Lightest first half of the Margarita Run EVER per Rolf, who has sailed in some 37 Margarita Runs. Mark Zimmer smoked the fleet to the beach with a seven minute lead, ahead of Skip Boman, Bryan McDonald, John Mathias and finally Rolf. While we had 12 starters, the majority of the fleet quit due to light air...it was THAT light as our fleet are definitely not quitters. The main bay looked like glass on the way to the beach. Perfect waterskiing weather!!! I must have done 6 360s in that bay alone trying to figure out the breeze. Mark had an incredibly efficient pumping style that propelled him around the course in virtually no breeze. His style was a beauty to behold and not what I'd call air rowing. He was so efficient that he beat skip to the beach by 7 mins (Skip having a larger aerotech sail on a Lechner (though Skip did give up a lot of time by mistakenly rounding only one pillar of the second bridge and promptly corrected his mistake after Bradley Wilson informed him of the error (good sportsmanship on Brad's part))).

To the second bridge it was Mark, Owain Chilton, Skip or Brad followed by the rest of the fleet (Owain was looking solidly in second but decided to go mountain biking instead, Brad had a huge welt from soccer limped in). After passing the main bay towards the beach, the breeze filled for me, John and Rolf which made for a non-pumping sail to the beach (John was on a Dufour wing, one of the fastest div 1 boards ever (love that board! And John says it's faster than a Lechner!), I was on a Lechner and Rolf on his Mistral Superlight II).

We enjoyed a lovely picnic at the beach, where I was happy my mast did not break this time around.

Breeze was up for the way home and Skip schooled us on his Lechner upwind (Skip was also first to the windward mark at the start, so he can sail upwind well). I had a 16 min head start over Skip, was able to pass Rolf upwind, John while reaching right before the open bay and miraculously did not fall going the rest of the way home for the sand bagger trophy (first across the line on leg two with a timed pursuit start from the beach). (I did fall in while collecting a mark at the end of the race when I borrowed Rolf's board without my trusty Okespors (his deck is mirror smooth!!!! Definitely needs a new Windsurfer LT!!!)).

Skip had the shortest time home and the shortest time overall (hard to overcome Mark's amazing lead on the first leg but to quote Skip, he pumped his ass off (but before all the haters start ragging on pumping, compared to Olympians, the pumping we were doing would almost be called tactical trimming . While I look like a poser in this shot , I actually did win a trophy (bottle of hard cider (thank you)).

Thanks to all who came from afar. It's a long trek for some of you and a long race with no wind minimum. Often fleets impose a wind minimum as its thought sailing in less that 3mph is not a fair test of skill. From my perspective as a certified us sailing judge, I thought it was fair as no lead changes occurred in the light stuff and the breeze picked up later. Plus there is no current in the lagoon (by contrast, one needs wind minimums in locations with current to avoid drifting away).

Thank you again for all that came. It makes it more fun with a bigger fleet.