A good start for Salsa Verde this season!
First women’s race, first place!

One new thing too is that we were not only 2 boats, but 3 boats in non-spin class! Kaos, a hobbie 33 was there to challenge us. We passed each other a few times, on one tack she was ahead, on the other I was… This was awesome racing!

This is the 3rd of 4 races of the 2009 women’s series. We were 4 onboard for that race: Nicole, Andrea, Helen and me. Out of 8 boats, only 3 were all women crew in non-spin category. Which is better than the last 2 races where I had 1 or 0 competition… This was a late start planned because of the light breeze forcasted to be coming from the West. On our way to the marina, the west wind was pretty decent, but as soon as the start line was put in place, the wind died and shifted 180 degrees… creating a downwind start! Well…

Most of us opted for a port tack start, but Kara Vela, a nice huge Freedom 40 came across on a starboard tack and screwed everybody by almost blocking the entire line! Good job guys! We were not too disoriented by their move since we were a little late on the line, so we managed to cut between them and the comitee boat and slip away slowly on a straight downwind to mark “E”, side by side with Liberty Call (our friendly competition!). All of a suddent, out of nowhere, Kara Vela comes back behind us: hauling ass! What??? How can she do that? She’s got her 2 mainsails wing on wing and her prettiness is trucking! She joined us on the “windward side” and the three of us, Liberty Call being sandwiched in the middle, worked our way towards the mark, chatting with each other to make sure they were leaving me enough room to go around (nice people ). As soon as I rounded, Liberty Call followed and took the inside position. We were now upwind and she was the windward boat, so I happily played the “up up up” game with her… hahaha! (my turn!) In such light winds, Salsa Verde seems to do better than Liberty Call, which is surprising knowing their slick (not to say perfect) bottom and new keel. So even from the downwind side, we inched our way away and soon after, we were both on the same point of sail, but going 2 different directions! Weird very light weather…

For the rest of the race, we were pretty lonely. Liberty Call was still a threath from behind because we owe her time, and in those conditions, you never know what can happen! Luckily we managed to keep our concentration and the little bit of wind we could find was just enough to keep us going for the most part. After 2 hours on a 4.9 nm course, Salsa Verde crossed the finish line in first place, and 45 minutes ahead of her friendly competition.

We were welcomed by our favorite “chear leaders”: Roger, Carolee, Matt and Eric! Who were anchored near the finish line. We came to their shoulder for the festivities and planned a cordial full team moon for Liberty Call as they approached the finish line. But to excuse ourselves, we gave them a few beers! Thanks to Eric for the nice pictures taken from Sea Mistress’s mast.

This second win does not garantee anything for the series… Liberty Call could still tie us with the last race next month… That will be exciting!!!

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!

First race of the 2009 Women Series. Small turnout, we were only 4 boats, 2 non-spin and 2 cruisers. It was a duo between me and Rosanne on Liberty Call (C&C 30) in the non-spin class. It was fun because she’s the only competition I care about this year! We were only 4 on board (Nicole, Andrea and Deva from Skimmer) ok for non-spin. The course was 10.2 nm (start – 7S – 3P – 9P – 7S – finish), with a SW wind between ZERO and 15 kt…

We did an awesome start, first boat on the line for once! Then we called a tight ”STARBOARD” to Liberty call on the way to 7, but she rounded the mark before us. I passed her upwind and gained major distance on her on my way north. The winds were west and light, but they DIED on me on the east side of the river just passed marker 5. She stayed more west and kept just enough wind to catch-up and pass me like I was not even there. I was so mad… damn wind! When the wind ressucitated it was too late, she was GONE! Then the wind picked up pretty good for the last part of the race and everyone’s effort made us gain distance on Liberty Call, but not enough. I owe her so much time (155 vs 180), I was cooked as soon as she passed me.

This series is going to be really interresting, thanks to Charlie for letting Liberty Call compete