Twilight Race 3/09

Tonight we had the pleasure of sailing with a new crew member.  Wendy usually sails with her husband on their lovely old wooden yacht Jezebel, but I traded them my 'significant other' in exchange.  Wendy is a very able sailor with years of experience so we have gained a great deal. It was a baptism of fire however with very squally gusts of wind up to 25 knots which you could hear coming through the trees on the shore like a steam train and then flattening all in its wake.  Many of the yachts reefed sails or put on a smaller jib. Being cautious we started the race very well with only the mainsail and a tiny bit of the jib and even then we had to let the mainsail out at times just to stop being knocked down by the gusts.  We were the first across the start line but soon lost ground to the more competent and confident men.  Each leg saw us get further behind even though, as the winds settled a bit, we were able to use the full jib.  We did make up a great deal of ground on the last leg but still came in 12th out of 12 yachts.  We learnt a lot and we were proud of the fact that we completed the course in some of the roughest conditions any of us had sailed in.  We now have  full women crew so the pink shirted Pathfinder girls are now a compete team.  We all got on well and the jokes started to flow.  It was a scary night but also a satisfying one.  The men give us their respect - we earned it - and were very happy to talk tactics and give us their support.  With luck next week will have better conditions and we can really improve. 'Til then... fair winds and good sailing to all.