Back to Sailing

So much for my China trip. I'll finish that up later.
I've been doing the Wednesday night races on Panache, a Ranger 37. The boat routinely comes in last place but first place in fun. The crew is a mixed bag of old and young - more newbies than seasoned sailors. Some nights it has looked like a Chinese fire drill when trying to put the spinnaker up.
Last Wednesday was a different story. We were winners. Well we beat one boat anyway. The course took us down the Rhode River and was a bit over 5 miles. The wind was coming straight at as, 7 to 8 knots, as we tacked out of the West River. Our competition came from behind, passed us, but tacked a bit too early as we were approaching the Rhode River and had to do an extra tack. That gave us an edge. We stayed in front down the Rhode and back but they passed us up again as we headed back down the West River flying spinnakers. With superb teamwork we managed to jibe the spinnaker and pass our competition. We held our breath as we approached the finish, hoping to cross the line 15 seconds ahead to win. Well at least we weren't in last place this week.
Always first in fun.