Its a good thing that many of us don’t worry too much about the weather forecast as early on in the week it did not look good for the Thanksgiving weekend.  Saturday morning 16 boats and their respective crews showed up for the skippers’ meeting and were rewarded with plenty of wind and no rain.  The first boat ooviloo started promptly at 9:30 and the race was on!  The starts for the rest of the fleet were spread out over the next 1 hour and 17 minutes with the RC boat Boomerang casting off as quickly as possible once Cu na Mara and Electre had started , in the hopes of chasing down the fleet and getting to the finish line at Gibson’s in time to record the finish.  They would have their work cut out for them!

There were reports afterwards that some of the early starters were able to fly spinnakers briefly to get out around the Gabriola hole.  Out in the Straits it was a wonderful close reach in 15+ kts of SE wind with everybody speeding towards the Sunshine Coast in greater than hull speeds.  With everyone going so fast it took practically the entire distance across for the fleet to compress and in the end light winds and tactics determined the final finishing order for the day.

The afternoon was a leisurely affair with an impromptu cocktail party on Wayne and Janine’s catamaran Boomerang.  Not much to say other than there’s no better place nor hosts possible for our crowd. 

The evening was topped off with a fabulous feast at the Smitty’s Oyster House.  The feast literally spread out before us had our eyes almost as wide open as our mouths.  What a fantastic way to finish a great day.

The next morning it was a very different story with very light winds leading to an hour postponement in the starts.  It soon became obvious that nobody would be able to finish before the 16:00 cut off but that didn’t stop most of us from continuing to sail as few of us wanted to waste such a beautiful day out on the water.

The group gathered at the Dinghy Dock Pub to share nachos and beer, congratulate the winners, and most importantly thank Janine and Wayne for once again organizing such a wonderful event.

Hope to see you next year.