WH00T!

A slow finish that got slower as we got closer to the finish. As is often the case, the winds lightened up near the line, so we wafted our way across the finish an hour later than we expected. KYC base (why do I keep calling it KFC?) continued to have radio problems, so we were relaying check-ins even as we were making our final approach to the finish.

One minor bit of excitement, there was some debate in the cockpit as to the precise limit of the military exclusion zone around the marine station and Mokumanu Island (aka "the Island of Death" aka the Romulan Nuetral Zone) out of which we are obligated by race rules, Federal Law, and common sense, to stay (they use it for artillery practice, and the Marines were doing an exercise that day). Well, we had it on GPS and we peered out to locate the limiting buoy.

At night it is dark.

And it was night. The mark that I thought was there was not at all visible. It's supposed to be the one with the yellow flashing light. We saw mark "A", but not "B", which was the one we were after. So we turned toward the finish.

Almost immediately, a military plane with really bright lights flies overhead and turns toward us. Kind of made me wish we were flying a US flag (only race flags are allowed while racing). It flew overhead slowly, but returned several times. Okay, it was just someone practicing landings, but they sure look like strafing runs from a tiny boat.

Then Spencer says "hey look at that" or words to that effect. Mark B is there, in black silhouette. On the wrong side of the boat. Problems: its light is out, so we missed it. we could have hit it, since we never noticed it till we were past. we were on the wrong side, and therefore IN the zone of doom. Well, we got out as fast as we could (we were only 100 yards in). We called the Coast Guard to let them know their lights were off, and finished with them about 40 seconds before the finish.

And then we finished. Half-ounce kite flying and crew very happy. More on the finish to follow...