A Love 4 Sailing

We sailed in a 12 to 17 knot southerly breeze.  Temperatures were in the low 80’s with small chop and flat water.  Our hopes were to sail three good races and possibly have a chance at coming home with the gold medal. 

Race 10: We started on the upper third of the line and headed left.  With good speed and pointing capabilities, we waited for the left shift and tacked to port.  As we completed our tack the outhaul broke.  My first thought was …What now?  My next thought was… There goes the gold medal.  We attempted to tie a line to the clue of the main sail and back to the outhaul line.  Due to my inability to use my hands well, this made for a long and tedious process.  By the time we were able to tie a makeshift outhaul, we were so far behind, and I contemplated dropping out of the race.  Once somewhat fixed we continued towards the first mark.  By the time we rounded the weather mark, all boats were rounding the leeward mark.  Leaving us at least a leg behind.  We did our best to try and catch up but we were only able to salvage 10^th.  In between races, Mike fixed the outhaul as we prepared for race 11.  I have never had so many breakdowns in one regatta.  It was so frustrating. 

Race 11:  Maureen and I said to each other, let’s just try and win the last two races and see what happens.  After another good start, we led from the first tack all the way around the course.  We extended on almost every leg finishing first.  A feeling of redemption came over us.  Now with one race to go, the regatta winner was already determined.  We added up the points and realized that we were now in 4^th.  One point behind 3^rd and three points behind 2^nd.

Race 12:  Knowing we had to put points not only on one boat but two boats would make for an interesting race.   As the gun went off, I knew it would be difficult to not only beat the U.S. boat but to put 3 points on the Swedish boat at the same time.  We started to weather of the Swedish boat (3 boats ahead) and to leeward of the other