PSCC Circumlocution

Twenty-fifth Annual Circumlocution of Bainbridge Island started with a light North wind, and we were out to the West Point/Separation buoy (SG) line in time to watch s/v Enya, a Sabre 38 we didn't know, seem to start on time. We waited around for more boats and started with s/v Osprey and s/v La Volante Frances Jane, the big boats. We looked for more pressure along the shore, sailed back to the breakwater, and soon crossed tacks with Enya. We sailed East to Spring Beach, got lifted and with one short tack rounded the North (SF) buoy, then the fun began. Steve and Elsie on s/v Osprey had beat us to Port Madison, we couldn't sail as deep, and so we jibed and jibed, to stay out of the holes and keep the boat moving. I think we did three jibes in Agate Pass, maybe 18 jibes total from Jefferson Head to the narrows by the Navy Yard, going into Liberty Bay. Lots of screw-up, a couple hourglass spinnaker moves, and I threw a pic in of the cockpit spaghetti, clearly the crew was not handling their line management tasks. If we hadn't been sailing our own race, searching for breeze, we'd have been entertaining the fleet. We parked by the Navy Yard, with Osprey ahead and David on s/v Barefoot riding his own light breeze in. Kathleen called out "Zero wind speed and zero boat speed!" With pressure from the hungry crowd, and a few fun radio comments, Osprey crawled in ahead of us under the power-lines. For a brief moment, we got a little breeze and sailed along, watching David start to waterline us. We were on the favored, shorter side, and he luffed and let us have it, a fine little five minute race. It had taken over seven hours to sail 26 miles, on a maybe 16 mile course, and we were tired and ready for the raft-up, and dinner. The Horrors d'Hoover Award always brings out lots of fine food, and we had ten boats at the raft-up in Liberty Bay.

The trip home included a nice "photo op" as Osprey blew by us. Check out the time stamp on those images. We tucked into Port Madison and came back on a wet Monday morning, delighted to be off the dock again.

Click on the pic above, for the "Index" page, and on any of the pics there, for a "slideshow" with larger images - enjoy.