It's Good To Be Back
Or is it... After spending time back east , I was eager to get back on the water and racing again. It had been several weeks. The guys did okay without me but the familiarity of sailing together (Don and Gordon for over 30 years and the three of us of nine) is a big comfort and advantage. So it felt good to be out on the water, in a good stiff breeze and gearing up for a race last Thursday evening. We got off the line fairly well as did several others. We had to hold our position for a while until the others tacked away (no wanting to duck three or four boats). We had Faux Pas below us and couldn't quite get the clean air we wanted but had no place to go. Finally after the boats above us tacked away, we were free to tack over on port. We continued for a while until our lift decreased and we tacked back to starboard.... "starboard... STARBOARD!"... BANG. Similar to this . After getting over the initial shock and briefly making sure Faux Pas was okay, I checked out the da...