A very big thank you to the loyal crew who turn up rain or shine for the twilight races at Greenwich Flying Squadron.
My thanks is directed at the crew of Passion but I am sure the other skippers at the club feel the same way about their crews.
We had 52 starters on Wednesday night despite the rain forecast and actual. The lack of wind was a deterrent to some crews who decided that a dry spot in the warm clubhouse was to be preferred over a wet drift out of Humbug. Others hung on grimly despite the lack of wind and the wet but were defeated not by lack of perseverance but by lack of wind. My congratulations go to those crews who hang on in the hope of finishing before the time limit.
The combination of comfort seekers and wind less crews meant that only 25 yachts finished and at the prize giving afterwards even the last place in some divisions scored a well deserved prize.
For our part in Blue division we made a good start and went wide at the exit to Humbug to be in the lead group working to Goat Island. In the process we caught a fair part of the Black fleet that had started five minutes earlier and the Green fleet that had started ten minutes earlier. As a consequence of going wide we needed to take the lifts to cover Aggrovation and Worlds Apart but were unable to go up due to a Green fleet yacht with no steerage. We were not particularly stellar working to windward as Aggrovation and Worlds Apart pulled away and we found ourselves in the dirty air of a new competitor in a nice quick Elan 37 and with Izzi just to windward of them. Fortunately we negotiated the dead patch around the lee of Goat Island a little better and came out with our nose in front of these two but looking at Aggrovation and Worlds Apart in the distance.
Around Goat Island Farrst Company picked up some following breeze and made gains on the fleet to win on handicap. Luckily for us the fleet went high for the freshening breeze but then had to bear away with nothing behind them.
Entering Humbug we could see Aggrovation and Worlds Apart becalmed on the Woolwich shore so we went a little higher and kept better breeze so much so that by the finish we were close enough to Worlds Apart to beat her on handicap by a few seconds into third place.
A third fastest and third on handicap seemed an unlikely result rounding Goat Island but we are not complaining.