Magic was sold and the replacement boat might not make it under the Card Sound Bridge… too tall. So it was time to find a new ride for this race.

Amanda has a Hunter 35.5 which she's learning to race and it's also her home! I reached out to ask if she'd ever done MIA-KL before and she had not, but thought it would be a great idea to put a female crew together and do it! Game ON!

Amanda, Linda, Martine and I became the crew. We left her dock on Friday morning about 1000 hrs. and went outside for a lovely sail to Miami.

It was a brisk 15+kts but mostly on the beam so we were able to sail it easily. We went in Govt. Cut and in to Bayside Marina where the crews from Glory Daze and Unicorn were graciously waiting to help grab dock lines for us. Thanks guys! That was a big help!

Dinner at Bayside and an early night for a couple of us while the 'young ones' went out to dance and listen to music.
The morning came early, off the dock at 6:30, and we fixed the broken slide on the Main on the way out to the start. Crazy start line with all those boats but Amanda did great and didn't panic. We were within a few seconds of the start horn and there were no 'issues' so that's all we could ask for!
The race was a '0 tack' event and we were able to sail the whole thing with no motor in the narrow channels. Lucky it was an upwind event, as it turns out, our spinnaker was left back in the dock box!!!
I had a room at the newly renovated Gilbert's and shared it with Linda and the other 2 stayed on the boat in the raft up. We were 4 out from the dock and one more outside of us. No chance for power cord to reach so lucky it wasn't terribly hot. Showers for all in my room then Dinner at the patio bar and some live music and Linda and I stayed for awhile and left the 2 youngsters to dance and party. We spent a bit of time studying the charts to make decisions in the morning and went to bed early. The lack of sleep the night before (strange noises) and the long race day put both of us out early. Sucks to get OLD!! LOL.

Up on Sunday and breakfast at Gilbert's at 7 and off the dock at about 8:15 for the long trip home. Of course, by the time we got about 3/4 of the way up the Bay, the rain started and the wind went North! GRRR. Seems to happen that way every year. We had the tough choice and decided to just deal with all the bridges and headed home on the inside. We all took turns at the helm and we made it back to her dock by about 10pm. Long day but a FUN weekend!

Amanda did this great video of the trip! We hope to make this an annual event for us! Maybe an extra woman or 2 for rail weight would help. Results are in and we got a 3rd in class! Not bad indeed!