racing.................................from P

The old cliche is true. Two or more sailboats going in the same general direction means.... the race is on! This weekend there were 81 boats trying to go in the same direction faster. It was the "Southern Bay Race Week" at its best. Three full days of intense racing for the Black Seal Cup. Wow! What a wild weekend. Senara did not race, instead I crewed for a friend aboard T-L-Sea. The series consisted of 7 races over three days, with three intense races in 15 to 20 knot average winds yesterday. My knees are skinned up and my muscles are sore. Racing conditions ranged from dead calm this afternoon (we actually dropped anchor to keep from losing ground in the current)up to a gear-busting 31 knot gust clocked during one of yesterday's races. Last year I raced Senara in this series. After only 4 races in last year's series Senara finished 9th overall out of 15 boats in our class. We did much better later in the year at the Neptune Festival Regatta in Virginia Beach where we won the cruising class aboard Senara by a huge margin, and we would have been second in the non-spin A class. A very strong showing, although we bent my whisker pole in the 25 knot wind as it laid against the shroud on a wing&wing. I guess it's like they say in NASCAR - you ain't racin' if nothin' breaks! But, back to this year's Black Seal Cup. T-L-Sea's crew of four - Capt. Tony, Fred, Mike, and yours truly finished with a fourth place out of seven boats in our class. Fast boats from up and down the east coast participate in this event. Just like last year, I will take the middle of the pack spot proudly. Senara retired from racing after the Neptune Regatta victory last year. I have two more weekends lined up to crew aboard T-L-Sea. After that, I am following Senara's lead and retiring from racing myself. The only racing I want to do over the next year is to stay ahead of bad weather, and get to the best anchorage holes first. That is, unless another boat is going in the same direction.