Or at least this past weekend. We went down to the coast on
Friday after a not-fun week of work on several fronts. Just
stepping onto the boat was like renewal.

Our slip neighbor with a 42' ketch had invited me to sail
with him in an annual regatta that takes place this weekend
every year, so on Saturday morning I packed a lunch and met
up with him & the rest of the crew. The first race started
out in relatively promising wind, abou 10 ~ 12 but gusty,
and it died down little by little until we were sitting
still. The race course was a short (7/10 mile) windward leg
to an inflatable triangle, then downwind by government marks
to Minnesott Pt about 14 miles down the river.

We set a big nylon drifter and a mizzen staysail and worked
hard at staying in the streaks of wind as it died. The gusts
seem to build & stay steadiest near shore, so we tried to
stay close in. For a while we were far behind the rest of
the fleet, expected since the boat probably outweighed any
three of the others put together and is a rather
old-fashioned hull & rig besides. But as the wind died all
over, the rest of the fleet bogged down and parked and we
kept ghosting along near shore.

The modern speedsters, including a J-109, two Benny 36.7s,
and a Soverel 33, just barely made it to the finish line
within the tme limit. We were about 3/4 of a mile away when
the time limit expired.

The next day was the exact opposite... started out with ZERO
wind... I'd have said negative wind if such were possible...
and it built slowly to a nice steady 12 knots. We got in two
short round-the-buoy races, carefully planning the upwind
leg and scrambling to get the spinnaker & staysail set &
drawing on the short downwind legs. I don't think we made
our handicap on any of the races but we were close.

The skipper & crew were a great bunch, I have not sailed
with any of these guys before but everybody was part of the
team and had a very positive attitude.... more than one
lively sense of humor at work too. The sailing was great
even though we could have used more wind, the company really
made it enjoyable.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King