Today was a very long day on the water…
We docked off at 10:15 am in no breeze so we towed out to the race course with the sails down…

Once out on the water we sat around for a while with no wind, JD got on the chase boat to go take some current readings with the coaches and weather team.
The breeze came up about an hour after we arrived to the course, but was too shifty to start a race. We sailed around taking wind readings for a few hours, finally they started a race. Course W2 which means two laps finish downwind.
Well halfway up the first beat there was a 50 degree shift to the right….. what this means to non sailors is as follows… Your sailing along after the start burning boats off around you forcing them the wrong way and all of a sudden you look over your shoulder and they are now ahead of you by 500 yards….. When this happens it is not cause they are going faster than you but a big shift was the cause, and the race was called off.. The race committee made a good call, it wasn’t a fair contest….

We had another start, the pin was hugely favored, the boats who hit the pin and tacked onto port were ahead by 100 yards immediately, but this time we had a general recall (meaning boats were over the starting line early)

Start #3
Its now about 3pm and we got a race started.
JD and I started at the pin, it was favored by 10 degrees, after the start I looked over my shoulder and informed JD we should tack because we could cross the fleet by a mile… This is what we did and we crossed the fleet.
1/2 up the first beat things were looking good…. We had good pressure and the current regatta leader was to leeward of us, one option… continue on.
3 boats that had bad starts banged the left corner and wouldn’t you know it they had pressure and angle on us… this is where it gets good.


Well JD waited on a header (just so happened to be on the starboard layline, for a racing fans out there you should avoid at all costs the laylines, your options run out real quick) Well we tack onto starboard and here comes the pack of 3 boats, 1st boat was Eric and Mike they tacked to leeward of us they didn’t tack on us but made it difficult to hang, boat number two was Szabo & Scott well they lee bowed JD and I, this was the best part JD and I rolled them and forced them to tack and go behind us, and the last boat from that pack was Joe Londigrin and Mark Strube they were very cool they had a chance to tack on our face but opted to cross us, by the top mark we got a right hand shift and we rounded second…. Eric & Mike & JD/I extended on the run. Up the next beat we managed to pass Eric and Mike to take the lead and never looked back.
We won the race by over a minute….

We are in Second place overall, and picked up a few points on the leader today…. We right there…. Keep believing people!!!
Some people ask what the days are like here… Ground hog day every day..

7am Wake up
715am on bike for ride by myself with my ipod to think about the day and the job I need to do.
8am yacht club weigh in (during this time the team is launching the boat and doing and repairs that need to be made we have a German here so things are looking good)
815 bike back to house for breakfast, shower, internet
945 team meeting at YC to go over game plan, weather any thoughts etc
10:15am dock off on water
5pm return to harbor haul out wash boat
5:30 pm dinner
6pm stretch
6:30 message therapist
relax
10pm bed….

pretty militant if you ask me…..

Again I have to say we have the BEST team here period….. We are the most prepared team, we have put the most time in,,, We have the best coaches! I am confident this will pay off…. oh and were not slow….

Some other teams are starting to crack.

Its still a long way to go…. but were heading in the right direction…

go, go, go…… Believe

Austin