Ground Hog Day

Woke up at 5 am to howling wind and pouring rain, struggling to remember what day it was. Unfortunately it was not any of the last two days but now a third day where we might not be able to go sailing. The wind sock at the coast guard helicopter base here was getting blown at an up angle. That was entertaining enough for Bear and I to stop and take some pictures. 41 knots in the harbor right now. Will have to take Seb Josse's offer of using some windsurfing equipment. Seb is a really nice person and was a pleasure to meet him after all the stories bear has told.

funny moment of the morning, an announcement over the PA appologizing about the AP over A being up from the day before and that it is so windy they cant get it down. Hah

Think I will wander off to the car to take a nap, ok nap did not happen drank too much coffee.

The whole regatta is now watching "Top Gun" i was nearly crying from laughter to hear people sing "You've Lost that Loving Feeling"

Millimeters

Today was the day we had to get our boats through measurement. It is a fairly depressing thing to have to chop down your brand new sail not once but twice! On top of that there has been a big mess with sail numbers. Most of the people who have new sails ended up getting sail numbers from KA Sails, the country letters are a couple millimeters too small and too close together. I put all of the numbers on Bear's and my sails while he was out trying out his new gear ratio. To say I was a little stressed and worried by the time they got measured is an understatement. Somehow Simon Owen Smith claimed I looked like I was on vacation at a resort, strange....

Went for a sail myself this morning being the first boat on the water, got to line up against a couple of people and felt good about the boat.

Simon Payne i think got a kick out of how high i fly. Such a joy to get to fly, the thought of hiking hard and being stuck to the water might as well be a nightmare at this point.

I have stayed out of the big practice races that have been forming. There has been a couple of collisions and I have seen this type of chaos before at 49er events. There are lots of people who don't honor the starting line and it just causes frustration to people who do. I have had no interest in taking part in that sort of fiasco.

They have split the fleet into two for qualifying which is good news. The thought of 100 moths on a starting line seemed a little crazy but 40 something sounds like good fun.

Oh well probably should go to bed and get ready to just sit and wait tomorrow. Big winds are predicted for the practice race so I don't think they will even let us out of the harbor.

windy weymouth

Can not complain about the breeze here, seems to blow like clock work every single day. Used my new cst mast for the first time yesterday, felt real good, def a fan.

Coach Rohan showed up and was running practice races, lots of fun starting lines are starting to become a little crazy. Having to be real careful as seems like a lot of boats are on the border of control. I watched a three boat tangle that involved bear, sten, and lochie. No damage on any boats but still scary.

Feel good about my pace and got a couple more emails of encouragement. Team USA has fully arrived with peter and Nige.

Lots of action here should get back to it.

Oh yeah it's Sam England's birthday and her drink of choice is Tequila could be bad news but will have to throw down a couple with her tonight, since she is the first comfirmed international coming to Nationals in the gorge, looks like two more are really close to pulling the trigger also so it should be a good time.

out

Finally Sailing

Boats arrived yesterday along with the gear container. Bear's friend Scott Beavis from ABN 2 helped us unload the boats and rig. 9 am I am ready to rock bear needs a little work. Looks like the Swiss are hitting the water so finally time to see how i stack up against the rest of the world.