The year of the short race. Short version is the Coast Guard terminated the race 4 hrs after it started as they had already saved 12 people who were in trouble. Since I have limited details I’ll stay away from comments. But what about my race? A few of the high lights. Great start with a tail wind crossing Tampa Bay. About half way across I realized I had made a mistake of sitting in the front seat. With the following 4′ seas I was burying the bow from time to time. The boat would go from 7+ knots to 4 knots with a foot of water over the top of the bow. A few times I think I lost control of the rudder as I was rounding up to catch the waves on the beam. 100% my fault for not factoring in the weight difference between the 2 seats. I had tested my boat against Kokopeddle AI sitting in the two seats. It was easily faster in the front. But that was with calmer seas and wind. After rounding Anna Marina I was still burying the bow. I tried reefing but that just slowed me down. So I finally rolled in the sail stopping the boat. I grabbed the gear out of the back seat and moved it forward and moved me to the back. Easier said than done with a back seat dodger in the way. As I was doing this Peddleon came by to see if I was OK. I went from close to the front of the Hobies to 5th place after my stop. UGH. Sailing down the coast was wonderful. Waves were low because of the lee of the land. Winds were decent. I was cruising at 5-7 knots and hit 11.8 at one point. Just a blast. After I found out the race was canceled it really took the edge off the race. Still fun sailing but just changed the thought process. Overall, maybe the best day of sailing in many years. I followed a home made tri across the North side breakers at Stump pass. As I came through those shallows I saw breakers on each side and felt the boat rise up as I started to ride a wave in. I can only imagine that the feeling is similar to what the surfers experience. 30 seconds later and hitting 17 knots, I was into the calm water in the channel. From there it took almost a hour to get into #1 as the tide was ripping out against me. I was 16th over all, 5th in Hobie’s. Took 2 hrs off last years time so that was great. Most of the racers dropped out there as I did also. I know the ones who pushed had to fight some decent headwinds a few days later.