Good Forecast, Bad Weather

The forecast for today was 20-25 knots wind. It turned out that it wasn’t as exciting and on top of that it rained. Most people were slightly late due to last night’s drinking. I wasn’t that bad, but still not in a great mood after yesterday’s news.

I arrived at the club early enough to rig in time but the rain was too much we had to stop rigging for a while and then resumed. We were wet before we even started. Tell-tales wouldn’t work, so the whole thing wasn’t looking good. I was late for the first race, so I started late. I didn’t really do that bad, anyway. Nothing exciting happened during the race but still it was OK. I was counting on the second race.

My sailing watch is completely broken, so I didn’t expect my start to be good. Eventually it wasn’t that bad. I asked the time from someone and then I was counting Mississippis, once again. I went to the line early enough and I had a fairly good start, considering. My first upwind leg was good. It seems that I am consistently sailing well during the first upwind leg. I think that I have to get a bit better so I round the windward mark within the 3 first places. If I can do that, then I need to improve my reaching, so I can start the downwind leg within the first 3 places. If I can do that, then I will be able to stay with the leaders longer. Then it’s a matter of getting consistent and staying with the leaders longer and longer. Then positions will start coming.

If you are following the leaders and don’t make mistakes, once they make a mistake, you are close enough to take advantage of it and overtake them.

Anyway, back on the race, the wind died down and it was annoyingly dreadful. It felt like it was back in the summer with light winds and my weight wasn’t helping. I definitely need stronger winds. They cut the race short because at moments we were hardly moving. I hope next weekend there will be nicer wind.