Many things in life are unpredictable, sailing is no exception. Today, the morning started off being described "Anticipation builds, wind dies" by Jonathan Forsberg. The sailors arrived to the boats to learn that the AP flag was up (postponement). The wind was nowhere to be found. Fortunately we weren't floating around waiting for wind. Prior to noon, we were under AP still and the sailors were beginning to think about strategy. Not sailing strategy for the day but World Cup-watching strategy. Those conversations didn't last long as the AP was lowered at 12:30 where we headed out to the course.
Now the day became the sailors adage of "hurry up and wait." During our wait we were treated to some incredible cloud formations and some "dark and scary" ones. They looked much worse then they were and the race committee had told us there was no electricity in them. Finally around 4:45 we got a race off that included wind and rain.
For us, we had some good moments and handled the boat well. It was a fun race with some up close sailing between us and Jeff Borland and we swaped multiple tacks with one of Ed Holt's college friends. We finished the race just before 6:30 and pointed the boat for the sail back in.
We are happy to be here sailing against the world's best. Jeff Borland said for our two teams "It's a BFD to be here" referring to the Black Flag each of us has experienced here. Not a great experience...but a learning one for sure.
You know it has been a long day sailing when you have to turn the headlights on for the car ride home.
Tomorrow we are starting an hour sooner because the wind forecast for the afternoon looks poor and Saturday looks even worse. The next race is number six and once completed we have an official Worlds Regatta.
Ernest Freeland is our guest reporter, as well as a competitor at the Etchells World Championships in Newport, RI.
Full results can be found here.
