First Day: Long Day

Yesterday (Tuesday) the racing "really" began. We qualified last in the challenger fleet and so finishing anywhere above that felt like a win. At the morning briefing it was announced that we would come in for lunch, which was a surprise since everyone who was polled had made it clear they preferred to sail two races back to back and then come in for the day. Still, we all headed out in about the same amount of breeze as Monday.
Remember where I bragged about how well behaved we were and had no recalls on Monday? Ha! On Tuesday the first fleet had one general recall and then one start where they tried to make it an individual recall but there were so many (or maybe wrong numbers called?) that they had to abandon the race. The PRO tried to be reasonable but we left him no alternative, and after that we had an "I" flag start. The five-leg race took 1:10, with one-mile long legs. If I'm remembering the race correctly, we liked the pressure on the right side and got a lovely lift near the top of the course. But, of course, other people found a lovely lift elsewhere on the course, including the middle, which seems to happen only very rarely...
Ryan and Stacey, the other Midwest boat in the fleet, had a pretty good finish and Ryan (also Bryan Hunt in the challenger fleet) was the one who got a lift in the middle. I'm not sure how the other Midwest sailors did, we had no time to check in with them!
Then, although the breeze was lovely, we came in for lunch. Hamburger and french fries, for those who ate it. Many people talked of not eating lunch because it made them drowsy. Then just as it was time to go out, the breeze completely died. We bobbed around in the heat and the sun for about an hour and then the PRO sent us in to wait for the wind to come back. We weren't on shore more than 15-20 minutes before the wind came back, and so we headed out to the course for the third time of the day.
At the start we had some small white caps but the water was flat and the wind moderated as the race went on. It was a five-leg race but the wind came down so much they shortened it to four legs, downwind finish, and sent us in from there. It was 6 pm by then. And the challenger fleet was probably another 30minutes behind us. THat's a very long day. 8-9 hours of sailing to get in two races. Brutal because it leaves very little recovery time before we get up and do it again. Remember, we do this for fun?

a selfie while we wait for Wake and Kreidler to show up

Speaking of fun, after we got off the water, tied our boats down and showered we began to feel human. Ben, Ryan, Stacey, John Kreidler and John Wake and I went to a BBQ place called Sideways. The food was delicious, we could sit outside near the water, and that meant the live music wasn't so loud that we couldn't chat. Here are some funny things that happened though. The restaurant essentially served three things: brisket, chicken and pulled pork. When it came time to order, we were told they were out of brisket. So some of us ordered chicken some pulled pork. Five minutes later the poor server came back to tell us they were out of chicken, at the same time some of our plates arrived ... with chicken! But the other half of the table ordered loaded baked potatoes and for some reason those came out so much later that we'd already finished our meal! Plus, the menu was written so that you could order one meat, two meats or three meats. It was clear to us that each type of meat was 1/2 pound. That's a lot of food, so Ben and I shared a two meat, thinking we'd get one lb of meat, which was a lot but we could have a little of two types. When what I thought was 1/2 chicken came, all I had was a leg, which was delicious but not a 1/2 chicken. That was when the server explained that three meats, for example, would TOTAL 1/2 pound, not 1/2 pound each, despite what the menu said!! Anyway, a funny interlude. We were home at 10 pm. Straight to bed.

Here are the things I love about this event:
So many helpful people. At the hoists and at the ramp there are multiple hands. They've got a couple of wonderfully enthusiastic and adorable kids helping get the empty trailers to and from the hoist.
It's very close to the sailing area. After Newport and then Sandusky, both of which took about an hour to get to the sailing area, I love that we can hop on our boat and be at the sailing area in 10 minutes max.
We can even see the sailing from our house, as I mentioned in an earlier post. Sometimes yesterday I wondered if it wouldn't be very cool to just be sitting in that living room and admiring everyone else sailing!! (joke)
Which brings me to the one thing I don't like:
Both days have been so long, with the postponement (completely understandable) on Monday and then yesterday's activities, that we literally are at the club and/or on the water from 9 am until 7 pm. That leaves zero time for getting more groceries, including food that might sustain us on the water, recovering from hiking and baking the sun, and even doing laundry! I don't know why I didn't pack more sailing clothes but I ended up having to do laundry last night at 10 pm. in order to have some sailing shorts to wear that didn't stink. That's a rule on our boat: you can't stink out the other person. So between my shorts and Ben's shoes, we're close to violating that rule!

Hopefully today will be back to back races so we can come in, soak our sore muscles, trade stories, and visit with our friends, which is the part of the event I really love!!!