We didn’t get out for the last two Unofficial Beer Cans. On September 24th I had to deliver my committee report to Columbia Yacht Club and got a lot of crap for not sailing instead. And then of all things, the following Wednesday October 1st was canceled due to the weather. On October 8th we got the usual suspects together and it was once again a beautiful evening, Jason stunning us with his fine sailing outfit. We headed out of the harbor with the 135% on the roller furler so it was an easy evening to get going. We had a great start and were the first boat over the line only 2 or 3 seconds late. The wind was out of the SSW at about 8 knots so it was a reach to broad reach out to the CRIB. Some boats flew their asym’s but we successfully fought to keep clean air and rounded the CRIB in good form with only 2 boats rounding ahead us. Cutting tight inside we overtook one and came up on the transom of the other and played cat and mouse for clear air. First we’d head up for clear air and then he’d protect his position. We came close to overtaking them but couldn’t quite get the job done.
It was a cool but clear evening and the Chicago skyline was incredible with an indigo sky above, then revealing all the colors of the spectrum behind the buildings lining the lake front. Only one other boat seemed to gain on us and came up close behind. Sometimes we’d open the gap while other times Whisper was only a boat length behind us. We ended up crossing the finish line with a time of 42 minutes, 15 seconds. After cleaning up things we began working on the remaining 2 bottles of Mt Gay Rum and never made it up to the club for food or to hear the results. With 4 of us working the rum over until late in the evening, Pat finally ended up being driven home and Tom took a cab. Tom from Whisper came back out to the docks and told us that he had beat us by 1 second for first place. Not bad for another casual evening and flying a 135% to his 155% headsail.
With plans to take Adrenaline to Waukegan the next day to put the boat away for the winter, ee spent the night on the boat. The idea was to leave bright and early, say around 6am, so that we’d get in around noon but the rum had it’s full effect and we didn’t leave until 11:15am. Besides the wind was now blowing 10–15 out of the NW—basically the direction we needed to go. It was a long day and Kyle drove for the first 3 hours or so leaving me to catch up on my ‘beauty’ rest. Taking over for Kyle I eventually found the wind backing enough to allow us to put up our main and 135% which increased boat speed significantly. We got into Waukegan, unloaded everything we could into the van and had a Lou Malnati’s Pizza meet us at the door.
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