Surprise's Surprise

[racer2677]

Surprise’s SurpriseEach year since we moved to Long Island, New York, my crew and I have participated in the Middle Ground Night Race. The 2003 season was no exception. It was early spring when we sold Mystique, our Catalina 30, and late spring when we found and purchased Surprise, a 1987 Catalina 34.Our first race in Surprise was to be (you guessed it) the Middle Ground Night Race. In this race the course starts at a point outside Mount Sinai harbor, it then proceeds in a northwesterly direction to a lighted red buoy near the Middle Ground Light, then almost due south to a Morse A buoy outside Port Jefferson Harbor, and finally in an easterly direction back to a red and white buoy just outside Mount Sinai Harbor. The club’s policy for any race is that if there is no committee boat on station at the end of the race, each competitor must note the time at which he or she passes between the red and white buoy and the jetty at the Mount Sinai harbor entrance. Also, the members who race and who serve as race committees are knowledgeable of the rules, and they usually mark the finish line so that if the last turning buoy was left to port, the committee boat would be stationed in such a way that a boat finishing the race would have the buoy at the finish to port.This year the course was no different. As a result of very light southwest winds at the start of the race, we had a very slow beat in a southwesterly direction from a club mark to the red and white buoy outside Mount Sinai Harbor. After rounding the mark, the fleet was still pretty close together as we began the reach toward the Middle Ground Light. During the evening, the breeze filled in.As we rounded the flashing red light near the Middle Ground Light, and started the beat toward the buoy at Port Jefferson, the fleet began to spread out. Of course, as the name suggests, the Middle Ground Night Race is done mostly at night (after sunset). By the time we rounded the buoy at Port Jefferson we had lost sight of nearly all the competitors.Finally, on the last leg of the race we were reaching in an easterly direction. As we neared the finish line, we saw that the boat anchored there was not in the correct position. Since we had left the Port Jefferson buoy to port, the committee boat should have been anchored south of the buoy at Mount Sinai. This boat was anchored east of the buoy.Believing that we had to have the buoy to port, we crossed the line between the anchored boat and the buoy going from south to north. While we did so, we shone a light on our sail number, and I also glanced at my watch to see how long the race had taken us. There was no signal or acknowledgement of any kind from the anchored boat.Confused by their silence, we thought that perhaps they weren’t sure of the rules, and so we turned around, and re-crossed the line from north to south. Still there was no acknowledgement from the other boat. So, we sailed close to the boat’s stern, and seeing that there was no one in the cockpit, I yelled SURPRISE. The only sound from the other boat was some laughter. In a state of consternation, we turned and sailed back to our mooring in Port Jefferson. A few days later I received a call from the Race Committee Chairman asking me what time we finished the night race. I informed him that we had called out to the committee boat, and they should have the official time. He told me that there was no committee boat on station, and that after the race started, the committee boat had returned to the harbor.I imagine that the scenario must have been something like this. Wishing to have a quiet evening in their boat, some folks anchored near the buoy outside Mount Sinai Harbor. I’m sure they were enjoying the evening. Suddenly , as midnight was approaching, a boat appeared out of the darkness and someone yelled SURPRISE.

 

[scott]

Hey Racer, that was a good read

I couldn't figure out the ending until the end.

 

[George H260]

Great story

Great story, good reading! Loved the ending. This is exactily what makes this web site so great! Tell us more.