Today was certainly a fun day.

Mike and I got the boat etc ready and then went to breakfast to plan the racing course and this is where we were joined by Ben & Brandon Bamer. Brandon was joining me on race committee and Ben was not only going to help Mike and I launch the boat and set the course but also register and collect donations from racers on 'Pebble Beach'.

When we launched the boat we found that we were going to have another race committee person...Marley decided that after 3 years of playing about on the rigging areas he was now old enough to find out just what happened on the CalCup boat.

Marley had a great day. He stayed aboard the boat from 11AM - 6PM! He could not quite understand why Mike & Ben inflated huge balls for him and then threw over the side of the boat and would not let him jump in and retrieve them :) Then, later, he was even more surprised when Mike sailed up to the boat on his board, followed soon after by Ben! What went through his mind when all his other friends from the rigging areas arrived at the boat on their boards is any ones guess :) :) Marley is now an official member of the CalCup race committee :)

Although the day started with no wind by just after 2 PM we had enough wind to start the races. When we went into the count down on race one neither the megaphone or air-horn would work, and we had checked them both out before hand! Brandon had to quickly change the air-horn canister as we were already in the count down. By this time the boat was bouncing up and down and the start line was hard to monitor. By the time the first finishers came over the line the boat was dragging its anchor and we were heading for Ashby Shoal! It was great fun trying to sort this all out and finish everyone :) The next three races went a lot smoother.

Hope you all had fun on the water.

A big thank you goes to Ben and Brandon (and Marley) for helping Mike and I with the days races.

Jane.