Sunday, September 5, 2010

Friday and Saturday Racing

Sorry for the lack of updates, we are getting tired as the event goes on and the internet is in and out. Friday we had an 11 am start scheduled but were postponed on shore until 1 while they raced the men's fleets to finish the qualifying series. We sailed 3 races; the first in light wind with big gusts and the next two in heavy wind with big gusts. We had a good day, we managed to not capsize in the heavy wind on the last race and passed two boats who did. The three races put us back on schedule so we had a 1 pm start for Saturday.
Saturday we went out for 1 pm start and drifted around for an hour in no wind. Every one geared down in the heat so imagine 100 boats drifting around in bikinis and speedos (the Italians) with piles of clothing in the bottom of the boats. The race committee finally put up the flag to postpone us back on shore. We managed to get a tow with the speedo wearing Italians; the wind came up while towing in. We only sat on shore long enough to eat some lunch and then headed back out. We had 2 races in light and gusty conditions from the N. We had an amazing start in the first race of the day and were sailing up with the leaders briefly. We struggled with our upwind tactics - the first beat we went left and a huge right shift came in at the top. The next beat the wind had been left for 20 minutes or so, so we headed right at the top but the righty never came in! By the second race of the day we had pretty much lost the ability to focus. The fleet was very tight in this last race, the entire fleet rounded the first downwind mark within 2 minutes of each other. We were with the pack until the end of the second beat when we slipped back. We finished racing in the dark and got a tow in with the Germans.

We have a 1 pm start scheduled for today (Sunday) but a big black rain cloud is threatening so we will see what happens!

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