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May 08, 2006
The Circle of Life
Things have a habit of repeating themselves. Having thought about my previous seasons and each seasons disastrous 1st race I was rather hoping that this year would be different. Unfortunately this was not the case; life's rich tapestry had the hump!
EAORA ran 2 events during the weekend just passed. The Pattinson Cup on the Saturday and the Ralph Herring race on the Sunday. I was originally entered for both. The plan was to sail both shorthanded with my father as crew.
Even with no wind the Pattinson Cup started out ok for us. We were not last, in fact there were a few class one boats behind us as we collectively drifted around the early marks. I had thoroughly enjoyed my little private race with "Inn Spirit", another class 1 with a similar IRC rating.
The shortened course announcement came from Offshore 1 and my father duly wrote the modifications down. For some unknown reason even though my father had written the course down correctly I refused to acknowledge that it was the correct course to be sailed. The give away should have been the point when everyone else went in a different direction, but alas no.. even then I wondered why they were all making such a balls of it.
Some considerable time later I realised my error and swore for a good 5 minutes. The constant down pour and my error filled me with anger. I corrected course and drifted towards the correct mark. Foul tide then got the better of us and rounding Swin Spitway became a dance that involved anchors, frequent kite hoists and patience, plenty of patience.
Determined not to quit I finished the race, albeit last. I then decided I would go home as anyone as angry as I was would only make an even larger mess of it in the following day's race, Ralph Herring would have to do with out me!!
Posted by ninjod at May 8, 2006 11:10 AM