Southerly Buster

We raced on Sunday (me, Julie, Roberta, John and Paul - Terina piked after a BIG night). We started in warm, light breeze and lovely blue skies. We stated well and headed for Long Nose Point where the mark was in place this time, then west towards Gladesville and back around the islands towards Goat. The clouds were building, the south west was black and we could see the rain coming and the lightening flashes advancing towards us. Storm a'comin'

Undeterred, although Paul did keep predicting mayhem, we rounded Goat, tried and sometimes failed to fall into windless holes, and then the wind hit. Gusts of 20 knots just as a ferry was bearing down on us heading for East Balmain. But having managed to bear away we benefitted from the following wind as we headed home. North of Cockatoo we reefed the headsail and the main without mishap thanks to John's dexterity and skill and then rounded the island to find the wind had dropped off. But we decided not to risk losing time by shaking out the reef as we had so little distance left to cover.

You can see the wind spike just in the middle of the race which started at noon

Southern Aura 11 that was near us got stuck north of Goat Island and eventually decided to retire. Amon Re also retired when they ripped their headsail before the storm arrived. We got soaked but had a good race and eventually came 4th. We still don't know what the flashing blue light on the club house means. The flashing yellow was for a shortened course but was posted too late to mean anything.