With surprisingly little resistance, Lisa agreed (!) The only 'condition' was she had final decisions on weather and how 'race'y we'd sail. So Lisa was in, albeit a little nervous, but it also now meant I would be helming my first race as well -all of a sudden, crewing on the pointy end of other's boats seemed a much more comfortable place to be!
The forecast for Sat. morning was light westerly winds, but the low, low tides meant we'd want to clear the Marina mouth before 0800hrs. Our start time was for 0736. Given the early starting time, most participants were down at Pt. Bob Friday night. Because we're not slipped on the PRYC dock, we got our boat organized -including swapping out the 120 headsail for the 150- before heading over to meet up with everyone. With the updated forecast came forecasts of even lighter winds and more likelihood of rain. Many of the participating boats do not have canvased cockpits (some without heaters too), and given the below normal temps for mid-June along with the seemingly immanent long, wet sail, the talk began to turn to a potential Plan B if warranted Sat. morning.
Although it rained a lot overnight, it temporarily lightened (not stopped) around 0600, so we started to do final preps to get underway. As we swung Volti into the main fairway, we looked over and saw all the boats still securely tied, with 4-5 members standing at the end of their dock waiting for us. Knowing what decision must have been made, Lisa grabbed some dock lines and began to prepare for tying along the end of E dock. Total travel time -about 2 minutes, covering maybe 300 yards.
Plan B included having a warm breakfast, putting on another pot of coffee and getting through a good whack of the marking I needed to get done over the weekend. The skippers meeting was called for 1230 with a 1300 start time for the 1st (Annual?) PRYC Point Roberts Scavenger Hunt. Kelly, our cruise organizer for the weekend took it upon himself to pre-emptively plan this out just in case. What a great idea and it was a hit with everyone. It carried us all over PR, looking for specific head markers in the cemetery (a photo of every item was required for proof), beer cave signs, bears with red hats, and even a black guard! We thought to ourselves this was great, as we've never taken the time to explore much of Pt. Bob other than the marina and the local market. As we worked through the list, we knew we were being pretty efficient, but were a little surprised when we actually were the first ones to complete! Given that this race now was taking the place of the sailing one, we won the coveted bottle of Sailor Jerry's spiced rum.... and bragging rights.
Still cool, the planned BBQ went on as scheduled -simply moved to the covered, floating dock at the foot of E. The club burgers and pot luck side dishes all tasted great, and after being presented with our 'prize', everyone agreed it tasted great too; at least if it's short life was any indication. We had kind of planned to head home after the BBQ, but everyone was having such a good time, and as it kept getting later and later, we altered plans accordingly and enjoyed much more conversation.
Things were pretty quiet on the dock the next morning, so after breakfast and coffee, we headed home; a much faster trip with the following tide this time :^) We tidied things up, pulled the aft berth cushion foam out to bring home to finish re-covering, and at 1000hrs had driven around to E dock on the other side of the marina to see the very first of the inhabitants climbing out of their boats; our guess is that the 1030 blind kayak race didn't start on time.
It was definitely a different 'boating' weekend, but certainly lots of fun and laughs all around. I just hope we're in the running for the prize next year, as we approach Sucia.