This is a 10 mile race that is sponsored by the St. Augustine Yacht Club.

Rick called and said we have a delivery to Abaco and that there was a race the day before and he was taking the HC 50 out to play. That was all the excuse I needed to jump on a quick flight up to Jacksonville.

Rick and his kids, Caylie and Brody, picked me up at the airport and we went down to St. Augustine, went out to dinner and then to the boats. He is now Captain for 3 boats, all under the same owner. Two HC-50's and one Hunter 466.

I slept on the Hunter and Rick and his kids stayed on his power boat at the same docks.

We got up in the morning and went to the skipper's meeting where we met another of our crew and were given the sailing instructions. Sail out at 45 º for 5 miles... turn around an invisible mark and sail back. No mark boat available so we take our own time at the finish.

We decided we'd most likely be first boat to the turn so we came up with a disposable drop mark made from a brick and balloons and took it with us. I was a bit too busy at the mark to get a photo but it worked great and the rest of the fleet was happy to have something they could see to go around.

John and Michelle, father and daughter, were our additional crew and turned out to be great assetts to the boat.

Michelle, in college, is learning to sail 420's on her school team. If she's as good there as she was with us...her school is lucky to have her! John was also great crew and they were both fun to have aboard.

I taught Caylie to use my camera at dinner the night before and she did such a good job that I designated her as Ship's Photographer. She took nearly all the photos except of course, the ones she's in. Thanks Caylie!

Aside from getting the sheets for the spin on the wrong side of the jib sheets...we had a good race. We finished over 24 minutes ahead but that correced to about 5 Minutes overall. The last 3 pix say it all! Thanks Capt. Rick for another fun day on the HC 50!