SANDY

A hurricane making landfall this far north the end of OCT?  What's up w/ THAT!?
Since the yard was fully scheduled to haul boats all weekend I trussed up Dianthus like a spiderweb and hoped for the best.  The marina is very well protected and is well back in the creek so I wasn't too worried.  Doubled up lines, added two more spring lines and adjusted them all until I was satisfied she'd be okay.
Monday night as the wind speed rose and the rain came down in sheets I was sorely tempted to drive over to the marina after work but figured I was just asking for trouble and there wasn't really much I could do.  Tuesday morning though I drove over and got there about an hour after high tide.  The docks were completely covered w/ water to a depth of about 10 inches but it was receding.  All the boats appeared to have come through completely unscathed.

Race #3    My first single handed race! 

The Harbor Cup starts down by the Baltimore Light at the mouth of the Magothy and finishes by Fells Point, just past Ft. McHenry.  I didn't have any crew and was planning on going sailing anyway, so I signed up for the Non Spinnaker division.  Trimming sails while steering does NOT make for a fast boat.  While it was a little bit like being a one-armed paper hanger, the worst part was once I turned up the Patapsco and was off the wind, I could have used a larger headsail.  Beating up the Bay I had the 110 up, but really could have used the #2 or even the #1 in the river.  I could have changed the sail but that would have necessitated using the autopilot and since this wasn't an official singlehanded  race I wasn't sure it would be legal.  So I slogged on using what I had.  While there were just two of us in the NS class and I finished second, (IE last!) I was encouraged by the fact that I corrected out just 2min, 21 sec behind the other boat.  They were fully crewed!  Had I had even one other person I think I could have taken them.  I coulda been a contenda.

RACE #2

The Constellation Cup is a fundraiser for the ships in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, namely the USS Constellation. I've done it the past 3 years on my buddy's boat and it has blown like stink each year.
This year was different.  Forecast was for 5 kts all week but Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny and a FX of 10-15!  We had a couple that Carol knew through work on board that were not sailors, Thad again, and a ringer in the person of Rob who I knew from racing on Widowmaker as well as him being a previous Wharf Rat crew.  We did fairly well finishing 6th out of 16 in the Fin Keel Class.  The best part was crossing tacks w/ my pals on Caribbean Magic (a C/C 44) and actually keeping up w/ them!  Of course we tied up on the dock next to the Constellation for the post race party.