Around the Island Sailboat race

 Labor day weekend sailboat racing!  Our friend, Bob, asked us to help crew on his sailboat, so we agreed.  It was a nice sunny morning, but not much wind.  The race starts near Newport, so we motored down to the race start.  We tried different sails on the way down  - trying to decide which ones to use

 101 boats registered for this race  - wow!  So there were a lot of boats milling around the start - oh joy!

 They sent the first 4 classes off, but then postponed the rest.  No wind, and the current was very strong.

 This poor boat started the race - and 30 minutes later, they were floating back through the start finish line due to lack of wind and strong current.  How depressing is that?!?

 But the wind did pick up, and after a 90 minute delay, the race was on!  This was the start of the class before us. 

 And then is was our turn!  Dicey start - all 12 boats (in our class) vying for the same space.  Yikes

Since it was a downwind start - everyone had their spinnakers out.  So pretty

 The classes coming up behind us - they started after us.  These were the big & fast ones - some professionally sailed

 It was a beautiful day to be on the water

 The turn to upwind, so the spinnakers come down, and we tack a lot to make headway

 The upwind leg seemed long because it takes a while to make forward progress.  But soon we were going downwind again.

 A huge cruise ship went right through the middle of our race.  Of course, he has the right of way.

 Getting close to the finish line - yay!

 We sailed most of the way back to Bristol.   It was a long day - 8:30 am to 7:30 pm.  Glad to be home!

 Happy & tired crew

 We placed 8th out of 12 in our class and 38 out of 101 overall.  We were happy with the results - the class we were in was really tough - we thought we would end up last.  And the overall result was great for an inexperienced crew

Professional photos courtesy of CYC paid photographers.  They got some great photos!