Dine and Dash

Rog decided to try his luck at racing Di's Dream again yesterday and had a wonderful time. We had Rob from the beautiful sailboat Sea Diamond to handle the spinnaker lines, Liz Barrow was the official spotter, Jane was button pusher, Di did a little bit of everything and Rog was upwind tactician and helmsman on spinnaker leg. Thirteen boats started with staggered times and raced up to La Cruz where slips were waiting so we could all disembark and run up to Philo's for pizza.

We were entertained by Philo and his band of misfits while sailing trash talk flew around the room until with no fanfare the homeward start times were announced. We had just 14 minuets to get to the start line so we all dashed off to our boats.

Now we understood the "dine and dash" theme.

With Di at the helm the main went up and spinnaker was readied,

but no. The wind was right on our nose so we could not pop the spinnaker

so it was hauled back down. With a bit of luck and a strong desire to

stay away from everyone else, Di headed to port while everyone else

headed starboard and struggled to find the wind. We sailed through the anchorage successfully and found the wind once we cleared the

headlands. Once again the jib was pulled in and the big sail went up

with no problems and Di continued to drive until Rog finally had

everything dialed in and he could take over. Now it was a race to the finish!

We fought off the two J80s which was no small task as Eugine had a boat crewed by all the crackerjack youth skippers from the yacht club. We later learned that one young lady has been the national campion the past years running! Sure glad we were not match racing her. The only other boat that headed to port was Bright Star, a Jeaneau 40 with a handicap of 72 that is a very competitive boat. Unfortunately we could not hold off Bright Star at the very end and she finished just one boat length ahead

Another great day out on Banderas Bay!

Pictures provided by our great friends on

Full Shell, Marilyn and Eric.