Race Day! – 18^th August

Race number one – End of Lembeh Passage Race and around the islands. Distance = 15 miles completed in 1 hour 43 mins.  Astra was first over the start line at 14:10.  We all worked really hard during this race constantly trimming the sails to get the best performance out of Astra.  We crossed the finish line which was the start of the next race some 26 minutes ahead of the next yacht in the fleet (pretty good going for such a short race).

Race number two – Lembeh Passage to Wori Bay.  Distance = 63 miles completed in exactly 8 hours.  The first half of this race was spent sailing downwind cruising at around 8.5 knots through the water.  Just after sunset that evening, a pod of dolphins started playing around Astra.  This was an amazing site to see the jet streams from the dolphins being lit up by the plankton in the water.  The wind eventually died as we changed tack to head back down towards Manado and the engine went on for the last few hours of the race.  We crossed the finish line just before midnight and had to make our way into a tricky Wori bay in the dark to anchor for the night.