What a day! The weather was gray, but the rain stayed away. However, the wind kept increasing. Before the races even started, Dave's tiller extension broke and I, as chase boat, had to fly from the Sea of Abaco, back to the sailing club to get him a new rudder, since the extension is attached to it. Meanwhile he had headed back towards the harbor entrance to save time with me coming back out. He had the rudder swapped over and back out to the start line with only 2 minutes to spare before the first race. The timing threw him off a bit, so he didn't finish so well in that race, but in the second race he finished third, and in the 3rd race he finished second.
Meanwhile, the Abaco Dinghies were out racing (tough choice for Dave as to which class to race, but he chose well). There were some newbies out sailing and one broached and the skipper ended up in the water. Art, who took the photos I have posted here, said he could see the fear in his eyes and knew he was going to flip over. Time for me to pump the water out of the boat with our electric pump, but another wife of a racer beat me to it, so I helped keep the boat floating. It is quite a process, and the mark boat crew helped by bailing with a bucket. Skipper Ted was such a good sport and said he is not giving up and claims he just needs more practice.
With new sails on the club's Sunfish (they actually belong to Junior Sailing), that were only used once at the Sunfish World's Regatta in North Carolina this summer, Dave's performance really improved and hopefully he will continue to do well.
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