Day Seven, More Travel

Wow, this is fun... 6am, 3 hours of sleep, no food for the past 16 hours (due to barfing),  school awaits after our 3 our flight.

Post race, post trauma, post etc. still to come... Adios for now.

Day Six, Travel

Okay, not much of a celebration pre-trip as we all zoomed off to the airport to make our respective flights. However, trouble lurked as our flight to Dallas was delayed and our connection to LAX missed... Midnight in the bowels of DFH Airport waiting for a bus to our hotel to grab a couple hours of sleep before getting back to the airport first thing in the morning to complete our connection. Ah, but the party earlier included some dinner, some throwing up, some anxious moments, and some exciting ones as well... the full story you'll have to get from Quinn and Chance.

Day Six, Final Race Day, Results

When the smoke, or actually rain, cleared, although the team's final day results were damaging, everyone held on and achieved their larger goals... Chance broke the top 30, Mats got a very challenging big regatta under his belt and Quinn and Romain qualified for South Americans. It was a bloody last day, but the takeaways will serve all well in the future.

Here the team wipes their collective brows as the final scores are posted.

Day Six, Final Race Day, Morning Prep

With those who had concerns about the scores (Romain, Quinn and Chance), the morning prep was filled with strategies for the expected final two races. Lots of lessons learned here, but we'll save those for the post race discussion.

Wind predictions were for early east light winds to die and fill from the southwest. Such was the case as the fleet waited for most of the morning before getting the single race of the day in before the 2pm cut off time.

Day Five, Race Day Two, Rain, Wind, and More Shifts

The prediction for Day Two was lots of wind from the east, again off the land, and then it was supposed to die completely around 2pm.

The squalls came and went, the breeze hovered around 13-15 knots, and then, at 2pm... it all stopped.

Two races on day two...

Day Five, Race Day Two, Good Luck!!!!

After a very breezy day yesterday, there was much speculation on the conditions for today. One report, light and to get lighter, another, windy to get windier. The only thing everyone seems confident to predict is that it will be shifty and unpredictable.

Day one was long, on the water at 10am, back to the beach at 5pm. Full hike all day. Today, probably a long day as well as the storm front passes the locals feel lighter winds will prevail for the final day at least.

The sailors are all doing well on the responsibility front, drinking, eating and resting. They are on time, or early and have pretty much every little detail on shore organized and accounted for. Good news for the shore crew.

Everyone hope for the best today, looking out the hotel window it looks tricky.

Adios from Marco Island...

Day Five, Race Day Two, Mats and Dad on the Ready

Day Five, Race Day Two, Anchor Patrol

Quinn gets the fun job of loading gear and pulling up the anchor this morning.

Day Four, Post Race Routine

Drink

 Eat

 Clean

 Roll

 Chill

Sleep

Welcome to the Fray

Race Day One, Readying...

Marco Island Beach Before and After

Dinner, Day 3 Featuring Amazing Sunsets

The tropical skies make for some pretty remarkable sunsets. The big white ball is a light over a wedding reception. Beautiful night. Early to bed, we had the kids out of the pool and inside for movie night at 5pm. Then stepped out for some dinner right around sunset. All is well.

To the Showers

I mentioned to another parent that the walk from the ocean to the showers was like being in Dubai, she said, "oh no, I just moved from Dubai, and it's much more hot there." Go figure... glad we're not in Dubai, cause the walk is plenty hot.

I can see this set up at the docks in Santa Barbara... very fast and efficient, washes under the boats and all the way to the tip of the sprits. Kids love it cause they get their well deserved dousing as well.

Like Crossing a Desert

Practice, practice, practice...

Practice, Day Three

Manny working them to the bitter end. The day was again shifty and puffy, breeze between 8-17 knots. Warm with some nice cloud coverage. Huge relief in the shade.

Measurement, Day Three

Uneventful morning. No crowds yet, quiet, early. All sails, spars, hulls and parts all good.

Day Two, Post Dinner Entertainment

Day Two, Fancy Dinner and a Very Tolerant Waitress

Grilled tofu, squid ink raviolo and thai vegetables, mmmm.

 Macaroni, cheese and a side of fruit. "You mean I could have had the Squid ink?"

Steak and potatoes.

Day Two, Heading to Dinner

We understand it's raining in California today... It rained a little bit here today too. Thankfully.

Training, Day Two

The morning began with a run, some stretching, sit ups, push ups, and a swim. The good news is the little jelly fish don't sting. The bad news is the big ones do. Chance, Mats, and Quinn all had encounters, and lived to tell about it. Here they are doing a little post practice cool down.

Practice, Day Two

Crazy beautiful. And, super fun sailing conditions: flat water, lots of wind early, dying throughout the day and shifts a plenty.