Winning isn't Everything!

And the winner is...."C" dock!  That's not my dock. Boo!  Hiss...hiss! 

 LOL!  Just kidding!   We had such a great time that I really didn't even mind that our dock does not carry the dubious award of displaying the dreadful skull Triton that I made when we started this race last year. 

This photo is from last year

  I say dreadful because since we started the "Capture the Flag" race we have had a few mishaps with the winners of the Triton.  On our dock, "B" dock, while we had it proudly displayed as the very first winners we had one boat sink, one who's mast fell on top of another boat and and various electrical problems.  All can be rather easily explained and are much preferred to the more serious personal issues that those on "A"dock faced after they won the scary Triton.  They had some with severe health conditions, financial hardships and divorce.   With that in mind, we all were somewhat relieved to turn over the Triton to "C" dock.  Good luck y'all!  I'm thinking we may need a new dock trophy for sure.  Perhaps something a tad less roguish!

The rules of our cruising race are very simple and very unconventional to most all sailing competitions.  We sponsor this event and others in order to get more club members out to simply enjoy their boats and membership.  All boats from each dock must start at a designated point and time, round a mark then return to the dock.  The first dock with all it's competing members back wins!  The loop hole is that when a dock only has 1 boat competing and if that boat is larger it is most likely to win, as was the case on Saturday.  Larger boats tend to be able to sail much faster then smaller boats which is why in a real sailboat competition you have many different classes and handicaps, start times, etc.

However, we are the cruising fleet, aptly named because we are mostly like to just simply "cruise".  Does this look like a very competitive group to you?

Here we are waiting on the Captains meeting before starting.

Looks like we had a few visitors who wanted in on this meeting too.

Or maybe they just wanted a handout...hungry ducks!

Then it was time to head to the docks.

Here's the Mr. getting our sails out and ready.

Leaving the docks.

Not a bad turnout for the cruisers.  Our dock had at least four boats I know, maybe more?

The wind and the weather was just great!  Here I was happily taking pics of our club members when suddenly...rrrraaooaarrrrhh!!!!

Here come the jet boats!

They were competing in a Poker run and were all around.

Very hard to photograph because they are gone in the blink of an eye.

They are pretty exciting to see too!

Aww!  Now back to a much slower pace.

Here we are moving closer to our mark.  We were to round this island then head back home.

If it looks like we are much further away then some of the others you would be correct.  When sailing you have to go where the wind takes you, especially when it shifts.  Unfortunately, the wind was heading us in the opposite direction for a bit from where we were headed.  After several tacks we still were very far behind the bigger boats.

We actually made it to the islands twice but did not get to go all the way around as only a few others actually did.  So, the Mr. and I decided to just enjoy the day for what it was.

Hot!

And relaxing!  

Sorry, this is where my afternoon ends for you.  As I warned you I get very caught up in the activities and forget all about the camera.  After we got back to the docks, many of us went swimming in the lake by the beach area and then had a wonderful cookout complete with a late night bon fire by the water.

It was a wonderful afternoon!

Thanks for stopping by for Take a Look Tuesday!

Have a great day!

Mary