June 2nd.

15:51 Wings - Rudder problems WITHDREW

16:00Blue Moon - broken halyard, not reparable. WITHDREW

June 3rd.

9:00 Pangloss - Pull into Freport. Not enough wind. Reported winds of 8 knots from the South. - WITHDREW

10:45 Star Gazer reported winds of 12 knots from 240°

13:00 Star Gazer - Pulled into Freeport. Family problems. WITHDREW

14:00 Kenai reports doing 4.4 Knots on the nose. ETA Monday evening.

15:00 The RC is having rum drinks at the pool.

16:00 Kathy Rodgers arrives with the Rum and Coke.

17:45 Multihull Nelda Ray is 120 NM off, sailing on the rhumb line with SW winds. ETA Tuesday noon.

18:30 at 14:00 Sun BB went into Freeport with a sick crew member; Alan said that he was going to call back to report if it was going to continue the race. Have not received new report.

22:00 Rosalita withdrew. Lack of wind, pulled into Port Aransas

RC is having rum and cokes; my daughter is already feeling no pain. Eric Englelhardt and Kathy are pounding drinks.

June 4th.

05:37:17 First boat to arrive. "BLUE"

08:15 "LADY BLUE" withdrew and went to Port Aransas. Jim reports little wind and no possibility of making it for any party.

09:38:09 "ABANDONED ASSETS" finished

10:10 Blue Northern retired and headed to Port Aransas. But will join the Jalapeño Class.

11:15 "JUST US" has withdrew and returned to Galveston.

11:30 Mojo has checked-in as well as Nelda Ray, both expected to finish in the next hour.

12:06:00 "MOJO" finished No sight of Nelda Ray.

12:35 RC ready to start drinking again

14:17:02 "KENAI" finished

16:15 "RUHLESS" and "MI BONITA" heading into Port Aransas.

17:06:58 "NELDA RAY" finished

17:45:52 "DANELAW" finished

17:53:23 "CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT" finished

18:30 The RC has been warned to clean their act and therefore we will stick to RC stuff only. (Anything not related to the race will be posted here)

18:44 The RC finally decides to take a shower, Eric smells like he has been racing for 5 days and I need to wake up since I have not sleep more than 1 hour.

19:00 I’m running to the finish line with Jackie and Samantha, Kathy is setting up the party at LMYC, Eric still in the shower.

19:17:28 "ANCHOR MANAGEMENT" finished under motor. This is the way you should finish, if you have a cruising boat and you are not going to finish on time, forget Port Aransas, turn the motor on and come join the party. Welcome Anchor Management you have officially joined the Jalapeño Class. I drink to that.

19:30 the party at LMYC is in full motion, there is a cooler of champagne bottles and plenty of Mount Gay, Flor de Caña and sailors to put a dent. The Mojo crew swears 240 NM on a Melges 32 is 240 miles too long, while Danelaw with a short crew are smiling big, I think they know they have done well.

Marc Holdaway is the representative of BLUE; Blue drop couple crew members and sail back to Port Aransas. I don’t get it.

So Vicki Rhyme discovered the Jalapeño Class, she doesn’t know what to do with a GPS, but she definitely knows how to bribe the judges. I had a nice dinner plate and couple rum drinks thanks to her. Time to finish another boat. Adios.

21:50:40 "STAR CHASER" finished.

22:00 Star Chaser calls to say inform us that their transmission is broken and their need a tow. I suggest getting one from Rasta Mama that is about to finish.

22:47:33 "RASTA MAMA" finished under motor and tries to give a tow to Kevin and Dexter.

23:36:31 "DIABLESSE" is about to finish….10 9 8 7 6 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 what’s the matter? They are aground. They runed aground at the start and the finish, that should qualify them for the Jalapeño Class.

June 5^th.

02:00 I just finished Island Time, the girls are sleep, Eric is passed out and Kathy is heading to the marina to pick up the crew. I’ll try to get a nap, Eric will finish the next boat, Kevin called from the bar, the crew of Kenai is feeling no pain.

03:00 “MATERIAL GIRL” is calling on the radio and apparently coming-in under sail. I’m going to wake up Eric and send him out there. I’m going to bed.

06:00 Time to wake up, ISLAND TIME wants to finish today, I’m out the door to the finish line. It will take me 5 minutes to go down the elevator, 5 to get to my car 10 to get to the finish line and then I’ll have to wait 45 minutes before anything happens. I’m going to change the rules next time so it doesn’t interfere with nap time. I can hear Eric snoring.

16:20 I apologize. It has been a very hectic day, Island Time finally finish under motor, I don’t blame them. After that my daughter wanted breakfast and then I had to finish Material Girl, Cache, C’est La Vie and Voyager and the day is gone. I’m getting more complains because I haven’t written anything in the last 6 hours that why nobody has check in.

We had a great hamburger lunch; Vicky and Leslie Olsen are competing very hard for the J-Class.

I have to go to setup for Bonfire will give you the latest news toniiight.

June 6^th.

Took me a while to write. The bonfire was a success. Thanks to Kathy, Kevin, Steve Rhyne. We had plenty of rum, pizza and a fantastic fire; the envy of the whole beach. I must say yesterday was a very long day or a very short one depends how you look at it. I don’t remember getting a lot of sleep, just a lot of work.

June 7^th.

18:00 Down to the wire, the results are done. I spend my morning in Mexico while my daughter was making friends at the beach. The rest of the day has been getting the result correctly, checking the boats and making sure this printer is going to do it’s job. I just had my first rum and coke and several call from Vicky Rhyne wondering if I need anything. She is working hard for the Jalapeño Class trophy. I can’t wait to finish tonight. Everyone may be leaving tomorrow, but I still have to settle with the marinas and perhaps with this newsletter. I know my daughter will not be a happy camper tonight, she was to come in by 1:30 last night, and she did but then decided she left something in the pool and went down to get it and return at 2:30. She will not be going out for too long tonight. I got to go and prepare my speech.

21:50 We had a wonderful evening of awards around the pool. Thank you to all the volunteers and Flor De Caña, without you I would have lost a lot of volunteers. I didn’t have a big speech, the normal thing, thank you to our sponsor, Higgins Smythe and Hood Yachts, Blue Water Ship Stores, Intergulf and Steve Rhyne, Hayes Rigging, Tom Meah, SPICVB, Classic Café, Davis Marine, LMYC, Capcana, my mom and my dad, because of you I will live to have another race. I spoke about the Jalapeño Class, the bribes, I believe somebody is asking for redress, I better solve the issue, will continue..

22:00 Issues solved. If you mix the Flor de Caña with the Mount Gay, you still get rum.

23:50 Wahoos Bar and Grill. Steve Rhyne is celebrating Vicky Rhyne’s big win in the Jalapeño Class. Roy Olsen had couple tears after winning the big Marion Hayes Trophy. Well deserved.

June 8^th.

01:00 I’m in bed. I’m tired and ready to face tomorrow. I need to settle with the marinas, bonfire man, hotel, SPCVB

10:00 After a very healthy breakfast at McDonalds, I went to meet Tom from LMYC and to check on the boats leaving. Wind blowing at 25 knts. I’m glad I’m not leaving today.

June 9^th.

Very long day yesterday, you think you are done and realize there is still so much to finish up. I finally got to relax by the pool at 6pm. Anybody seen my daughter? Oh yes I drop her home yesterday from the airport. I have no reports of any boat in their return trip, but I did receive a very nice email.

You have the most fantastic newsletter and web page!! I sure enjoyed keeping up with things.

My brother-in-law (Bill), is a crew member on the R. M. This was his second "Race to the Border". He, Steve and Henry...have all known each other since they were little bitty boys. So it is good that they can all get together for the "Race to the Border"...they must have all known each other for about 40 years now.

It sounded as though it were very tough sailing, trying to get down to the border. Very light winds and southwesterlies. I guess that everyone is now on their way back to Houston/Galveston. How about a second leg of the race? The border back to Houston!!!

It sounded as though you had a wonderful time down there...although there was a lot of work involved for you. I hope that we see a little more addition to your newsletter.

I just wanted to write, and thank you...a job well done!!!

R.