Brrr...Sailing In December

Had an awesome opportunity to sail in the Annapolis Yacht Club's Frostbite series today on a J/80.  I had sailed on J/80s before when I did the J-World Spinnaker Racing Course earlier in the summer & I'd forgotten how much fun these little boats are--very much like a dinghy on steroids.  

I have been very loathe to do frostbite because Xing Fu always talks about how the last time he went out in 1988!, he froze & they had to crack the ice off of the lifelines.  So not what I want to do, but when the opportunity arose did I say no?  Of COURSE not!  Earlier in the week Xing Fu had sent me an email saying that a friend of his needed crew on his J/80 for this Sunday & did I want to go?  So for about a half an hour, while I looked at various weather predictions, decided if I had enough cold weather gear, & generally fretted, I stalled before responding, "Absolutely!  Sounds like fun!"  And then for the rest of the week worried that I'd freeze my ass off & be stuck out in a cold, wet, rainy day--especially as the temps plummeted & snow was predicted for mid-week. As I pulled out my sailing gear which had been lovingly packed away for what I thought was at least until April, I decided that even if it was pretty hella-cold out there, I was just excited to be back on the water.

But I couldn't have been more wrong.  What an absolutely gorgeous sailing day--mebbe a bit more wind would've been nice, but I ain't complaining too loudly 'cuz it was just great fun, even when we had to spin twice for a collision around the mark (really, not our fault), & it was very exciting!  There were at least 50 boats out there--a few different fleets, & the J/80 fleet is pretty competitive.  

So, how'd we do?  The first race was our collision race so obviously not as well since we had to take our 720. And despite the fact that half the J/80 fleet was late trying to get to the start on time--no motor, we did pretty well--4th. Last year my last sailing day of the year was in November & this year it may be December--mebbe I can fill in the rest of the months--my pops would be proud!