We pick up where we left off...kinda
We are all now 3 drinks deep and have made if from Patriot's Point back to the W Doc and then on to Dauntless. Okay, after three bullets on Friday, they are living high! Everyone seems to have rationalized rum drinks for breakfast, so by 10 AM "Mooove Bitch, Get out the Way!" is booming over City Marina. You have the standard 12 man (and woman) crew along with a number of unsavory characters from the Melges 30 and J 130 contributing. There is a fair amount of bumping and butt grinding already going on. The wind is howling, but the sky is beautiful and only partly cloudy. Yes, I will admit that the clouds are moving along at MACH speed through the sky, but we are all convinced that the races could have gone on. I am secretly thrilled (maybe not so secretly) that I am not sailing on my boat on this big wind day. Regrettably, I just wasn't sure that the boat was ready for buoy racing in 30+ kts of breeze. The boat could handle it, the skipper could handle it, the crew could handle it, but without cohesion between all three, we would have been dangerous. So the party ensues.
We never stop recruiting so the posse has grown now to include all of J dock, some unnamed sailors off of a number of other race boats (ladies, I am looking out for you) and a certain volunteer that has no idea what kind of mess she has gotten herself into. The blender was kicking out margaritas and daiquiris almost as fast as this motley crew could drink them. I am almost ashamed to say how many handles of booze I saw go down in the blaze of glory. Really, I am ashamed, so I'll just leave that detail out.
For some silly reason, I don't recall lunch. I know, weird right? I am pretty sure it just got overlooked. We kept hop scotching between boats throughout City until it was well into the afternoon. There was a great idea exclaimed by someone "hey, let's take the C&C 32 over to the party." Reminder: it is now blowing water over the docks...over...the...docks. Right. Great idea.
We shove off. I calmly remind the boat that yes, we are all bad asses whom can handle anything in any conditions, but let's keep in mind that these are somewhat trying conditions and "just be ready to put your drink down." After the disclaimer, we crank up the tunes and proceed to get soaked by the waves crashing against the windward hull.
So at one point as I am talking to two people, I look around and the rest of the boat is face locked. WTF? I wondered where this was going, "Who plays camera man"? What can I say, there was something in the air that day!
We were forced to spray the dogs down since we were soon to be at Patriot's. Damn we were hell on wheels at the party. Everyone's early morning start made for scarce festivities at night. I found myself wondering around until I came upon Caroline and Cary. I was in the mood to dance so we cut a rug and kicked some sand. The memories by this point are getting farther apart. I know that I was missing the bulk of my party.
So I found out where they were and I am going to write it here ___________________________________________________________________________. If you can't read that, sucks for you. Everyone met back up, but we had lost some of our crew. We looked high and low before having to finally say "you missed the boat." We found out later that everyone got home safely and that there were no hard feelings. The wind had laid down a lot and the ride home was a beautiful one. I stayed at the front of the boat and found out later that I had made a really sweet little night time movie. No not that kind of movie. I didn't get to play camera man.
As we approached City, they dropped me off at MegaDock (I swear that the boat didn't even slow down) to go meet the pizza man. As soon as I got the stack of pies in my hand, I was tackled by a sucker volunteer whom had returned for more. Sucker!!!! Another three ragers showed up. Helllllloooooo! Including one of my partners in crime from Bacardi Miami. Understand that this is where I must be careful. Yes the music was loud, the people were drunk, and great little 7 pound 6 ounce baby Jesus how I love you for blessing me with such a night. I had always heard that the compression post under the mast doubled as a stripper pole, but now I knew it. And if you ever want to take that party to the next level, just throw on some flamenco or Spanish guitar; preferably something very sultry. Holy shit, I love boats. If you know who to speak to, you can track down pics to tell the rest of the story. Rebootizer...
So Sunday was a little bit rough, but we all pulled through. Very light winds enabled me to take a nice little nap on the way out to the course. We had some more stupid moves go down on the boat. Yes, I sound negative, for that I apologize. But I was frustrated with what was going down. Fortunately, I was absolutely horse, so I wasn't able to share my thoughts with the back of the boat. By the first leeward mark, I decided that I was just going to take it easy and completed the rest of the races with a beer AND a camera in my hand. I still got it done mo fo's. There was one perk in our pot. Poor little Dauntless was way to the right side of the course when the wind died. Purely out of luck, our wind lasted long enough for me to give them the "chomp" sign as we ate them up at the finish. I can not underscore it enough...it was pure, undeserved, luck. It also knocked them out of the lead which I regretted.
The Sunday party was tame, but I am no quitter so I still invited a number of guests back to the boat for some great eats; again with a menagerie of seafood, rice and beans, and loads of veggies. After telling our friends good bye, I was tucked into bed (really, I think that Trey tucked me in...True Bromance). I awoke early to start working on boats again. What a damn trip. We ended 6th out of 8, Trey on Wave Bye landed 3rd out of 7, Dauntless came in 2nd out of 8.
I am off to Chucktown this Friday for the first CORA race of the year, this time on my real boat White Dolphin. I love boats....
If you enjoyed the stories, please also check out the other bloggers out there Morgan Kinney and CaraSails (NautiGirl)
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