Wow! There have been first days out where we didn't have more than two ships on the water at a time. This was not one of them! Four ships showed up - mostly unpatched from last fall. Not an encouraging sign considering we had a late start time and most of us were late... we managed to get four sorties in with all four ships on the water. The camera on the Westfalen actually worked but the only decent footage was of the nervious dog when the ships started to move. The first sortie was pretty even with a lot of shooting but not much of interest. The second sortie went down hills for the German high fleet when nick decided to trade shots with the warspite. This is doable but the warspite has a 1 unit pump and the Derf has a 1/2 unit pump. You can guess the result Meanwhile the Westfalen wasn't doing much damage to the SC, partly because her revers kept coming and going. Just when I gave up and decided to bring her in, it started working again. I ran across the heavy current where the river empties into the pond and took on a bunch of water. I made for the side of the pond to pump out instead of towards the middle where the Allied ships were waiting. Reverse failed again and the bow ran up on the beach and the stern went down, then the rest of the ship went down. So much for the german high fleet! Cupcakes were broken out for Alex's 10th birthday - got to love an excuse for sugar The second battle helped the german morale with the warspite fouling her props on some plastic fabric and needing to be pulled. A prop went missing in the process. The SC took some more significant damage this time around. By the last sortie we had a dozen or so folks watching. Things started out well with lots of action and water flying due to bbs and pumps. The westfalen turned in front of the SC and the SC's bow hit low. The Westfalen turned for shore but didn't make more than a yard before going under. The rest of the ships kept at it until they were out of bb's. I looked at the crowd and considered the optios... I hadn't found the drysuit that morning, I spent the time looking for it and not the swim suit. So the option was to strip to by undies... In front of the crowd... Hmm, II'll bet the water tight box is working really well today! The crowd was gone in about 15 minutes and though we did snag the bobber with a fishing line the ship was too heavy and we broke the line. The water sure is cold this early in the spring! I grabbed the bobber just as my armpits hit the water and was able to gently pull the ship to shallower water so she could be pulled up. For the first day of the season, this was some serious battling!
