We had an interesting day on the water this past Saturday – Toodle-oo!’s first race! We entered Mattapoisett Yacht Club’s ‘Spring Around the Bay’ race – a 20 mile jaunt around the top end of Buzzards Bay.

Enlisted as crew were friends Mike & Jane and Peter & Diane, along with Mike Dahill – a fortuitous addition to the crew – the only one who really knew what he was doing!

Fair to say tensions were running high leading up to the start – this was the first time we’d had so many folk on  board and trying to work out who goes where and what does what got a little crazed…

Tensions run high!

The Crew ( Laurie behind the camera)

How did I land up on THIS boat???

We managed a great start under Mike’s direction, hitting the line just a few seconds after the horn went – fortunately, the start was staggered according to boat handicap, so having only us approaching the line sure did help matters!

It looked like we were catching the commodore’s boat ‘In Deep’ on the first two legs, but he must have sussed us out cos I couldn’t make any inroads on the third leg and he disappeared on the fourth!

Trim looks good to me!

Rail Meat!

The race started with a reasonable amount of wind and we were able to make good speed, but the forecast lull certainly came into its own on the last couple of legs, wind dropping to less than 5 knots, which saw us ghosting along at 1.5knots! (And that with a knot of helpful current!) We ended up finishing more than an hour behind In Deep and apparently dead last in our class – of those that bothered to finish!

There has to be some wind out there somewhere…

I see a wind line!

Needless to say, it was a great day out on the water and we really enjoyed ourselves and finished off the day with a super meal aboard with Laurie’s Lasagna, Diane’s salad, Jane’s brownies and copious amounts of alcohol!

Managed to install Pig Stick on Sunday – we’re dressed!

Dressed with a mast-top Burgee!