Day 2

Well today was a day for sailing! Nice winds and rain--yes rain. I like to sail in rain. I t makes the experience surreal in a way. But good energy and strong winds are in rain clouds too. Mark wasn't feeling good this morning, but we decided to give it a try. We made it through all three races! Yay! The winds were good and I can't say I was cold despite being pretty darn wet. However, I had my closest call to falling out of the boat on my way in today. I'm pretty much strapped in to my seat for stability and pulling power. But on the way back to the docks we were followed by a very strong front with rain and huge gusts. The gusts ripped the main sheets right out of my hand and in an attempt to reach them to pull them in I undid my shoulder straps...well, the wind was so strong it pulled me out of my seat onto the floor of the boat! The boat was so keeled that we were taking in a lot of water (all over me!). The only saving grace was my chest belt, which was keeping me in the boat as I hung by my armpits. It was a wild ride to say the least!

Before I get to the race results I have to talk about the importance of setting goals. When sailing, as with school and any other aspect of your life, one sets goals. We are not supposed to make "positioning goals," like "my goal is to place in the top six every race." We are to set goals based on improving skills, which in turn improves your outcomes). So my goal this race has been to work on sail management (especially launching and hauling the spinnaker). But I must admit I do have a placement goal--not to be last place ever. I'm real new to this boat and Mark has experience, and regattas have both very competent sailors and "green" or newer sailors. I just don't want to be last. That being said....

Our first race (in the rain) was our best--we placed in the top 1/2 at #8 out of 18. Not bad. After that, things just went downhill. For the most part we seemed to struggle with speed--it felt like everyone was going faster or gaining on us. For the results of the second race and third race I have to check the IFDS Worlds homepage when they post it (it wasn't posted yet); nevertheless we were at the bottom1/3 in those races. We weren't last and 8th place was pretty darn good.

Thanks for all your comments--I do hope everyone is being kind to our new teachers! I'm glad your starting your fractured fairy tales--Desiree told me her choice. What are other folks doing? Someone asked about how long it was to get the boat in the water. Well, we are taking about over an hour. It would be nice if we could get a bit more efficient with the process. It is a lot of work going from dry dock to sailing status. It will get better as the days go on. Today I had Kira, a tutoring student of mine from EnCompass come down and help out at the docks. She will be down the next couple of days too! Thank you Kira! And to answer Kailen's question--we are sailing right here on Lake Ontario from the Rochester Yacht Club. Today we spent almost 6 hours out on the lake.

Again, thanks for all your support! I'll get Mark on this blog soon. Chris--hang in there!
Amy