The run of fine weather had to come to an end and it did so with a vengeance. So wet was it that only six yachts braved the conditions and Elaine may have been the only lady on the course.
The early starters were unlucky as right on 14:09 hours, our start time, a breeze sprang up and powered us up the reach to Long Nose where the becalmed fleet lay waiting. from there it was almost all drift with just a little shifty wind around the south side of Goat Island.
The drift back to Cockatoo Island was particularly frustrating as the wind from the Harbour proper kept filtering through up to Long Nose and no further.
Avalon made good us of the wind filtering in across Balls head to lead the fleet by Cockatoo Island. At this point we managed to put our nose in front of the rest of the fleet and set off after Avalon.
On the final reach from Snapper Island Elaine took the helm and I played with the sail settings and we made up a lot of ground on Avalon. Perhaps it was our turn to have the breeze but if felt good to do a bit of catching up. Of course that meant a big gap to third place and possibly a nasty handicap for Passion X and Avalon next week.