SHIP'S LOG:

     well, the rain forecast for Wednesday did arrive. . .  .and lasted about five minutes. Rather than clear the air it added eve more humidity and improved the situation not at all. As  for the Wednesday Night Races, it was more of a Wednesday Night Drift. The breeze rarely got as high as 10knots and then only in what, with some humor, you might call "the gusts."  Even though the current was pretty much slack for the entire time,  everyone had to "battle" against it and  pretty much were defeated by it. Pile ups at the marks were awful with everyone trying to round without hitting the mark of other boats. The problem lay in the fact that with so little wind and all of it being "disturbed as the boats jockeyed at the marks, it got to the point that everyone was loosing steerage and the fact that no one whacked into someone else was nothing short of a miracle.

     The other complicating factor was the passage of the ferries, There were six(6) that went in and out during the "race", disturbing the water and making it lumpy. If you had a nice, fast racing hull boat, you were effected too much but for most of us, hitting the ferry wakes was like running into a stone wall. All you drive and momentum disappeared in a flash and you just wallowed until you could get moving again. The big, old style ferries tried to creep by, staying out of the way as much as possible and the high-speed catamaran ferries weaved their way right through the fleet, blocking wind and making wakes and generally making a mess of things. Near the end of the race, with skies darkening, the wind died and the boat owner decided that it was  time to pull the plug. We were far and away the last boat so our quitting  the race gave us a DNF - Did Not Finish - which penalized us no more than if we had finished the race in last place. It also got us in to the dock and ashore for dinner before the rains came.

     The next few days of weather are "supposed to be" filled with rain and thunderstorms, according to NOAA, and hopefully it will break the humidity. Saturday is the Calvin Brouwer Memorial Race and I am working on the Mark Boat. Being out in the rain in an open boat for four or five hours is not a lot of fun, so I am praying that the rain holds off until the race is done. Then it can be a "Dark 'N' Stormy Night" while everyone drinks "Dark 'N' Stormy Nights."