Sailing Blog
Day 4 – Melges 24 Worlds »
May 19, 2011
Day 4 served up identical conditions as day 3, and the same results as the Italian stallions on Uka Uka racing were able to post another double bullet and take a commanding lead en route to their 3rd Melges 24 World Championship title. With 4 races remaining, our only hope of catching them at this stage is if their keel bulb falls off, if they get stuck on one of the many oil rigs sprinkled across the race course, or if we can somehow get the hundreds of jellyfish we see to latch onto their bottom and swim the opposite direction. They are fast, flawless on the starting line, and while teams have been able to mount challenges, they have handled the pressure and been able to secure a 24 pt lead.
We had another decent day on the FT with a 6, 4, but we were a bit frustrated as we left some points on the racecourse. In the first race, we found ourselves in a fight for the top 5 with several other boats and managed a 6th, and in the second race we crossed the fleet on port tack after the start and things were looking golden to the right side, but we could not get ahead of the Italians or Bermudians charging in from the left and we settled for a hard fought 4th place.
Our bodies are starting to feel the pain of pounding upwind and ripping downwind at much earlier stages each day, and we are ticking off the upwind legs, sets and leeward mark roundings we have remaining like days to a prisoner on solitary confinement. While we have gotten accustomed to Corpus Christi and been able to seek out some decent places to eat, our daily food bag on board of pb + j’s, cliff bars, snickers and gum has gotten seriously old, and I am looking forward to returning home to my family, and a normal diet. Not to mention, I am the chief sandwich maker each morning and the best grade I have received thus far on my pb to jelly ratio is a C+. The guys I sail with are pretty high maintenance and whiny at times, so I may just give them 2 slices of bread from here on out and tell them that I ran out of the filling.
We are currently tied for 2nd with several teams just a point or two behind us, so if there was ever a time for a pep talk and feeling the flow, this is it. There is a better chance that Michael Jordan will make another comeback than there is that the Italians will somehow pooch their lead, but odder things have happened in sailboat racing and with a few races left, all we can do is race hard and keep the pedal down.
Several Melges 24 teams joined up at Whataburger Field on Thurs night to watch an exciting AA baseball game between the Corpus Christi Hooks and San Antonio Missions. Little did the Hooks’ promotions department know that having $2 beer night is a not a good idea with a bunch of sailors in town, so needless to say, things got a bit rowdy at the stadium and some of the visiting San Antonio players may have left a little offended.
Fresh off the editing table is the on-board highlight reel from Day 4.
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