Temerity, and we’re off

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After a tense, breezy start under double-reef, the first cool thing was seeing a breaching young grey whale in the bay about 1 nm north of StFYC. This seemed like a good omen. Early on Temerity and PAKALA engaged in a tacking duel that lasted from inside the bay out to Pt. Bonita, where they went their separate ways. The wind which had been 20 -24, dropped appreciably after Bonita, and settled into a southwesterly. Reefs were shaken out. It seemed like the bulk of the fleet went north, but the forecasted wind hole at Duxbury must not have happened, as they were all doing well at the Lightship. I went south, intending to pass the Faralonnes to the south, but got a big header just before the island, so passed with the main island to my port. The picture shows how a number of racers engaged the islands in tacking duels of their own, as there are a lot of rocks there and it was getting dark. I also took a picture of the Stinky Rocks, but do not include it as it looks like every other picture of that place. The wind dropped to 6 – 8 kts, and I thought a lot about changing up to the #1, but it was also veering to northerly, which was predicted to happen alonside a big speed increase. I kept full main and #3 and had a failrly harrowing night as I cracked well off to maintain some kind of control in the seas. Ventus and Shaman were pacing me, and now Ventus has gotten 8nm ahead. Shaman is off the radar. I’ve double reefed again in 24 -26 kts so I can reach parallel to the rhumb line.