After arriving in Annapolis late on Wednesday night, Thursday was set aside to put the boat back together from the roadtrip. Lester flew in on a red-eye and joined Michael and Mike to do the dirty work. Mark and Lulu got in late Wednesday night. We celebrated a successful roadtrip without drama with cheese and wine to kickoff this incredible adventure.
Annapolis NOODs was a 3-day event, with 4 races on Friday, 3 races on Saturday and 1 race on Sunday.
Here is our posting to Fleet 17 after Day 1 of NOODs
So…the start is EVERYTHING! Our finishes today were 43, 12, 26, 6 out of 52 boats. In the 1st and 3rd starts, we got hosed with boats squeezing in and stalling us. On the 2nd start, we had a good start and we held our lane and did well. the 4th start, we fought for and won the committee boat
end.
In a new venue, it takes time to figure out the tides, currents, shifts and competition. Finding a hole in the starting line was key to be out in front. We saw 4-16 knots with progressive shift to the right but mini-shifts back and forth that made big differences on the course. Big variations in wind velocity and shifts and the currents at the top and bottom ends were in opposite directions!
Our mechanics were solid; we were on the right wind shifts more often than not. We won the last start and sailing upwind in SF conditions helped! Half way up the 1st leg, we consolidated and tacked to port and cross tons of boats on the right and stayed in the top 10 boat and clear air the rest
of the race.
Onshore prep really helped us sail our game well…all of the boat prep that the guys have done are important and most importantly, we made sure we went to bed early yesterday and got rest so we all adjusted to local timeframe and were refreshed for the 4-race day.
Conditions are supposed to be much lighter tomorrow so we’ll need to shift gears and stay focused! Mike Arrajj brought a lucky charm in the form of a squeeze toy Catholic nun that was taped to the stern pulpit and we think that it worked 
. By having fun and treating this as a practice regatta
made the day!
Post race:
We ended up 22nd out of 52 boats for the overall regatta. Our best finishes were 6, 10 and 12. We had 2 really stinky races due to poor starts and choosing the wrong side of the course. Once you choose a side, it’s difficult to get to the other side in 5 knots of wind. We also found out after the fact, that where we were racing, the course had a “toilet bowl” or rotary current effect with the ebbs/floods. Local knowledge would definitely have helped.
All in all, it was a great experience to sail in a 52 boat fleet and on Chesapeake Bay!
