Race week and duck dodge

Race week is a wrap, both for the year, and forever, as this was the last race week. The event organizer has seen declining numbers, and it just no longer pencils out. Now with that said, we had a wonderful time, and really went out in style up in Bellingham.

The week started out with us needing to have the boat up in Bellingham’s by Friday, so that we could meet our sail maker, and have him show us how to make the most of the new sails that we bought from him. To do that, Stephan and I left Shilshole bright and early on Wednesday. Me driving Corvo, and Stefan driving his Catalina 40 Sojunfrun. We spent Wednesday night in Port Townshend, where we watched a World Cup match at TommyKnockers. Then it was time to take a nap, before we went to the Rose Theatre and watched Toy Story 5 (it was a surprisingly good movie) and then we went for a big long walk all over the town, and through the boat yards. Wrapping up the night at Sirens for a small bite and a glass of beer.

Thursday the current let us have a lazy start out of Port Townshend, It was gray and overcast, and we had the current with us, and no real wind or seas to speak of so we made it to Bellingham in good time.

Friday was spent getting the boat ready for Jeff to show up, and walk us through the new sails, and go sailing with us to show us how to get the most out of them. That session was quite useful.

Saturday saw the crew helping Schalleen and her daughter and sister set up the yacht club for the event. That was a lot of fun, and we got to learn a lot of interesting things about Schalleen. She is quite the person, and just a sweetheart to boot.

Sunday had us go out for another practice sail, before the week began.

Race week started out with super light winds on Monday and Tuesday. A bit more wind on Wednesday, and on Thursday there was a big blow. We got out there, and opted to miss the first race, as we went back to the marina and swapped out the new sails for the old sails. We weren‘t defending or fighting for a podium spot at this point, and we didn’t want to blow out our brand new sails. There is a rule in the J105 class that you can only use a single mainsail in any given event, so we opted to respect that rule and retired after we finished the races.

Friday saw us put the new sails back on the boat, and was our best day of the regatta. We won a race, and managed to finish 3rd overall for the day. We were pretty pleased with that.

After the wrap up party, the five of us headed over to a friends boat for a wonderful dinner, before Alex and Kat headed back down to Seattle, (Alex’s cousin Sam was coming into town, and staying with Alex, so he needed to get down there).

Saturday was go home day - there were six J105’s that left Bellingham Bay around 9 in the morning, and motored together. Jaded headed to Port Townshend, and that left five us of navigating the Swinomish Channel. Moose and Lift off continue through, and Creative, Panic and I stoped at LaConnor for the evening. I had the opportunity to join Mark Prentice and his Wife Hilary for lunch and dinner, and get to know them a bit better, I used to Race against Mark in Thistles 20+ years ago, and he has installed a copy of HelmLog on his boat and is using it as well.

Sunday morning I found myself a cup of coffee, and then Creative (Mark and Hillary’s boat) and I headed towards Seattle at 7am. It was kind of cold and overcast, but I didn’t get a drop of rain, until I tied up at the slup at 3 in the afternoon. Catherine and Kat met me down there and we unloaded the boat, before heading over to Alex and Victorias house for dinner and to hang out with Sam.

We decided to take Monday of from sailing, but I did go down and give the boat a scrub.

Tuesday we called off soup night, and took the gang out to Duck Dodge for Tropical night. That was a lot of fun.

So now We will be spending the next 10 days getting ready for the annual pig roast next weekend, and then it will be the final push to the North American championships.

Love ya all

Dan W