On one hand we were lucky with the weather as the showers held off for the twilight race but on the other hand the promised 12 knots of breeze was pretty much an illusion.
Last week we were pleased with the No1 heavy genoa and full main in twelve knots of breeze so with a similar breeze forecast we went with that selection again. We made a good start and were third into Humbug but while Meridian and Joli disappeared into the distance we sat in the wind shadow of Utopia waiting for the tail of the fleet to pass us. The yachts that went to windward of Utopia passed us, (thank you Fireball, Much Ado V and Dump Truck) and the yachts that went to leeward of Passion X also got through (Thank you Ausreo and others) leaving us chasing the fleet once again. Once around Cockatoo Island for the first time we set out after Ausreo, Utopia and Fireball who we could see. Somewhere a long way up the course was Joli, Meridian, Much Ado V and Dump Truck but they were in a race of their own and will have to write their own story.
To our surprise we made little progress on catching Fireball but pulled away from Utopia and Ausreo and that was the way it was all around the course. At the last approach to Cockatoo before the work up Humbug we pulled alongside Fireball and could see Dump Truck not far ahead rounding the end of the island.
A minor glitch with a genoa sheet wrapped around the cheek block may have let Fireball back in or perhaps being just a few metres to leeward they had better wind but they did work up to give us dirty air for another week. That small lead going into Humbug translated to several minutes as we were becalmed off Onion Point. The trailing fleet caught us by the same several minutes. Among them was Lisdillon and Sweet Chariot who both beat us on handicap and Ausreo who we just managed to beat over the finish line.
Utopia was not having a good day either as she was also slow through Humbug and finished at the opposite end of the fleet to normal.
Apart from the two passages of Humbug we had a good evening on the water. We were pleased with our windward working in the nine knots conditions and while we did not see the seven knots speeds through the water we saw last week we did hold out Utopia which is a pretty good benchmark.
Our mid fleet fifth on handicap was a good indication of our sailing for the evening and we look forward to a night when our luck through Humbug returns.