End of the Season

Well, it was a beautiful season we had!

2011 started with a bang, got better, and then after Harbor Springs pretty much went to hell, but it was still good!

Our 2nd place finish in the NOOD Regatta, with 3 bullets, and only 4 pts out of 1st place, was our best overall finish in that regatta ever.

First in section over the finish line in the Mackinac Race, even though we were then corrected over by 5 boats, and Gauntlet with their big time advantage for stopping to assist with Wingnuts giving them 1st place, is also our best finish ever in that race. So we were corrected over. Dueling with Spitfire down the straits was an excellent finish to an amazing race. The first 36 hours was some of the best sailing we have ever seen. There is about half an hour of sailing in there that I could do without, (storm, wind, lightning, other good stuff,) but we sailed well and had a great time.

After the Mac, though.... I'm not sure if getting our bootys handed to us in HS defeated us for the rest of the season too, or not. IT was pretty much downhill after that, though. That doesn't mean we didn't have a good time!

The delivery to Waukegan was one of the best rides we had this year. 12 kts of wind out of the West, clear blue skies, and 80F. We had a consistent 7+ kts of boat speed, and thought we would speed up the lake. The wind died off earlier than planned, and shifted around to E/SE from it's prior lovely SW wind, so we motor sailed the last half.

On the trip, we had good news... On their vacation in France, Matt proposed to Carly at the top of the Eiffel Tower!... Once again, the Maskwa/Dark Island connection continues to produce! Judi, you need to get some more single guys on that boat for the Maskwa girls!

We had a great time going up the lake, and a bunch of us had to run and catch the train back. We left Carly, Matt, Don, and Chrystal to do all the work, while we lounged back on the train.

All in all, it was a lovely season. We've got a number of people who are just starting out on the boat and are looking forward to becoming part of our Maskwa family. Some have been out a few times, and 2 of these names only made it for the delivery, but we'd like to welcome:

Anthony

Kate

Annette

Shannon

Courtney

Let's plan on getting together more often in the off season!

Cheers all!

Scott