Individual Recall

Today it was windy once again and a bit chilly. I tested my new titanium lined rash vest made by Nookie. They make gear for kayakers but some of that is quite useful to us, sailors, too. Quite nice top and warm too. Anyway, back to sailing.

I have sorted out all the rigging, so now I can rig quite quickly, so I am rarely late. From time to time I will rig something wrongly, due to lack of attention, but other than that, things are OK. So, I rigged Bubble in time and went out for the first race. I managed to do something that I haven’t done before. I jumped the startline. I was over the line at the start, so I had to go back cross it again and return back upwind. Whenever I would see people doing that, I was thinking that it would be to hard going back against everybody else.

When it happened though, I had no problem whatsoever. Very calmly I checked for space around me, gybed around and went back. Crossed the line, tacked and started going upwind again. There was not much point in tying to get a good position but I tried to sail as best as I could. I ended up 6th out of 7.

On the second race, having learnt from the first one, I made sure I had taken transits, so I wouldn’t get over the line. I had a pretty good start and I was doing quite well on the upwind leg. I could see Pete in front of me and I was trying hard to catch him. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the speed. He was gaining on me, just slightly, but he was gaining. Anyway, I finished 6th out of 8. I have to admit that I was expecting to do better. My performance during the last few weeks has been better, so I am expecting to improve more and more. Anyway, next week maybe.