The Two Rivers Race

We raised anchor at 09:10, then motored down river, raising the main, top, and stay sail as we went. Today was scheduled to be the Two Rivers Race, and it was actually going to happen as planned! The weather had turned dull again, but it was dry, and the wind direction gave us a run down the Orwell against the tide, then a beat up the Stour with it helping us; much better than the other way round!

We had to tow Worm today since we were going to anchor at Wrabness rather than return to the Orwell, and I felt slightly nervous about racing while towing, but people do it all the time and it did not cause any problems although we did need to keep an eye on it.

We got a good start at 10:00. Fourth across the line, and although we immediately fell back from the leaders we kept our place against the other boats with a similar handicap until we rounded Shotley Horse, narrowly missing it with Worm, and began the beat up the Stour.

Starting near the front and being slow put us in the perfect position to snap lots of the boats. Lots of pics here.

Maybe someone took one of us.

We got our topsail down smartly, but forgot to make sure that our gaff peak was fully pulled up so we did not have a good sail shape. That’s when the other boats all pulled away from us again, and we crossed the finish line, the Lee Buoy at Wrabness, last at 13:50.