PDYC - Interesting start to the 2015 sailing season

My sailing schedule this year is the same as last year; committee boat for the Monday Night Spinnaker series in June and September and crew on Caliedascope, Wednesday nights, June, July, August and September.
We have had 4 race nights so far.
Wednesday May 27 was the practice race. We all waited in Port Dover, in the pouring rain, to see if the forecast thunderstorms would materialize and they did. The radar apps showed band after band of storms coming across the Long Point Bay at half hour intervals. Race cancelled.
Monday June 1st was the first night of the Spinnaker Series. We motored out on our new (for this year) committee boat, Caramel, and were joined by the fleet.

New, hi tech,  "Happy Face" buoy with light. The old one was a painted
barrel and was run over last year by one to many powerboat. 

New boat to the fleet, Tanzer 7.5, "The Fog". Skipper states it stands
for Four Old Geysers. Although most boats had sails up, the reflections in the water
indicate the lack of wind.

Race was cancelled.
Wednesday June 3 there was plenty of wind. Afterwards I was told it was up to 19 knots. However we opted to put up our biggest sail on Caliedascope as it was about 10knots at the start line. Unfortunately, windier at the other end of the course. We were over powered and sailed much of the course heeled over and sideways. Not a good end result but a lovely night and the spinnaker went up and down three times without trouble.
Monday June 8

Thunderstorms were again forecast but it looked fine as the committee boat motored out
and there was some wind.

Sails were up, little or no reflection, good night for racing.

Just as we started the race a bank of fog rolled in and both fleets disappeared.

We couldn't see the windward mark and sometimes we couldn't see the tetrahedron at the other end of the start/finish line and we just hoped the fleets could see us on their return.

First we saw the top of Rituals asymetrical sail, above the fog, and then gradually the visibility improved and we were able to see all the boats go around the mark. We had contemplated shortening the race to just the first 2 legs but as the wind held and the fog seemed to dissipate we let them go around again.

Somehow the majority of the boats ended up rounding the tetrahedron in a bunch.

Two more banks of fog rolled in before the race was over.

The colourful spinnakers helped us identify who was finishing.

Last boat across the line was The Fog.

The sky looked very strange as we came in from the course, dark grey storm clouds
and stripes of fog.

And now for something completely different:

Al McKeown who also works on the committee boat shared this picture of a coyote
that was picked up by his trail camera on a farm near Port Dover.