First Day: Two Races

First day of the NACs and the Midwestern sailors are hanging in there. Again, because there are only 31 boats, only the top 16 advance to the championship round. The conditions today were great; it made me glad to be a sailor! We had steady-ish winds from the east between 8-10 mph and clear skies. It was glorious!

We all got towed out to the racecourse because it was, no kidding, about four miles away. There is one closer racecourse, but the Junior Olympic sailors were using it. So, no problem, we all got towed out, in a big long line of about eight boats, like little baby ducks following our mama!

waiting for a tow

getting a tow

Adam Keen and Ryan Malmgren at the christening of Ryan's new boat. Clever, right?!

We had two races scheduled today. Ben and I are in the yellow fleet, Ryan and his crew, Adam Keen, are in the red fleet, as are Frank and Marianne Gerry. The first raced the yellow fleet raced the red fleet, and the second race the red group raced the blue and the yellow raced the black. Ben and I needed a couple good finishes to have any hope of making the championship fleet, and, happily, the wind gods were favoring us, particularly in the first race, when we won it, beating some sailors we’d never beat before! So, it was a good day…

Bill Vogler took this photo of us receiving our certificate for winning the first qualifying race

Frank and Marianne suiting up

Now we’re back at the house we’re sharing with Ryan and Adam, John Kreidler and his crew, Joe Brake (and Joe’s lovely family, Stacey, Beau and Beckett), and Rob Whittemore and John Wake. Ryan, a chess maven, is challenging everyone to 30-second chess, but he’s so good he has to make his play in 10 seconds and his opponents get extra time!! Since margaritas are involved, it’s very entertaining!

Tomorrow the yellow group races the blue, the black races the red and then we break until Wednesday morning, when the finals begin.

Tonight the yacht club, a lovely group of people, is hosting a pig roast!

As to that, I will say that, among some people, Toms River got a bad name from when they hosted NACs in 2008. Prime among the complaints was that yacht club members towed people they knew to the course and everyone else had to fend for themselves. That is not cool in Scot culture! And the locals said there was no current or tide to worry about and there actually was. Errrrr! Ugh!

But this time around the Toms River folks could not be kinder and more generous. We have had wonderfully well-run races, great food (Marianne Gerry, with serious Celiac's disease, got gluten-free buns and cookies and everything!), lots and lots of help getting to the race course, getting our boats in the water and everything! Plus now they have a beautiful pool right on the water. I'll post a photo of that later!