Erik D. Jones’s Blog

Here I am with my crewmate, Alastair, waiting for the wind that would never come.  We were able to start the Three Bridges Fiasco albeit an hour past our designated starting time as we found ourselves on the “wrong” side of the buoy you see in the picture.  On our approach to the start, we pulled a nice 6 knots with the 135% headsail up on a nice reach from Berkeley.  Unfortunately the wind died and then clocked 360 degrees around.  As you can see from the picture, even the large trimaran off our stern had a limp spinnaker. 

What have I learned?  That although I had it in my mind that I would decide which direction to travel the course and sail through the start in the last 5 minutes, I was too fixated on how the wind was blowing on the way over.  So by the time we got there, we were committed to a bad entry.  Oh well.  It was my first swag at racing.  Sizzle (also known as sail number 38025) will get a few more chances this season!