The last race in the Series of the Ancient Mariner. There was an autumnal feel to the air. It had been blowing hard during the day which put off some.
There were cat’s paws on the water as we went out. During the race, occasional gusts caused the Garelochs to heel more than is comfortable but it was a good race. We sailed a course back and forth across the loch beginning with a leg to windward to Clynder.
The starting line was necessarily biassed towards the pin end. Teal got it just right with Zoe to leeward. Catriona was early and obliged to go round and tuck in behind.
Whilst there was generally sufficient wind in the loch, its direction was capricious. Catriona was lucky so that approaching the first windward mark, she was ahead. Direction of wind was so variable here that tell tales could not be relied upon. We went from head to wind to beam reach in an instant.
Teal and Catriona fought it out at the front. Ceres and Zoe doing the same further back. Growth below the water line was probably the reason for the gap.
1 Catriona, 2 Teal, 3 Ceres, 4 Zoe.
