Dear Friends,

So, contrary to public opinion, we only sailed one race yesterday, Saturday, October 28th, in very weak winds. After one and a half hours of racing, five boats crossed the finish line within 2 minutes of each other. We ended up 2nd in the race, putting us 2nd overall in the regatta, three points ahead of Amanda Clark and Sarah Mergenthaler in 3rd, and five points ahead of the fourth place team. Moving in the right direction!

The race committee was trying to sail us in light conditions in an attempt to mimic the conditions expected for the Olympics. During the entire race we never had more than 6 knots, and Isabelle never had a chance to stretch her legs on the trapeze!

We had a fantastic start near the pin, tacking and crossing the fleet as soon as we could. Attached is a photo of us coming out of that roll tack. We rounded the first windward mark in 4th place, and held in 3rd or 4th for most of the race. The wind died steadily, and the top two teams were well ahead, and there were about 4 boats duking it out in our pack.

The entire fleet condensed on the final leg to the finish. In about 4 knots, five boats were gybing on each other, trying to make it across the line in 1st. We were neck and neck with another team approaching the line, and we pulled off an enormous roll gybe to cross the line just barely ahead of the other team, in 2nd!

Right after finishing the race, as Erin was flattening the boat from the huge roll gybe, she missed the hiking straps and flipped out of the boat backwards! Luckily we had already crossed the finish line because otherwise we wouldn't have been able to finish the race until Erin climbed back into the boat.

We have three races left today, and then are packing up our boats to ship them to Miami before getting on red-eye flights and going to work tomorrow morning... Wish us luck! You can see complete scores, and some great photos, on the event website: http://www.ussclb.org/

Best,
Erin and Isabelle