And it seems like everything went well!

Reunion – first spinnaker hoist! from Magalie Laniel on Vimeo.

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PS: I finally found a place to post my video with music!!! Yoohooo! vimeo.com

What are we ready to get into to go cheer for Sanya and her secret plan? Rain? Thunderstorms?

On our way to downtown, we had a unique Florida summer thunderstorm experience. For about 20 minutes, we were in the middle of it, and even on that relatively narrow river, we could not see land anywhere around us! We had to sail with the compas… ON THE RIVER!!!!

There we go, she’s ready to get wet again! (us too, apparently)
And everyone got a sip of mousseux for the occasion Thanks Roger!

Here is Salsa Verde with all her coats… a grey bottom, a red-brown botto and a black bottom!

Third week-end at the boat, Ted did his magic and reinstalled the cutlass bearing (with 3 set screws!) and the prop.

I also volunteered him to drill a 3 inch hole in the deck!!! (Too hard for me…) But here’s now a nice solar vent that will pull some moisture and hot air out of the boat year round

JC worked on peeling the varnish off the toe rail

While I went around the hull for a second time to fill in the little blister holes with epoxy.

Hey! We’re ready to paint!!!!

Here is an update on Salsa Verde’s hull:
- The bottom is on the gelcoat, thanks to Bottom Dave’s great work!
- The Awlgrip is shining, thanks to Ted’s Poli Glow contribution!

Here are some photos of the haul out and beginning of the work…

This is a special race where each club of the region select 1 boat to compete in the spinnaker class and 1 boat to race in non-spin class. There were 10 boats total on a short start line ready for 3 races of 2 times around the windward-leward marks. All the most agressive racers were out there and the distance between the hulls was often reduced to the minimum. I wish I could have gotten more of it on tape, but unfortunately, since my poor camera got soaked in iced tea, it has not been very cooperative. Anyway, here’s what I got for a video :

Skimmer is the J30 that shows up to most races in Jacksonville. There are 7 (SEVEN!!!!) J30’s around the area as far as I know, we could have a class!! PEOPLE!!!!! COME RACE WITH US!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, he wanted wind for his birthday, he got more than what he asked for!

An image is worth 1000 words, so what about another video?

If you wondered why we were so far behind, it’s because both our spinnaker and spare halyards snap-shackles blew open when we hoisted the spinnaker… So after fishing the sail out of the water twice, we had a hard time re-hoisting the jib, but finally made it… And everybody else was broaching, but well ahead of us…

This season has been filled with new ways to loose a race, but since we always learned something, we are winners

Thanks guys, I love you all!!!!

This was the Women’s #2 race of the year. Nicole, Andrea, Helen, Joan and I left Julington Creek around noon to have time to scrub the hull on the way there. Well… The storms just came out as we did, so we thought: ” it might not last, let’s just do it at Epping later”. Conditions for the motor-sail were a little rough for even thinking about getting in the water. We were completely wet anyway, but in our foul weather gear!

We docked at Epping, registered and looked around to see when Liberty Call would show up… Hum… Unfortunately, no Liberty Call this time around. We were the only all female crew to race, therefore the only ones in our class. 4 other cruiser showed up: Kara Vela, Lothlorien, Incommunicado and Bernoulli. The rain and strong winds continued to beat through the marina as we were ”supposed to clean the hull” while waiting for the skipper’s meeting. Having no competition made us feel good about our lazyness.

The dock felt just like “home” since I was next to Lothlorien, Diana’s Baba 30 who is my neighbor at Mandarin Holiday. The difference is, because of the outgoing tide flowing through our slips and her full keel, she had the hardest time to get out of there and get to the race course. So we were stuck behind until the dock master came with a power boat to turn her boat around and free her from this docking nightmare. Fiew, nobody touched anything!

Good thing we had no competition, because we did not make it to the start line until 1 minute from the start! Oups… Oh well! Even with the barnacles still well attached we passed Kara Vela early on and led the race regardless of our bad tactical moves (ok Dave, we got it!). Rain, wind, more rain and more gusty winds made us take a reef. We were hauling ass upwind at above 8 kt and the main kept dumping more and more water on our faces in the cockpit. We could have shook the reef out on the last leg, but why the struggle when you just want to finish and get dry. Still, Salsa Verde got her first first place overall !!!

Epping forest dock master was kind enough to allow me to leave her there for the week, since the weather was horrible and we were racing out of FYC the following week. Thank you so much!!!!!

PS: no photos of this race… the camera would not have survived!