A day at the races…3BF 09′

As I start to write this, the racers are most likely just getting home so I should be the first on board to blog about the 3BF. Well first off it was not a day at the races for me, more like a couple or so hours, but you get the idea. Also I always liked that movie form the Marx Brothers by that name.

It was a uncertain start for LZ and I, the Blogger Shadow Division had some communication problems so was not as together as was envisioned. However it worked out at the end, or in this case the beginning, as in the race. As I was not sure I would be on the water I did not think to grab the list of who to look for on what boat. I ended up taking a lot of shots, maybe some of the bloggers where in it. EVK4 was for sure, we tracked him down. Anyway I’m a bit ahead of myself.

It was an early start for me, having been up late the night before, coming back from Kung Fu practice. I was sleepy and a bit sore. But I maned up , harassed LZ to get up and we headed out the door on time.

When we arrived at the starting line  there was only about 4 boats there. I went to see about finding the guest dock at the GG YC. I had arranged to meet Captain John from Ayala Sandbox @ 9:00am . He was picking us up to get out there in the mix and grab some shots. Cool!

As it turns out there is only a very limited docking space at the GG YC guest dock , however he did a great job of handling that big boat the J-109 or 105  ( i’m not sure which) and backing into a tiny space enough that LZ and I could board from the rear. After introductions we were off. By now there was quite a pack of boats gathering. We set off to find EVK4 the ocean crossing Super or is it Ultra now blogger. Him having one of the few blue boats and a split name it was without too much seeking time we found him.  He spotted us and threw up  the Zen sign. ..sweet!

We circle him for a bit grabbed some pictures while harassing him about his race strategy. From there we zig and zag our way through the fleet which was growing by the minute. Accompanying us were shouts of hey , you have too many people on that boat.   As of this point there was still no wind to speak of, but it was a great day to be out on the water. In the case of the racers, great day to be out drifting. We were not in the race so were totally free to do what we wanted , as long as it was staying out of the way of those under sail. ( rules of the road).

I grabbed shots of whatever looked interesting, like this poser, since I had no targets to shoot.

I figured Someone would show up in the shots who was a blogger…maybe there were a lot of boats. I think I ill setup a site maybe on google photos where who ever wants to look for themselves, that reads this blog can do so. That being said, check back later for an update . Maybe we can setup a flicker site or something were folks can post pictures from the race. That would be kind of cool, beside the ones on their blogs.

After of while of this way and that wa in and out of the fleet, Capt J took us out a ways so I could grab some shots of the whole fleet. Good idea, but it did make everyone much smaller, but you can get the idea from the following.

After that we headed over to the starting line. About this time the wind had pickup and they were off.  We were in a good spot since the wind was blowing from land toward the Golden Gate and we were just outside of the starting point having a merry time. There were lots of interesting Sails and spinnakers, some of which I was directed to photograph via direction from Admiral “A” who was aboard the Blog Photo MotherShip, but tired of shooting, having clicked away most of the morning with me.

As I said before the day was perfect although somewhat overcast, lessened the impact of some of the distance photos of the fleet. I do not think anyone racing really cared, they looked like they were having too much fun. I did not see any mishaps like last year’s boat crash, which I’m sure made very one happy. There were a few times when it was hard to tell what was happening, but they were mostly just illusions.

Too soon my part was over, as the goodship, s/v Knots had plans to shadow the fleet during the race, whilst LZ and I need to back to the land Yacht and tend to some business. There was still a line of boat floating and manuvering around the starting line after we were dropped back off at the dock and the Knot crew headed off,

with waves and our thanks for a great morning, they were off.

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