shore for 30 minutes before finally being sent out.  Initially the fog was lifting as we were heading out of the channel, but once out in open water it came in even thicker.  We didn’t have a chart plotter onboard so we ended up using a plotter app on my iPhone using coordinates radioed by the race committee to find their position.  One unlucky Melges 24 ended up several miles away on the Division 3 course.

The Race Committee postponed us on the water until the fog lifted and then got racing started.  The wind was light in the 6-8 knot range and by the time we were actually racing it was rarely over 6.  At least the water was pretty flat so we weren’t bobbing around.

I can’t say much else about the racing because I didn’t see any of it.  To best position our crew weight while sailing upwind, Lud and I sat down below.  Being out of the sun with a slight breeze was more comfortable than being on deck.  If only we hadn’t tacked so much causing me to switch sides, I could have actually caught some zzz’s.

At the last minute before the mark rounding, Lud and I would spring onto deck and raise the spinnaker.  We’d be on deck until it was doused and then we were back below.  Results-wise it wasn’t the best day for us.  We put up an 8 and a 13 in two races dropping us into 8^th.

After racing we did some packing at the condo as many of our crew are hoping on a plane immediately after racing tomorrow.  We hit up the regatta party, grabbed some sea food for dinner and called it a night.