Crew
(Top Left to Bottom Right)

Will - Main Trim
Amber - Foredeck
Jesse - Headsail Trim
Mark - Pit
Steve - Pit II
Chet - Mast
Luzia - Floater
Taylor - Railmeat
Jeff - Railmeat
Sarah - Helm
Jamie - Helm

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The night started with the delivery from Elliott Bay with Will, Amber and Jesse.  Will and Amber brought food for an early dinner which was great - and I dealt with the frustration of the engine continuing to have stalling issues including when we landed at Shilshole.   We picked up one of our largest crews of the season and swapped sails to prepare for the heavier winds of the evening.

With the engine still giving troubles, we hoisted the sails and headed out.  We had a great downwind start - what's with the downwind starts at STYC?  The downwind leg to the West Point bouy was a great sparring match between us and Allegro Vivace where we were holding a leeward position that put our spinnaker pole inches away from their boom.  They kept trying to inch down and we held our course making for the closest racing we've seen yet.

As we approached the leeward mark, we were in the thick of the leaders of our class, though found ourselves above the rhumb line and needing to sail either by-the-lee or gybe to get the right angle to the mark.  This is where the wheels kind of fell off the first time of the night - we had to gybe to get to the mark, then gybe again to avoid starboard tack boats and during these maneuvers the jib sheets somehow tangled the pole which led a botched take down.  It was pretty ugly and documented here in photos.  That said, we ended up blowing the tack and taking the chute down and resetting and having a great upwind leg to Meadow Point that saw us catching and passing a few boats.

The set at Meadow Point had a few hiccups - but we sorted them out and had a killer downwind leg seeing some of the best speeds downwind of the night.  We were hauling the mail the chute, and I was incredibly impressed with how well the crew worked together to keep the chute flying perfectly. 

The course got a bit longer for a few of us, as just before we rounded a barge tied up to the mooring.  Once again the take down was our undoing.  I made a mistake by reaching in without blanketing the chute and made the takedown really tough in the heavier air.  This resulted in a very, very ugly take down that ripped the bottom of the chute and required another blowing of the tack.  We recovered and had a good upwind sail to the finish - with everyone aboard exhausted and wishing for better conditions (and luck) next time.

Our sail finished off with the engine giving us plenty of troubles on the way in causing me to let out a caveman style yell of frustration.

In addition to the ripped spinnaker, I would later discover a ripped out foreguy eye, as well as a broker VHF antenna!

However all this carnage was sharply contrasted by one of the most memorable gifts I think I've ever received.  After we landed, the crew surprised Sarah and me with an anniversary gift and thank you for their time on the boat - a heartfelt card from Will, Amber, Steve, Lisa, Chet, Luzia, Jesse, Mark, Adam, Cheryl, Jeff, Taylor and Anne Michelle, as well as a couple of gift cards for the boat that went a ways toward the purchase of a new main!  I don't think I've ever been so surprised or touched by a gift, and till this day I'm sorry we couldn't have had a much better night so I would have been in a better mood to receive it.

I have to add that on the way home - the engine continued to give us trouble, and while in the process of discovering the broken antenna I lost the contact lense in my right (dominant) eye which meant I had to land the boat at marina in the dark with fuzzy vision, no depth perception and an engine that kept stalling whenever I idled.  Let's just say that was 'fun'.

It should be noted that woke up the next morning on cloud nine - thankful for being blessed with a wonderful wife (did I mention that it was our 5 year anniversary on Monday), a wonderful family (the dogs count!), a wonderful boat and a totally wonderful group of friends who like to crew on our boat.

Crew
 

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I do remember the engine gave us trouble, and the wind was light and we flew the light air jib which became bound up in the furling unit because we'd never flown it with the new furler and hadn't made a pendant for it.

Sarah did an excellent job hoisting me up the mast a few days later to fix it, after I'd taken time to try to troubleshoot the engine unsuccessfully - made it a bit better but not much.

I must get better at filing log entries immediately after events.

Crew
 

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Was an awesome night and a great practice!

Crew
 

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Crew
 

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Bollox...

Crew
 

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