Cowes Week, day 5

August 7, 2013

The weather predictions were not te be trusted, they said and wrote themselves, and blamed the French for the rain which was expected. There was no rain, we had 10-14 knots of wind and even enjoyed the sun, thank you France! Today we had a committee boat start which brought us East on the Solent. We had a beat up the Solent and immediately after the start (which was great, thank you Laura) we were leading the fleet. It felt great, we chose the right side of the line, were really tuned up making the boat sail fast and high to the wind. Regretfully we overstood the upwind mark a little which eventually turned out good for us as the wind headed us.

We made a beautiful mark rounding and brought Winsome with a kite ride back West on the Solent. Still, we were leading the fleet. Now all we had to do was keep between the fleet and the Finish and we were fine. expectations were high….. We floated the spinnaker, put the fok up, took away the kite and rounded the mark. Then the issues began. There was a split in the fleet: Raging Bee (leading the class) chose to stay at the island side, where we wanted to be as well, and Zarafa, Alaris and Excitable which were directly behind us on the water chose to go the mainland side….. So we decided to hold a (lose) cover on the number 2, 3 nd 4 on the water.  Bottomline is, the cover was too lose, we had to battle against too much tide and lost too much ground. Raging Bee ran away on the island side, we were stuck on the mainland side and yachts were passing us. Very frustrating, you can imagine. Someone is wearing a pink tanktop tomorrow. We ended 5th overall on corrected time, bringing us in a fourth position overall, however, at the moment if al the remaining races are to be sailed, every yacht can subtract one race…..

There’s no excuse not to sail a good race tomorrow.

Sarai flew into Cowes today, Boj’s future wife. Great to have her here, helps to keep the testosterone levels on an accepetable level. After sailing we went swimming in Osbourne Bay, discussed our Dunglish vocabulary and were animated by Hidde, falling off the rib a couple of times and hitting his head while coming out of the water (how does he do that?).

Here’s some Dunglish of today:

Let’s go for anchor, What do the meters say (instruments), Don’t jump on the screw (propeller of the rib), That is when I doak (dived) in the water, Can you thank your kok (cook) for dinner…..

At 18.30h we went to the Squadron for the annual RORC party, drinks on the lawn overlooking the Solent pondering on the important decisions and questions life throws at us. Hidde is having a hard time which yacht he wants to buy. Life’s difficult sometimes. No complaints here.

Joost