Race or Family cruise?

My last chance at a trophy was the fall Round the Island. The winds were very light. The RC was short of crew so David decided to lighten the boat by joining the RC. The winds were so light that we had to put the motor on to make it to the line in time for the warning signal.

Our start was good but slow. We were not able to make much headway and we slowly drifted to the north. It seemed that boats south were doing well with sails filled and better speed. What was the problem? Another development was that the split ring holding the main sheet block broke. We had to do a bit of repair work. Our sail trim was not optimal! After we got the main sheet block repaired I decided to try to improve our performance by lifting the motor out of the water. It was dragging. Surprisingly (I should have known this) we now had much better boat performance. We were able to work our way south and get into better 'winds'. I thought we were catching up to the fleet but this maybe an example of wishful thinking. At Gibraltar we had an interesting port tack crossing in very light winds. We manged to tack, make the mark, and stay ahead of the starboard tacker. The tack didn't slow us down and we were able avoid pinching to the mark.

At T1 we were able to fly the spinnaker. I noticed the J22 gybed as it entered the Outer Harbour. My thought was to do something different; to go further north and then gybe. Bad idea. We got into a wind well; there was absolutely no wind. I felt very embarrassed (angry?) as the other boats to the south sailed by. Embarrassing for me, but entertaining for the fleet? It took us forever (at least it seemed so) before we were able to get south enough to make somewhat decent progress.

Once we got into the Inner Harbour the winds started to pick up. We had a pleasant sail. What a nice day to be on the water! Before the start, the RC had given the skippers an apple pie. The event was billed as the Fall Round the Island RACE or a Family Cruise. Skipper's choice? I now decided that we must have been on the Family Cruise; this wasn't a race afterall. We went to the restaurant and consumed our lovely Family Cruise pie just as a very violent thunderstorm went through. An interesting and enjoyable end to my first 'Family cruise'.