Sails: Interrupt mainsail, Tatus II genoa and spinnaker.
Two races today. Start line was less the 100 yards north of the Annapolis Weather Buoy AN, which was located at 38.9631, -76.4475.
First Race, four legs:
Finished the race sixth out of six. Finishing order: Prudence, LinGin, Laughing Gull, Windswept, Latika, Constance.
Drove better on the first windward leg than I did on Friday. Crossed ahead of Prudence twice. Moved quite a bit more slowly on the last tack as we struggled a bit to make the mark given the heavy current. Reached the windward mark in company with other Albergs, and without having to make an additional two tacks that were required of both LinGin and Laughing Gull. At the windward mark, surrounded by a horde of J/22s or J/24s, darting in between us and the mark as well as on the outside of us. Fortunately, we were on starboard, while all the J's were on port. One J called upon us to sail down to the mark, as his course would have been. Refused to do so. Nonetheless swept by the current to gently touch the mark at about the location of the primary winches. Gybed after the rounding, reached a patch of clear water and did a penalty turn, then raised spinnaker. Good wind driving the boat near an average of 6.0 knots downwind. Headed to the center of the gate in order to start the turn wide and cut in tight at the end. Drove that course.
Very slow to get the spinnaker down at the leeward mark. So much so, that the spinnaker was holding us back after we rounded. Knocked a full knot off our speed, dropping us to about 2.5 vs 3.5 knots till the spinnaker was completely doused. Stood fairly deep in towards the shore, going slow on the GPS due, at least in part, to the strong current running at maximum ebb. Once we tacked over the GPS speed jumped up markedly, ranging from 4.0 to 4.8 knots. Halfway through the leg, figured out that we overstood horribly and bore away from ~090 to ~120 aiming at the westward end of the finish line. During this part of the leg, with the wind 20 degrees free, speed on GPS jumped to range from 5.5 to 6.0 knots.
Finished the race sixth out of six. Finishing order: LinGin, Latika, Prudence, Laughing Gull, Windswept, Constance.
GPX formatted Track estimated distance: 4.5nm