A trying Silver Eagle Race

We pulled the plug at TI at around 6:30, If the wind cooperated there was going to be at least another 3 hours of racing, and if it didn't who knows. It was an up and down race. There were multiple races in the race, if I look at them independently we did great, but if you put it all together, well it would have sucked.

Day started with a jammed main halyard, had to pull into the GGYC marina. With a locking main the actual halyard is really small and light and if its breeze and we are not careful it can jump the sheave and jam. Well it was breeze and we weren't careful. Didn't have to climb the mast. If we get a long line (which we now carry) and enough angle on it, we can give it a good pull and pop it out.

First race, start and central bay: OK start in good pressure. Had to do a couple clearing tacks to get on a good lane. A bit of a too close lee bow by a friendly competitor, way too early in a long race to call for a foul (and we didn't carry our protest flag anyways). Got to the windward mark first closely followed by the Melges 24 (those boats can point). Initially thought the reach to LH would be too tight to set so we had set up for a gibe set at LH, but we had it all wrong. Halfway up to LH we could have set but had everything in the wrong side. Kept high to give us enough room to gibe-set and and gibe back. Good pressure and started separating from the Melges and the FT. Gibed at LH and couldn't make Blossom with the big kite up. Kept on going a little ways to have a better angle to Blossom, dropped and had a fast white sail reach to Blossom. By the time we rounded Blossom we have built a healthy lead. We stayed middle-right to avoid the worst of the lee of Angel Island and as we neared Pt. Blunt we reset the kite to push us further East to try to get around the hole and avoid the remaining ebb. There was to getting around the hole and here we parked it for around 45 minutes, seeing all the folks behind us join us. We had lunch and waited and waited for enough of a breeze to get us to the other side. Kite up, kite down, jib up, jib down, repeat....

The folks on the island side got free first, but it quickly filled in to a let us loose too. We followed the Tiger for a bit and then broke to the right in search of more pressure near the Richmond restricted area. Not sure everyone respected the restricted area, but again, no flag and that one is a bit harder to proof unless you can get the right picture or have some witnesses. We quickly got in the lead again and led the fleet to PCM. Nice cruising conditions, flat water 10 - 12 knots. Good time to let the crew get some driving time. Got to PCM first and started to work our way back. We went right to try to avoid as much of the building flood as possible.

A pleasant upwind leg to the sisters, with the Melges making up some ground on us on the lightish conditions, we had a bit of speed on them but they had 5+ degrees of point on us. Decision time at the Sisters, stay North and try to run the edge of the current or cut across to San Pablo. North seemed a long way around to were we needed to be, so we cut across with the monohull fleet following. But 3/4 of the way to the shallows on the San Pablo side the wind shut down and we got caught in no-mans land. Center channel in a f&*% flood and no breeze. The folks behind saw it and tacked away. Eventually we worked our way to the shallows and short tacked up to San Pablo Pt. Played the cone on the Brothers and gained back some of what we had lost to the Tiger and Melges that were now in front of us. More shore tacking between the piers. While both the Melges and the Tiger continued short tacking up to the bridge, we broke out early and headed to Red Rock, with the eventual goal of getting to the westerlies first. This seemed to pay off. We crossed the Richmond Bridge first and got past Red Rock first. Us on the West side and the Tiger and the Melges on the East. We kept playing the right, but the two breezes were in constant fight right over us with neither dominating. The Melges committed way to the East, we played the West and the Tiger was in the middle. For a while we looked really good, but the Melges got the breeze first and shot off to the lead. Another wind hole around Southampton before we could catch up to the strong westerly in the slot. At this point we were on a tight reach to the West side of TI chasing down the Melges. Solid 20 - 25 knots in the slot, but the long day was wearing down on us.

We almost put the outboard on at the lee of Angel, but the Westerly filled in and we decided to continue racing and re-evaluate at TI. It was past 6 at the time we reached TI and we decided to pull the plug and head to the leeward side of TI towards Alameda. We were still sailing when we crossed the Bay Bridges and what we saw solidified our decision to call it a day. It looked really light on the South Bay. 

Well, that was that, motored down the Estuary, saw the Can and Ghost, ghosting down the Estuary on their way to finish. Hopefully a better run next year. Congrats to the finishers, it was certainly a trying day.