Off Soundings First Day by Claudia and Mark Kondracky
	Whew, Off Soundings got off without a hurricane blowing us away. Looking at the weather report, I thought we were really going to be in for it. There was much talk about last year's Fall series. Friday saw cloudy skies and some rain. The rain was just enough for us to put on the foul weather gear. During the 8:00am harbor start, we were looking around, looking at the weather changes and trying to get out to the line. At least three of us aboard had studied the sailing instructions in the days ahead of this race. We had three new to newish people aboard so I shared my knowledge with them too. I feel it's important that everyone knows as much as possible to avoid silly mistakes. Nor'Easter set up a conservative course. It was to leave Valiant rock to starboard and finish. At the start  many of our class bunched up at the pin end. There was a bit of yelling but there were no penalties and it was a fair start. We were trying to keep our air clear as we moved up the left side of the course.  We saw Checkered Demon set their chute but didn't think our angle was good enough. They didn't make the mark and it added minutes to their time. When asked about it later, they said that they might have tried to shoot the mark, but Checkered Demon just had a beautiful new paint job and didn't want to risk it. Meanwhile, a tactial battle raged between Euphoria, and Salud.  Salude was to leeward of Euphoria, but she headed up to go above her.  Once clear she  rounded and set her chute playing the left side of the second leg.  The right side had less foul current, but less pressure.  Salud went on to win the day tighening the three way race between Euphoria and Mentor for spring and fall combined.  We set the chute and started to the finish line. We were still playing what was now the left side of the course. We would come up to weather if a boat tried to pass . When there wasn't much we could do, we would sometimes catch a ride on a quarter wave. We were rewarded with some speed surges from the waves of bigger boats.  Meanwhile One Up and En Charette mixed it up on the final leg.  En Charette couldn't get over the top, as Link kept his air clear.  One Up went on to win the fall series. We watched as Nor'Eastern made her way to the finish line. Later a member of the RC, Judy Gibbs, said that they headed to the finish line as soon as the last boats started. We finished, 12:20 GPS time, and headed in to our dock. We tried to explain to the newer members of our crew that this was a very easy first day. We remembered a lot of very different races