Fall Cruise

[Dobbs]

Here, sunset is coming on. That's the Pride of Baltimore i the distance. The sloop is just a diehard spectator keeping us company.



Here, Virginia tacks in front of us. Even at 2 knots, it was exciting tacking between her and Pride. Their crews are very competitive.



As the night wore on, we continued to work our way south. A scratchy throat Suzanne had noticed on our way to the start manifested itself as the flu as darkness settled in. Nonetheless, she kept trimming. To really help her health, every time I laid down for a catnap, I got to sleep. Every time she lay down, there was a wind shift and it was all hands on deck to tack, or there would be a giant schooner crossing tacks in the dark. Pride thoughtfully had white light on the end of her bowsprit.

It all came to a head at 4:30am, when the only boat near our size materialized out of the dark just in front of us. We crossed the finish line a handful of minutes behind them and 30 miles south of the starting line. The only other boat in our class that reached the finish had crossed more than an hour in front of us, but was much bigger. We had woken at 5 the previous morning, motored to the start at 12:30, and been trimming and thinking hard for the next 16 hours.

It was two days before the race organizers posted the results, but we were surprised and happy to learn that the handicapping rules corrected for that hour and more. Of the three boats that finished, even though we were last, we still won! Sometimes being small just works out.

The flu kept Suzanne in its grip for the next three days. Just as she was feeling better, I succumbed. I didn't have to race. We're all better now, and another 50 miles farther south.