Aug 11 - Day 2 & 3

We had two races yesterday and another two today. While I greatly dislike getting up at 6 am at least we are getting races done on schedule! Yesterday the first race was sailed in around 8 knots. We struggled on the first upwind with boatspeed, and managed to make some changes and the boat felt much faster on the second upwind, but not fast enough to catch up! The wind blew up right after the first race to about 20-25 knots gusting 30. We pinned down 3 full pins and tried our best, but ultimatly were still unabe to complete the race in this much wind. We made it much farther around the course than we did in Holland in this much wind, but after several capsizes we were very far behind and we lost the power batten in the mainsail. After staying late at the boat park to help our fellow Canadians, Jono and Teddy, repair their kite, we huddled in a warm English pub and ate hot stews for dinner.

Later in the evening I started experiencing a lot of pain in my right foot which took several hours to subside. This morning I saw the onsite medic who managed to get me into the physio who works onsite. She diagnosed it as a sprained ligament in my foot. CYA coach Brian Todd taped me up and we headed on the water. We had a good day of sailing overall. The first race was in 8 knots and although we did not have a great start, our speed upwind was better then yesterday in these conditions. We managed to stay ahead of another boat the whole way around the course which was uplifting. The breeze steadily picked up as we had one general recalled start after another. We finally got the second race started at around 2. We are still struggling with our starts (athough getting lots of practise) but had decent speed upwind on the first leg. On the downwind we were fast on port gybe but couldn't seem to get starboard gybe dialed in. The second upwind we couldn't seem to find the groove, and athough we were on top of the wind shifts we couldn't point so weren't able to capitalize on them. We finished just behind the British team we had beaten in the first race of the day.

There are two more days of racing left with 2 races scheduled per day. My foot was fine racing today so it should be alright to get through the rest of the regatta. We are still struggling with our starts and at the back of the pack but we are steadily improving in all areas as we gain experience in the boat and the fleet.