Oh I am not worried about any rating if we come in 6th out if 5 we'll be happy. As far as we are concerned, finishing is winning.
Awesome! with all the thunderstorms and wild winds, I was a bit worried. On Saturday there were bands of storms moving across the Bay only about 5-10 miles north of Rock Hall. We went out on Sunday with some friends on their Catalina 36 and anchored out for lunch at Magothy River near the Bay Bridge. Going out, it was blowing 14-15 kts from WNW. Coming back it was blowing 22kts with 3-foot waves. I'm glad you did not have to try sailing into this all the way up the Bay!!! Congrats on finishing.Well it's over, Jim (THECUSCUS) smoked us. We lost sight if him and whimsey shortly after the start when it got dark. The boat behind is never caught us and we overtook another about 3 hours in but they were in the big gulp class, they had no bow lights and made an odd tack. I wondered if they were dropping our but we couldn't see them because their lights were out.
Once we made the 1/2 way mark, we had a starboard tack straight shot to the finish. We thought we could hold it to the end. Our Garmin had us with an estimated finish around 6 until about 330 am when the wind just died and changed direction. The last 6 miles were tough but we finished at 9:05 am.
I forget when Jim finished but I think it was in the 6:00 hour some time.
None the less we had a great time and look forward to next year. Really those of you near by should join us.
All I know is my butt is killing me!!!! 14-15 hours (counting pre-race ad post race time, I need to come up with better seating!!!!
If I told my wife we should participate in a race requiring a 15-hour stay on our boat, she would divorce me before I could ask "Are you interested, Honey?"No, I'm guessing most of our winds were WSW or SW at 8-10 mph until that early morning change to nothing. We did get rained on trying to squeak that last miserable mile in on Saturday Morning.
You should have joined us!!!
Doc, I was on the Bay on Sunday. Another boater in the marina with a daughter my son's age offered to take us to his fav. mooring on Magothy River in view of potential high winds. I thought 15 kts was not too bad, but I wanted a ride on his Catalina 36, so we accepted (and our kids are buddies, anyway). We sailed at 10 AM and made it to the mooring about 12:30 PM. On the way back we were reading wind of 22kts gusting to 27 kts and, like Cuscus said, waves 3-4 feet. We buried the rail on that Catalina (full main and 150 genny), and I was really worried about you guys after seeing a Benetau 40 powering North and jumping the waves with half it's hull exposed. I have NO clue how you even made it home that day. I've gotten sea sick after about an hour of that roller coaster, but held it in and did not embarrass myself. But the Sun was beautiful and at least it was (kinda) warm...We had these guys about half talked into next year until you told the story about your return trip. Haha