After so many years of missing it, I finally took a day off and joined a number of FBYC friends in going to the Urbanna Oyster Festival. The combination of the great weather and large crowds made for excellent people watching. We strolled around and sampled the various sea food and activities going on. The Fireman’s parade was particularly – LOUD.
Fishing Bay Yacht Club‘s closing weekend started with a staggered start distance race for the offshore boats. I sailed on Wavelength for what might be our last race as the boat is now up for sale. The course took us up into Fishing Bay and then back out by the entrance to the Rappahannock River and then back to Stove Point near Jackson Creek. It was mostly a reaching race and some boats were really able to get away from us and put some distance between us and them. We finished mid-pack, had fun and made it a great way to end the season.
Racing was followed by a big oyster roast and pot luck and season awards.
Saturday was the final day of racing for the offshore boats at Fishing Bay Yacht Club followed by an oyster roast. The race was a pursuit style race where the slower boats start first and the times are calculated so everyone should finish about the same time. I was aboard Wavelength and for once it was great having boats of all sizes all around us for most of the race. We ended up finishing 9th in the 17-boat fleet while sailing in winds that started around 8 knots and built to as much as 23 knots during the 1 1/2 hour race. On top of that we were short-handed with only 6 on board and flew the spinnaker.
After racing we enjoyed oysters! RESULTS | PHOTOS
Memorial Day Weekend after sailing the Down The Bay Race on Sunday morning I watched and took some video of the Oyster Shell Triathlon. Last year I did the race with a GoPro camera on my head. So after combining the footage from both years, here’s the video:
Photos from 2012 can be viewed here.
On Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend I participated in my first Oyster Shell Triathlon. It’s an event that started about 4-5 years ago among a group of friends looking for something to do on Memorial Day Weekend and so they started this race. There were just under 30 participants this year and there have been as many as 40 in the past.
The course is a little nontraditional – it starts with swim which turns into a slog – a combination of running in water and swimming. Then a 2-mile bike ride followed by a swim back to the starting point. The final stretch is a ~1 mile run around the Deltaville Maritime Museum and back to the finish.
No times are kept and it’s all for good fun. Considering I signed up for it about 10pm at a party the night before, I felt pretty good about finishing mid-pack. It was a ton of fun and I look forward to doing it again next year.
At some point I’ll post some video [update: video here]. In the mean time, here are some pictures of the Oyster Shell Triathlon.
The Course:
