It’s good to get the issues out of the way early, and our engine overheating on the way to the start line was, I assumed, to be our only issue. RHKYC and the organizers had been more than overwhelmingly welcoming and provided a good place to prepare and practice for the race, as we had done for the coupla days before, but nothing can overcome sucking up some harbor junk into the intake.
We throttled way back, put up the sail and got to the start in plenty of time. Presumably the bag/shirt/fish that had been overheating the engine is gone.
Our start was good and we surged forward toward, uh, somewhere, vaguely defined by a gps point. The first mark was “a windward mark if set.” Um, okay, where and how far to windward and was it set? No answer to any of these, so we followed the fleet leaders while scanning the horizon for this mythical mark. Finally, we gave up on it and played a fun game of “which rock is basalt island?”
That was the other mark. Again, the fleet leaders helped us out here.
At the end of a warm 6-hour race, mostly on starboard, to weather (except for a frustrating 15 minutes in a wind hole) we found ourselves drag-racing against a Russian boat for the finish. Team Nord is very good. We enjoyed the close competition, though they got away from us when we split tacks and they got the better wind. A Chinese boat snuck in too, and we ended up about 12th out of 29. Still, not too bad.
A long long ride to the hotel, and our cheering section was there to cheer us, and then off to the event celebration!
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