Rules Were Made to be Broken

Blue Blazes
Cruising Rules

• Don’t sail to weather unless absolutely necessary.
• Don’t follow other boats.
• Plot your own course.
• Don’t enter an anchorage after dark.
• This is our home; DON’T RACE.

Life would be so boring if we always played by the rules, but to break all the rules is another story.

Thank goodness the Georgetown to Long Island Race is over. For me, that was stepping way outside the comfort zone.

If it were not for the race, I don’t think any of the 28 boats would have ventured out to Long Island on day one. It wasn’t that it was a bad weather day. In fact it was a beautiful day, but the wind was strong and coming from the very direction we wanted to go.

The race started at 0800 and it was the longest 35 miles I have ever sailed. It was so long in fact that some of the boats didn’t even make it to the finish line before dark. Thankfully we were not one of them.

The two days spent on Long Island, however, was fun making it all worthwhile. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting new people and making new friends. And we took a wild bus tour of the north end of the Island. The bus driver drove like a maniac on roads barely suitable for even an ATV. At times the bus was heeled over so much that I’m surprised we didn’t roll over. The excitement stopped there though as the tour was lame to say the least.

The awards party on day three was a lot of fun. It wasn’t until that night that we realized that Blue Blazes was racing in the “A” fleet (the fast boats). We were the only boat in the fleet under 40 feet so our 4th place finish wasn’t too bad. (For our boating friends…we were beat by a J-46, a Passport 46, and a Taswell 43). It’s not that Blue Blazes is all that fast, in fact she is sailing rather like a slug right now with all our gear and 6 months worth of food on board not to mention the forest that is growing on her hull, but Harley made a great tactical decision that put us out front. This became even more evident on the downwind race back yesterday as these fast boats just blew past us like we were standing still. Oh well.

Like I said, I’m glad it’s over; but I am also glad we did it. But from now on there will be no more breaking the rules.

Pictures:

1. Long Island Anchorage at dawn.
2. North end of Long Island
3. North end of Long Island