Sailing Blog
2 Races Remaining… »
August 5, 2011
The city of Palma is very pretty, the people are very nice and you get the feeling you are truly on a Mediterranean holiday with all of the private yachts and well dressed women and men around town. While all of this is great, the elevators in our hotel have got to be one of the slowest modes of transport, and smallest, confined areas I have ever been with a group of strangers on a continual basis. After breakfast, when we arrive back from sailing, and after dinner, we are ushered into an elevator no bigger than 4X3 space with at least 4-5 complete strangers where we have the arduous task of climbing 8 stories with stifling heat, no air circulation and sometimes less than favorable odor. There are not many words said, and every wall is covered in mirrors so the only way to avoid eye contact is to look directly at the ceiling. As a show of unity between nations…Spaniards, Italians, Germans and Americans all spill out of the elevator at the same time, basically high-fiving that we made it without passing out.
Racing sailboats with Palma as a backdrop has been a good anecdote for shaking off the road trip blues of missing home and getting into race mode. Our hope for the day was not to worry about where we were in the standings and just sail well. Our speed all week has not been a problem, and we have had a few races where our inexperience as a team has cost us, but one thing we are not lacking is our ability to compete and never be satisfied with where we are. In both races today, we found ourselves in a tight spot off the starting line, managed some tight crosses and climbed from just being in the top five, to picking off boats. With a scoreline of 1, 3, we took boat of the Day 4 honors and snuck to 3rd in the standings with a mathematical shot at winning.
Now, a mathematical chance is much different than a legit chance and with both Argo and Samba in front of us, we would need to basically take a bullet in both races and have each boat finish each race with a scoreline of 5 or higher, and with the well trained teams on both those boats, our chance of winning is similar to that of a Packer fan knowing what to do with a fork and knife. Our goal will be the same on the final and that is to keep things loose, and complete the formula of doing well: start clean, sail fast and sail smart.
The experience of losing my luggage has been very valuable as I have proved to myself just how little I can live with. People have asked why I haven’t gone out and purchased new items. With our late start times everyday I have not had anytime to go shopping, and the fact that I can’t find anything in an XL that doesn’t make me look like Dieter from Deutschland, I have decided to pass on anything that I wont wear once I get home.
2 more races remaining tomorrow, than it is home sweet home on Sunday.
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