We escaped the West River doldrums and snuck out into the lead by staying on the South shore of the West River and then the Western shore of the Bay for a bit. The port jibe across the Bay was the painful part with the disorganized chop, so trying to minimize time spent there was key - but you could only avoid it so much as eventually you had to go east to get to Bloody Point! Roger eventually rolled us, and then it was a great fight to the lighthouse between us and John McLaughlin/Bobby Noll. Just before the lighthouse John edged us, so at Bloody Point it was Roger, John, and Us. Right behind was Constantine on the Taipan, as he had just rolled Doug and Andy. Upwind Doug and Andy got us, but we somehow managed to keep Constantine behind us (at least on the water). John and Bobby had a problem near the finish, so over the line it was Roger and Joe, Doug and Andy, John and Bobby, Alec and me, Todd and Mike. Roger really took off upwind with his new main sail on the SC-22. We had him in our sights going downwind, but once he turned the mark he was gone! Then came the A-Cat onslaught...

Great day on the Bay! Light and challenging at the start and through the West River, but it filled in enough for a decent spin ride to Bloody Point. The course to the light and back actually made for about as good a downwind/upwind course as you can get - there were no drag races going on.

If the spin boats owned the downwind ride to lighthouse, the A-Cats ruled the upwind side. Light conditions on the way back started to give way as some clouds were moving on the West shore producing some really nice outflow. Almost all the distance we got on the spin ride out disappeared to the A's during the upwind sailing on the way back. What awesome boats (I hate them <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> ). We got to cut some distance off Doug and John when we caught a shift at the end that kept us going between close reach and beat to the finish, but we didn't need to tack like they did.

Great day on the Bay. No death and destruction that I know of, unless you count getting taken up to windward near the finish by a Chespeake 20 who either didn't see us or didn't like getting passed to windward by a cat. I did ask Alec if there was a particular place on the Bay he would like for me to fall off the boat. But since he didn't answer me I decided to stay onboard this time. It really does work out better that way, hoodafiggereddat. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

So, hey, it looks like we do occasionally just have a good sailing day!