EBYMBC Spring Sailing Series – 10 December 2022

Crew: Grant, Anastasia, Murray, Vivien, Colin and Geoff.

Forecast: Northerly 10 knots, rising to 15 knots in the evening. Sea slight. Low tide 1352 hrs.

I woke up on Saturday morning with mild cold symptoms. “Do a Covid test before you go sailing,” says Graciela. I did the test which showed negative. All good!

Grant, Anastasia and Vivien met me on Halo and we cast off from Chaffers at 1100 hrs. The wind was a fairly consistent 12-15 kts NNE and we hoisted the No. 1 Genoa HW with full main and sailed round to Evans Bay. We tied up at the wharf in front of Coriander. Murray and Colin joined us and we signed on for the race and got the course: Start – Mark 6 Front Lead – Mark 18 Days Bay – Finish. A nice longish harbour course.

At 1238 hrs we cast off from the wharf with a full crew: Grant on helm, Murray on mainsheet, Anastasia and Colin on sail trim, Vivien on keys and Geoff on foredeck.

The start plan was cross the line on starboard tack towards the pin end. However, we got to the start a bit too early so had to sail down the line until the gun. Actually it worked out OK as I noticed a bit of commotion of boats at the pin end and saw Usurper being forced up and missed the start and did a 360 degree turn.

We did three tacks beating up Evans Bay and got good some good lifts. We were able to pass Coriander although Grenadier et all were unreachable. We cleared Pt Halswell and headed south. Once we rounded Kau Point we hoisted the medium spinnaker for the run to the Front Lead.

Only problem was we noticed the Kaiarahi ferry coming in from behind us. We had to bear off a bit to make sure we were well clear of her course.

We rounded the Front Lead at 1255 hrs making sure we hoisted the genoa and dropped the kite well before the turn. (We’re learning!)

Then we were close-hauled, beating up to the top mark. We did two tacks up behind Ward Island and were getting a good lift most of the way until we got to about 0.2 Nm away from the mark when the wind moved around to NE. We started getting knocked. It wasn’t worth doing another tack though and it took us almost 4 minutes to round the mark. The only compensation was we still maintained our lead on Coriander.

From there we had a relaxing beam reach across the harbour averaging 6.5 kts in 10 kts of wind back to Pt Halswell with Colin coaxing every bit of speed out of the genoa. Champagne sailing!

Once we rounded the point we hoisted the spinnaker out of the front hatch for a nice run down Evans Bay to cross the Finish Line at 1534 hrs.

We motor-sailed round to Chaffers, tying up at the dock at 1615 hrs. After packing up the boat I took Murray and Colin back to the Evans Bay club where we received the announcement that Halo had come second on corrected time. Well done team Halo!

A great race only marred by the fact that by the time I got home my cold symptoms had got worse so I went to bed early. In the morning I did another Covid RAT which showed up as positive. Bugger! It actually hit me pretty bad and I spent the next week in bed recovering, but on the mend now.