One sunny day erases ten crappy ones.

It was a sunny bright day with a dry light westerly wind and all the funky aspects of the challenge raised their eyebrows and threw it all at the fleet.

The start was downwind from THE GOVERNMENT MARKER.

I got a good start.

I led into the river past a cheering crowd at the BUILDMAN’s dock, which I greased by on one port tack, all the way from THE GOVERNMENT MARKER starting line.

ADAM passed me at the JASPER's first hole.

Then GABE eased by.

The real race was on at the JASPER oxbow.

I got back past ADAM.

I squeezed over GABE on the straightaway to the next oxbow turn, and on the stretch to the turning mark at the top GABE squirmed past me, and I followed him around the turning buoy a foot behind.

The sun was shining, and the wind was zero- to three-knot zephyrs.

Through the next free-willy leg out, I squirmed through a gap between some boulders, scraping over some barnacles (and my dad cringed from above).

Then the next super shallow spot had a couple of options at high tide....

(I paddle the river a lot to find the channels early mornings on a stand-up paddle board for race reconnaissance.)

I got through, and got a few lengths ahead of GABE.

ADAM was now solidly in third and not an immediate threat.

Exiting at the JASPER Hole, GABE was to my west, close to land.

We were side by side.

I stood up, felt a mini puff, and got a bit of ebb to shoot out.

GABE was in the vacuum of some hot JASPER spruces and got into a back eddy and parked up.

By the time I went past the BUILDMAN’s cheering throng on their dock, ADAM and GABE were still swirling around going nowhere.

And it was a long home stretch in a light westerly that could have shut down anytime, yet I got wide around JIMMINY Point and back to finish at THE GOVERNMENT MARKER with a solid win!

I got on the mooring, rowed like a scalded house cat to the house, grabbed my pack, and raced to the ferry home.

So summer is okay.

It's so thick a fog right now, as I have been warned before: slow down and do not take a deep breath or you might just about drown yourself.