Race 3 winter rerun

Time for the race report for all those intrepid followers of this blog site! As we were heading out to the start line we had our usual debate as to whether the keel was fully down or not, as for the past few weeks every now and then felt a movement within the yacht that just didn’t feel just right but everything we checked seemed to be alright. Well shortly after the gun OP seemed to have just slightly better height with the boat speed to go with it, our speed log seemed to be out which required us to double check how the log was inserted “just to be sure” but alias it was plunged correctly so it forced us to revert to using speed over ground to get some more accurate numbers which has its obvious inherent problems. During the first windward leg some discussion was going on as to if the keel was fully down as an out of sequence shudder could be felt every now and then, this resulted in various crew members going downstairs to press the button that lowers the keel. By this time OP was getting to the second mark ahead of us with their kite up in quick time from some good crew work, making it hard for use to make any inroads on the distance between the two yachts. Then the fun started as we were coming to the jibe point as the stand in navigator seemed to have a moment as the navigation system we use suddenly went deceptive and changed our boats position by some 800 meters. So the call came to get down to OPs line as we must be too high, unfortunately this proved to be incorrect as we shortly found both OP and ourselves trying to find a mark that was 800 meters to the West of us. By the time we rounded the mark we were at the back of the fleet playing catch up. On a good note we managed to successfully deploy the kite using the sock technology twice and with a few more practices under our belt look out! After the race and with a successful mission being achieved of missing all land we managed to locate Australia again! As when trying to pen her we found the keel would not lift up, so with reverse gear being used parked her alongside the re-fueling jetty, whilst some hydraulic oil was being purchased the crews fluid level needed topping as well, so some crownies were purchased. After fixing the problem and finding out the keel hadn’t been fully down all day, which could explain the log issue, decided a few quite drinks were needed prior to us heading home. Capt Blow Hard

(Nav note: sounds like a list of excuses to me!, Could have just said you stuffed up and you miss me)