The Seattle Yacht Club holds a race every year in November called the Grand Prix. My friend John’s boat (Gaucho) that I crew on, on Wednesday nights during the summer is racing in the Grand Prix again this year. I took Friday off from work so I could race all three days of the regatta.
Friday morning was very windy (good) and rainy (bad). I decided to get up early, even though it was a day off from work and move the contents of my dock box from K dock to our new slip on E dock before I need to be down a John’s boat at noon.
At first it looked like the wind was gonna die down and we would just be left with the rain. Which makes for a shitty day racing. Sitting on the rail in the rain is tolerable if the wind is up, but it sucks ass if it’s raining and there is little to no wind. But lucky for us, the wind picked up about the time we got out to the start line. And when I say picked up, I mean it picked up. It was blowing around 20knots and gusting even higher.
We only had one long race and we ended up getting second after corrected time. We crossed the line first but John’s boat owes the others in our class time so we ended up in second for the day. But free beer and pizza at the yacht club after the race makes up for second place. At least for me. :)