Racing with Dummies! Day 1

by Mike

Last night Bob and I attended the mandatory "skippers meeting." There were several people that had some nice and interesting things
to say. Then the boss of the race talked about some rules, starting time, starting line, and things like that. It was probably quite
informative. However, he used a bunch of sailboat and racing terms so neither Bob nor I had much of an idea what he was talking
about.

After the meeting we searched out Mike Boom (one of the race organizers, and a really nice, helpful guy) to find out what to do. We
had read the rules and knew that the race started at 10:00am. "So we just show up before 10:00am and be ready to take off," we
asked? He told us that most of them would leave the dock about 9:00am and gather in the starting area.

So this morning we got up and took off from the dock shortly after 8:00am in order to get out of everyone's way. We couldn't tell
where the starting line was, so we just stayed way behind all the other boats so we could follow them. One of the things they talked
about was being "OCS" in the race. We looked that up on wikipedia later and found out it basically means a false start. In sailboat
racing, if you cross the starting line (which we never precisely located) before the official start time (we thought we could figure
this part out by listening to the radio) then you have to circle back and go through it again.

Anyway … a few minutes before 10:00 they announced on the radio that all racers would motor across the bridge and start near buoy
#17. We found buoy #17 on the map and headed to it. A couple of hours later we noticed the other racers congregating near buoy #70
and realized that #17 was really #70 and we should stay there behind them all.

So we ate lunch. The bologna sandwiches (compliments of Bob) were delicious.

We were truly asea (mentally) at this point. But we persevered and waited. After a pretty long time a lady on the radio said "three
minutes till ????? ????? ????? start ." Something was about to start.

Then she said "two minutes till ????? ????? ????? start." And then proceeded to announce "one minute till …" "45 seconds till …" "30
seconds till …" "15,14, 13, … 3, 2, 1, MARK!" We were getting excited.

We stayed behind all the other boats, expecting them to take off so we could follow. Nothing observable happened. There were still
boats everywhere going in all directions and we stayed away from them.

Then the lady on the radio began another countdown to something else that we could not understand. From "three minutes…" all the way
to "3, 2, 1, MARK!" If any of the boats reacted to this, we could not tell.

After more counting commenced and concluded the boats started pointing in the same direction and took off. We followed behind the
middle of the pack best we could to make sure we didn't miss the starting line. And we were off!

This sailboat racing is not only confusing, it also involves hardships.

Two important things I learned about boat racing. One, they don't let you use powered winches. (One-a: it takes a lot of
hand-cranking to get our mainsail up.) Two, they don't let you use an autopilot.

Today was the first day I have witnessed (I volunteered to drive during that part) our mainsail hand-cranking to the top.

Regarding autopilotless racing, we have crossed the Atlantic twice and sailed a lot of other places. We have used the autopilot more
than 99% of the time that I have been on the boat sailing. Today we used a bungee cord on the steering wheel a lot.

The wind was not particularly cooperative. It was blowing from the south, and we were trying to go south.

So we ate supper. Doc Fullerton had the bad manners to catch a 21 pound black fin tuna just before we ate. So eating was delayed a
bit due to his inconsideration.

We ended up going mostly west and only a little south. But, the sky was clear and the temperature in the 70s. Nice.