After several weeks of humidity and wacky wind conditions, last night on the North East River was simply delightful. We had warm conditions, low humidity, a nice breeze, and a big crowd to enjoy it all. Since even good breezes have pooped out in previous weeks, we set a conservative length course so everyone could finish and get home before midnight. Just as we were starting, when the wind usually starts to drop, the opposite happened and we suddenly had lots of wind, and blasted around the course in record time the first boat finished in just 25 minutes.

It was great to see Wilson King and crew out on Victoria for the first time this season, as well as Bob Cantarera on Moondance. Ron Roecker and crew were out there sailing very fast, although not on my Immediate radar screen because we were too busy chasing Morning Star and Cantare, and keeping others off our tail. Imagine my surprise when the results got crunched and I saw we beat them by a mere six-tenths of a second! (Yes Ron, I checked the numbers several times!). Way too close for comfort, and it will really tweak me if I hear they had beer on the way out. The full results are attached.

Unfortunately, there’s no provision in the sailing instructions to extend a course enroute, only to shorten it. So once everyone finished, we had a bonus start and a drag-race reach to the C mark and back which was lots of fun and saw all the boats rather tightly packed in a herd, and all finishing in a span of 3 minutes, first to last. I had asked Larry LeMasters to sail with Cliff Robinson and I aboard Solaris, figuring it would be our typical light-air relaxing evening. Larry got quite the workout trimming the genoa, keeping us about a half-boat length ahead of Morning Star the entire way, who was trying hard to pass us while keeping Cantare off of their stern. And right on their tail was Sugaree. While the whole fleet didn’t fit in the frame, everyone looked to be bow to stern with the boat in front of them the entire way.

As always, when the wind blows from the East, the smell of burgers on the grill lofts out over the river, so our big crowd was really hungry when everyone got in. The staff had lots of plates flying for a very receptive group. Tim Dishong, skipper of Lisadell, told us this week was his last – he and his wife are moving to Dana Point, California this week. Best of luck in your new adventures. For the rest of you – pry yourself away from the office and come enjoy next Thursday evening with us on the North East River.

Michael Wagner