Could have gone in "Racing" but it's more of a Sea Story.
We had committee duty last night. The crew of another boat joined us on High Flight as we gathered the flags and the mark and set up. Winds N 18kts, waves... big Michigan swells at 6' close together. Took us two attempts to set the hook for the start. She finally set and we made two starts. When the last boats were in, the winds piped up and the waves were coming in odd rhythm making it nearly impossible to get the hook up. It took a lot of Westerbeke to get that hook out (not to mention some toll on my upper body)
Then we had to pick up the mark (one fixed upwind bouy, boat and an inflatable mark for the start line.)
With the waves getting bigger and sun drifting lower, we made several passes trying to hook the thing with a boat hook. Twice we hooked it only to get knocked by a wave causing the bouy to duck under the boat and come out the other side. On the last attempt, the mark was hooked, and as the two crewman worked at it the action moved aft until... you guessed it... fouled prop. Engine died right off.
It was too rough to dive on a pitching boat so we let out enough genoa to get moving and called the fleet for an assist. It was twilight and thankfully one crew was slow wrapping up. They headed out for towing duties while we reeled in the line and anchor.
The tow was thankfully uneventful. We tossed them our anchor line on the first attempt and crawled home. They left us at the gas docks to deal with our issues. By the time we got in it was 2230. The crew shuffled off to their cars while the Skipper and I tidied up some of the major foredecks mess. I really didn't want to go swimming at 2300, but after much indecisiveness, I realized it was better than going swimming at 6AM. Plus I was already soaked from the action of the night. 15 minutes of hacking and we were finally free. The boat might have some dings under the waterline from the anchor during recovery but she's none the worse for wear.
Big pain in the ass but in all, we only lost one inflatable mark (the screw slashed it up quite nicely.) And I think I owe our saving tug a keg of beer.
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