Anthony and Cy

Cy’s Journals

 December 6, 2007 Day 1 in Australia
First class is definitely the way to go! Champagne, warm towel, great service, leg room, a constant supply of food, and the satisfaction of feeling like a BALLA! What more could you ask for. Maybe first class on the flight that actually counts? Hmmm
As usual, Anthony and I were the last ones on the flight, and I tell you, that is actually the smartest thing sometimes.  Let everyone take their seats, and then come in and choose where you want to sit.  This was my first time flying the Boeing 747, which has the upper deck for first class passengers. That was out of the question, as it would have been too easy to pick us out of the crowd.  Why not business class?
“What says we cant just sit here?” This is the response that I got from Anthony as I jokingly said “lets sit business.”  We both gave each other the blank stare for a second or two, before ripping off our jackets, and taking our seats. Within seconds, the stewardess  were at out seats. “Sir may I take your jacket and hang it for you?” “No thanks, its fine.” I reply.  “Well, may I get you something to drink?” “Sure I’ll take some champagne, and a glass of water.”   “And here sir is the in flight menu, please take a look at it, and I will be back to place your order.”  This was amazing! A four course meal, that was better than some meals that were cooked on the grill or stove.  And for breakfast, (if we ever made it that far) the menu was even more amazing. All you had to do was check the box that corresponded to the item you wanted, and it would be served to you in the morning.
Sitting there drinking my champagne, left me with a little smart ass smirk on my face, as I knew that it would be a matter of minutes before they caught us.  This was too easy! Seats were huge, like my own cubicle. I was like a little kid in a toy store, when I started playing with the reclining controls (which were all fully automatic) before the plane had even taken off.
About ten minutes into the flight I think the champagne hit me real nice, and put me to sleep.  I was fully reclined, with a huge pillow, and a very thick blanket.  I was sleeping ever comfortably, until I felt a tap on my shoulder.  Here it was! We had been caught!  When I opened my eyes, there were two flight attendants standing over me.  Looking over at Anthony, he was already standing and packing his stuff to move back to our regular seats in the crowded coach class.  I don’t see why it was such a big deal for us to sit there.  There were only 4 other people in the business section with about 12 empty seats.
Squeezing between two strangers is always a fun thing to do.  The seats were so tight, and I once again had absolutely no leg room. I was in the middle, and could not stretch my legs out into the aisle, so basically I had the most uncomfortable flight ever.  And the worst part about flying next to someone that you don’t know is the guessing game.  And you all know what I am talking about.  Explanation? OK!  I am talking about the arm rests.  So you have the arm rest that can only hold one arm!  Now you are trying not to be rude, so you leave the arm rest for the other person, but they are thinking the exact same thing. Now the arm rest isn’t even being used.  So you decide after five minutes that you are going to put your arm up, but right then, your neighbor puts his up. Damn now your uncomfortable having to cross your arms in your lap, and your mad at yourself for waiting one more second when you could have snagged it. Now your game plan is to see if he/she is taking up the front end or the back. If they are taking up the front portion of the arm rest, trying to slide your elbow into the back corner of the rest is always a little nerve racking, as you don’t want to hit their arm.  Or the other way around. You get the arm rest, and now every time they move in their seat, and bump your elbow you are quick to look over and apologize, but still making sure not to lose your spot. There are tricks to it, and I think I have mastered them, cause I ALWAYS get the arm rest.
While driving in the taxi from the airport to the Hertz rental car station, I noticed that driving was going to be a little of an issue.  The steering wheel was on the right side of the car, and we drive on the left. Now I am used to driving on the left, but the depth perception is going to be a little different from driving in the left side of the car back home, and now driving in the right side here.  Thank god the rental car agency had a few automatics left in the lot, cause if they didn’t, Anthony would be driving the whole time, or there would be some major burning out of the clutch.
Oh and another thing that I observed other than the steering wheel on the wrong side was that there are a lot of Hot girls here. WOW!
Anyways arriving at the sailing venue, Anthony and I were quick to rig up the 49er, cause tomorrow was the start of the Australian Nationals.

December 7, 2007 2nd Day in Australia
What a weird way to start off the day.  As I had mentioned, or think I had mentioned, we are living in a very night active town, with a very active bar right outside our window.  All night long you can hear the music going, the loud chatter, and the constant flow of traffic, right outside. Anthony claims it to be a mix between South Beach, cause of the gays, Red hook cause there is no parking, and Burbon street, cause of the night life. At first it is hard to get to bed, but after a while, you just get used to it.  Alarm was set for 8 o’clock. I have never in my life been woken up by a bunch of drunk people staggering out of a bar at 7 in the morning.  Yelling, cursing, and just basically making a heap of noise. That morning it was to my benefit, cause, as a heavy sleeper, forgetting to set my alarm would have been one way to miss a race or two.
Sydney during the summer time so far, is very similar to Newport Beach California. In the morning there is a lot of fog blotting out the sun, and then about mid day the sun comes out in full force, and you can definitely tell that the ozone layer is missing.  In the islands I never wear any sunscreen except for on my face, but here, the second I take off my shirt, I can feel the melanoma start to grow.  Kind of scary!
Now I am not gonna try and sugar coat it, for our sponsors, private donors, or fans out there, but the first day back in the boat, we got the SHIT kicked out of us! End of story. I guess it was the sailing gods way of punishing us for not being in the boat for a while.  Mind you that it was very windy and choppy. Starts we not bad at all, but just regaining the feel for the boat, was a little challenge.
One thing that I hate to hear is excuses for a bad day of sailing, but here they come, and they are legitimate.  First of all on the 49er, the lines have to be exact lengths, with no questions asked.  The boat that we are sailing was just bought from the US team Morgan Larson, and Pete Spaulding, and came with a complete set of lines and the whole kaput. We decided to use some of the lines they had given us, and observe the differences. THAT WE DID!
Their main sheet, and their spinnaker sheets were just too short in general. Approaching the weather mark, it was very hard to bear off and get around it when we did not have enough sheet to let out.  Our standard procedure was to just let go of the main sheet put the bow down quickly, and let Anthony go swimming for a second while I ran in (to do my end of the work of hoisting the chute) grabbed the mainsheet and passed it back to him. This was very frustrating, and it really made a huge difference in our performance when we were head to head with another competitor.
Keeping upright was not an easy task! With the short chop, strapping into the foot straps right after the hoist was very crucial. This all depends on how fast Anthony gets back there and situated.  On one of the gybes, we came out powered up with a lot of speed cruising down the face of a wave, and I knew that we were going to wipe out if I didn’t get into the straps.  At that speed, the second the nose digs in a little the boat pretty much stops, and you go flying around the front.  So after the gybe, I began moving my body to the back of the boat, and was pushing against Anthony. “Hey don’t push me back!” Anthony yells. “Yo I need to get back there cause we.” That’s all I got to say as the bow dug in and I went soaring landing face first into the jib.  This all happened in a split second, but as I was lifting my head off the sail, here comes a 160 pound body landing straight on my head, and crushing it even harder into the mylar sail material.
The first race we were not able to complete, because of some mishaps. There is a 10 minute time limit after the first boat finishes, and it is wiser to sail back to the starting line and prepare for the next race rather than keep sailing, and having 2 bad scores. Surprisingly at the end of the day, we were still in pretty good standing. 14th out of 32, and a lot more races to catch up. There were a lot of other competitors out there that were not able to finish most of the races, either, which made our standings a little better than we had expected.
Being back in the saddle is so much fun, and I am really enjoying it right now.  Taking too much time off though begins to get me a little sidetracked, but getting down here so early, and sailing in these big regattas, makes e love the boat even more.  These first couple days are going to be brutal, having been slightly out of shape. I mean I went to the gym a lot while I was down in the islands, lifting, and doing cardio, but nothing can really prepare you for the 49er better than getting out on the water. It is just a totally different type of working out.   I am really looking forward to the next month where we have another regatta called SIRS (Sydney international Regatta Series) which will start next weekend. This is gunna be a fun regatta, because there are going to be 29er’s, laser radials, and 470’s along with other boats, but these are the boats usually associated with girls.  It may not seem like that big of a deal, but when you are in the 49er park it is a complete sausage fest, and nobody uses the bathrooms to change into their sailing gear. Every day when we have our harbor start, it is like a simultaneous drop of the trousers, and naked men everywhere. You kinda have to keep you head down, do your own thing, and then pray that when you look up, everyone else is done.

December 8, 2007 3rd Day in Australia
AHHHHH having to wake up earlier has never felt more painful in such a long time.  The first day of racing, we didn’t have our first race until 12, but now today was going to be an 11 o’clock start.
There is this place that I go for breakfast every morning, called Espresso, and it had the best bacon melt. Let me explain.  First there is a large Piece of bread laid out on the plate. On top of that delicious piece of bread, are slices of avocado. And they don’t go cheap on the cado either. On top of that are slices of fresh tomatoes. And too top it all off, there is bacon stacked on the tomatoes, with melted cheese. It is probably the best breakfast sandwich I have ever had, and that says a lot, cause I make some good egg sandwiches. And to top it all off they have fresh squeezed orange juice that you could die for.
Ok back to sailing.  It was a bloody good day for us chaps to be out on the water.  The sailing was superb, and all the mates showed great seamanship. Ha thought I would give you all a little preview of how it is down here. Ummm. As usual there was overcast weather, but the wind was up, and with the land heating up, the sun was bound to come out, and take its toll on my very white legs, like it has the day before.  I am wearing this little short wet suit, and for those of you that know, my upper thighs are WHITE! Anthony says that I am trying to be French, cause the wetsuit is a good bit higher than the knees, just like most other French guys shorts.
Sailing in Sydney harbor is such a cool experience. I mean you always see pictures and postcards, of the Opera house, and are in Awe, but while sailing we see it every day, and just glance at it like we have seen it so many times before.  I guess we will never appreciate it true majesty, until we are walking in or around it.
Today the wind was up again, but not as consistent. It was blowing from the complete opposite direction, and was very shifty.  But the nice thing about the wind coming from that direction was that it gave the water no chance to build up and steep chop. Very nice clean sailing all day long, that made it more of a tactical game.  The first couple races were not to impressive with a 19th ( I have an excuse for that one) and then a 12th, but then we brought out the A game, and cranked up the tempo a little, pulling off a 6th, and an 8th.   Nothing too exciting really happened on the water other than Anthony almost literally getting killed. And I am not exaggerating, I mean having a spinnaker pole sticking out of his thigh.  Here’s the story! Bear with me.
We had just rounded the leeward mark in about 10th place, and were heading back upwind for the last leg of the course.  On the downwind run was this Australian boat, just flying with the spinnaker up.  Usually if you are going downwind, it is a very good reference that the boats that had just rounded are an indication that you are getting very near your layline.  This was not the case with these guys.  We had all the rights, and they had to keep clear.  Anthony started to YELL, basically for his life “HEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYY, HEEEYYYYYYYYY, What the hell are you doing?” The skipper finally sees us, and makes the worst decision ever. He probably would have been able to cross our bow, as we had began to slow the boat to provide him with more room to do so, but instead he goes for a gybe.  Remember that the closing distance is so fast in these boats. Within half a second of his gybe I knew there was going to be a collision.  I immediately got off the rail, and dove into the boat, getting out of danger, while Anthony sat back there still hooked in and out on the wire, taking it like a champ.  The guy gybed so close that his spinnaker completely blanketed Anthony, and as they sailed past their leeward shroud snagged Anthony’s shoulder, and sent him flying around the stern of the boat.  Having gotten my weight off the rail, and allowed the wing to raise off the water, this made it possible for the other boats spinnaker pole to graze Anthony ass cheek rather than go right through his thigh.  Now we had flipper over, and instead of quickly rushing to get the boat upright again, we just sat in the water for a couple seconds, and realized that, what had happened was really scary. That was the reason for the 19th place that day
Later that night Anthony and I went to Bondi Beach which is a very famous beach down here in Aussie land. It is basically like South Beach, with all the activity going on. The surf is great, but like California, the waters are just ridiculously crowed with anxious surfers, and boogie boarders.  We walked down the strip looking for a good place to eat.  During dinner there were these 2 guys, and 2 girls sitting next to us at the adjacent table, and I think the one girl had a little too much to drink.  There were three different places you could sit. There was the inside which is a regular inside, there was an outside that had its own tent, and was separated from the restaurant by the strips walkway, and then there was a little patio between the two, with a one foot ledge.  We were sitting on the patio along with the other four.  The two girls got up and went to the bathroom together, like every other girl int eh world does, for some odd reason, but when they came back to take their seats, the funniest thing happened. The tipsy girl was sitting closest to the edge, and as she pulled out her seat and began to sit, the chair slid out form under her, and off the edge of the patio.  Her face was priceless, as she tried to grab the table for support.  So I immediately looked away to save her from embarrassment cause everyone else was looking at her, and I was trying to hold back the laugh. All of a sudden Anthony just lets out the loudest laugh, and if you’ve heard his laugh it is pretty funny, but it was so inappropriate. And all he could do was say “I’m sorry but that was too funny.”

December 9, 2007 4th Day in Australia
Today was the beginning of the third day of the Australian Nationals, and it was looking like a lot of fun.  The wind was up and it was coming from the same direction as the first day, making for a very choppy sail.  It was Sunday, and as you can imagine in Sydney harbor, there were a lot of boats out and about.
There were a few highlights of our day, and one of them was winning the start.  I don’t mean we won the committee boat or the pin end of the line, I am talking about port tacking the entire fleet, and hauling ass off to the right side of the course.  Such a good feeling it was, until we tacked and realized that the left side of the course was really the way to go. Only lost a few places, but the start made up for it.  Finishing the race in 9th place, was very good, especially when looking back at some of the top ranked teams right on our tail. Another one of our highlights was winning the pin end of the lne during one start, and right when we were about to get rolled by the top Australian team, we put the bow down, and took off securing the fact that they were going to have to tack to pass us.
With the wind in the high teens, and puffs in the mid 20’s, mark rounding’s (especially the leeward mark) were closer than ever. We luckily only had one incident down at the leeward mark, with the so called young “hot shot Aussie team.”  They were the inside boat, and had room on us, but were completely out of control with their spinnaker still up. Anthony and I had gotten the spinnaker down, and decided that we were going to just round the mark. The young Aussie guys got really frustrated cause they were getting passed, and began yelling at us. “you fucking idiots, you have no room at the mark! What the fuck are you doing?” Rounding in front of them, and not creating any foul, Anthony looks back at the kid and yells “If you ever call me a fucking idiot again I will sort you ass out back on shore.”  It was really funny at the time, cause it shut them up real quick, but it was kind of a serious situation, cause we have witnessed these kids curse at other teams over in Portugal.
On the next downwind leg, we experienced a defiance of gravity.  There was a little help from the ferry boat that crossed our path about 100 meters in front of us. Closing in on the waves, a puff came rolling down the course!  Spinnaker fully powered, and having to ease the sheet, I began leaning back as far as possible. Not gonna lie to you, I knew exactly what was going to happen.  We hit the first wave, and had a very nice landing, but the second was even bigger, and when we hit that one, the boat came completely airborne, and cleared the third one.  When the boat is airborne it is a little scary, cause it is very unstable, and she sometimes has a mind of her own.
Out in the harbor we all the Maxi yachts just practicing for the Sydney to Hobart race.  Just making sure that everything is running smoothly, and there is no wear and tare. One of 90 footers called Leopard, sailed right next to the starting line while we were just waiting for the next start. It was pretty amazing sailing to the weather side of the baot, and seeing the canteen keel 6 feet out to the weather side of the yacht.
Finishing the day off with a respectable 9, 13, 7. didn’t really move us up in the standings, but got us a little closer points wise.

December 10, 2007 5th Day in Australia
Only two more races, and our American friends were winning the regatta.  We were postponed on shore cause of too much wind, and it was looking good for the Americans who could take the Australian Nationals.  Boom the flag come down 30 minutes later and it was a scramble. Everyone naked again, putting on their sailing gear. The past couple of days I have been wearing the short wetsuit, (French style) and my legs have been getting beat up. Just a bunch of scratches here and there, and the painful sunburn.  Our Christmas presents were some new Zhik skiff sailing gear. This stuff was so comfortable, and I felt a lot more protected out there in the boat.
There was a lot of wind out on the racecourse, but it was coming from the beach direction making it very flat water. There were only 2 more races scheduled for the day, but they were going to be long ones.  The W 3 was up meaning that we had to go around the weather mark 3 times, and then finish downwind.  The boat was fully depowered, with large puffs rolling down, it would make for interesting mark roundings, especially when a puff in the mid 20’s hit right as we were all approaching the weather mark.  The first to the weather mark was a pretty experienced Aussie team in the lead, and they tried the bear away, but just lost it and flipped.  The next team was one of the top British teams, who’s skipper lost a little control of the boat, and was water skiing off the transom still hooked in. They eventually rounded up into the wind, and flipped.
Now it was our turn, and we were pretty gung ho about really trying to man handle the boat around the mark.  Right in front of us was the Young Aussie “hot shots” with whom we had an altercation with earlier in the regatta. As we bear off and get around in run in to hoist the spinnaker, but the “hot shots” flipped right in front of us, causing us to avoid quickly. Luckily we didn’t flip, but as we sailed past them fully out of control, Anthony was able to look back at them and shout “WHO’S THE BARNEY NOW?”  it was so funny, cause he was laughing hysterically as we are almost about to do the same thing as them.
While in the top ten on one of the downwind legs, we stick this gybe so perfectly, and we are both hooked in on the trapeze. (at least I thought I was) Clink. I came unhooked and was in the water so fast. Holding onto the spinnaker sheet and skipping across I was able to close line Anthony’s feet. Nothing happened because he was hooked into the foot straps, but when I suddenly became a human anchor, the boat stopped immediately, and sent Anthony flying around the shrouds.  I figured that we were gunna flip anyways when I fell off, so it would be better to hold onto the sheet, and not have to swim back as far.  Actually I lied. I was a little scared of having to swim in shark infested water.  When I hopped onto the centerboard, I saw Anthony trying to laugh away the pain of a Charlie horse in his upper thigh region.
Scores were not too bad cause a lot of boats were too scared to come out there when it was that windy.
Rain once again for the 5th straight day in a row. Decided to pack it all up, and head over to this very nice yacht club to have some drinks, and check out all the impressive yachts preparing for the Sydney to Hobart race.  Stayed there for a little, eating and drinking, but making sure that we would make it home before 8:30 which was the Victoria Secret Fashion show. Nothing I haven’t seen before, hehe.

December 11, 2007 6th Day in Australia.
Got to sleep in a little while longer, as today was our well needed layday! Well its not exactly the type of layday you would have expected.  It would have been really nice to get out of the boat park and venture \into the city visiting the Opera House, and just basically seeing the rest of Sydney. But, whenever you get a fairly new boat, you always have to take the time and trick it out to your liking. This is what was in store for Anthony and I on our layday!  Whenever we have a big day of boat work, the plan is a two session sail on the following day. The reason fro this, is just in case something breaks or is not working correctly in the morning sail, we are able to go in, fix it and then come back out for another test run, instead of wasting two more days of fixing equipment.
Oh my god! How could I have forgotten to tell you all about the birds here!  I’m not talking about how colorful and beautiful they are, I’m talking about me buying a dozen guns and handing them out to the sailors, with all the rights in the world to unload on them. We have cockatoos, finches, and some other kind of birds that will not SHUT UP!  The cockatoo is real nice to look at, but it will just perch itself in the tree right next to our boat, and screech all day long.  But the cockatoo has nothing on this other bird. This one Anthony has described as a mix between a “rooster on steroids, and a dying seal.”  It honestly sounds like a seal that is being attacked by a polar bear.  Since there is a little children’s park right next to the boat area, the first time, we heard this bird call, we thought it was someone beating their child. I think I am gunna make a stop at the hardware store, and try to make some sort of a scarecrow.
On the drive home today, it was a little scarier than usual. I guess its because I have been paying more attention to the surrounding area rather than Anthony’s impressive NASCAR skills.  Maybe he had a little furry on the road, but I was definitely riding shot gun with Jeff Gordon.  He was perfectly in control with our sweet ride, whipping around turns, and paying no attention to the fact that he was still a novice at the whole steering wheel on the right side.   Every time he came to a turn, I was holding on just waiting for him to cut it a little too tight, and bounce up onto the curb. We arrived home safely though.
As some of you remember in my previous journals from Portugal, Anthony and I turned out to be quite good cooks. Well once again we are putting our skills to the test, just only in a different country.  We decided to keep it simple, and go with the same recipes from Portugal, but something happened, and it didn’t turn out quite as tasty.  Here’s the funny part! Since the kitchen is too small for the both of us, I left Mr. Man in charge with the cooking, and decided to go and buzz my head with the buzzer from AMERICA. (not the same voltage. Ya get my drift?)  Well as I am trimming around my ears, POP, and the damn thing stops working. I knew exactly what happened, as my ear was ringing from the explosion. I forgot that the converters had to equal the same voltage. Don’t worry about it! Just stuff to do with electricity!  So I threw out the buzzers, and went back downstairs, and ate our home cooked meal. Now when we came back to the room, I got my computer out and realized that it was not charging, but didn’t think anything of it.  Looking up I see Anthony taking the batteries out of the tv remote, putting them back in, clicking power, (no response) smacking it on his knee, and just basically wondering why the new batteries in the remote are not working. So I just looked down at the computer realizing that when my buzzer exploded, it took all the other outlets with it.  Couldn’t really hold the laughter in anymore, and had to explain why the tv was not turning on.

December 12th 2007 7th Day in Australia
FILE all fucking day long

HERE AND ON

December 13th 2007 8th Day in Australia
Well yesterday was a fun time I have to say. Nothing better than sitting in the sun filing a part of your boat, when a shirt barely does the trick to keeping the sun out. I am getting burned through my shirt, and the zinc that I use on my face is no match for its rays. And supposedly the temperature is going to be in the 30’s . That is 30 degrees C. For those of you that care I called the phone company, and now my phone is activated.   One of the 49er Boat manufacturer named Julian has his office right here at the Woollahra Yacht Club. This is nice because there are spare parts lying around, and it was especially nice when we had the boat issue yesterday.   Thanks to the Virgin Islands team, (that’s us) we have observed a problem among the efficiency of the products being manufactured. All the blades have been tested and tested, so that they are all the same, and molds have been sent out to the main builders, in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. This mold which they use to make the blades, is all the same, until we got one of their brand new fresh out of the box replica.  With this not fitting properly, it opened the concern that the mold was in fact not that accurate, and they are gunna have to go back to the drawing boards.
Our plan for the day was to do 2 sessions, one being in the late morning , and the other in the mid afternoon. Boat was pretty much ready to go after the whole rudder not fitting ordeal, and we were pretty quick to get out on the water. There were two New Zealand teams out there with their coach running races, and they we nice enough to let us join. On the first start, one of the NZL boats came full speed from underneath us, and was yelling “Don’t head down!” And he was yelling it with some aggression behind his tone. Anthony was quick to answer! “whoah easy there killa, it’s like fucking roid (steroid) rage!”  After the first race was done, our vang arms began to give a little, so we decided that we would go in and try to salvage what we could out of them.
Remember how I told you that my phone was activated? Well when I got off the water I checked out my phone to see if I could use it, and sure enough it wasn’t working. So Anthony and I went back to the post office (where we bought the SIM cards) with a little heat under our hats.  Walked right in there and demanded our money to be refunded, and telling the manager that what he sold us was not how he explained it would. Now everyone was looking at us, cause we were not to subtle with our demands. We were basically telling him that we don’t want the Sim card anymore, although we had already opened it.  The manager called the phone company, and we spoke to him and got everything settled out. Apparently it was our fault. The phones that we bought in Portugal, were locked from the previous service, and now the new SIM card we bought was not able to work until we get the phones unlocked.  We really felt like a bunch of asses in there thinking the manager didn’t know what he was talking about, and trying to rip us off.
Went back out for the afternoon session, and as we got just to the outside of the mooring lines, we set the chute, and took off. It was such a cool feeling, as we ripped out of the harbor, with everyone looking at us probably hoping that they would get to see an intense wipeout.  Not this time though. Nobody else was really out, so we decided to sail all the way down to the Opera House, and get a view from the water. It was pretty amazing to see I might add.   Did a few up and downs with some other teams, and then called it a day.
So besides the whole phone drama, the other funny part of our day, was pretty much the end of the day. Every time we park along the street, we always have to pay the parking meter.  There are a little different here though. You only have to pay until 10:00 pm, and this pass (which gets printed out) will say that you paid, and then its free until 8:00am.  So I walk up to the parking meter, and notice two guys sitting right across from it on the side walk. Mind you that they look like homeless men. So I put my money in, and I get my ticket. As I am walking away I hear a loud bang! I look back immediately, just in time to see the homeless man lowering his leg from the parking meter, bending over, and taking the 2 dollars that I had just put in.  I just stared at him for a second or two.  I guess they just sit there and kick the machine every time someone puts their money in. kinda funny.

December 14, 2007 9th Day in Australia
“What Day is it today?”  Anthony asks. “it’s Thursday. Why?” “Are you sure its not national tight shirt day?” as another couple of men with shirts skin tight stroll past. I am not too sure if it’s just the section of Australia that were in, but every guy has on a shirt that is made for children. I guess either the young men are scared of the women, or visa versa, but every time we walk past a restaurant, it is either r pack of girls dining, or a group of guys dining, whom I assume are as straight as a ball.
Nothing to exciting happened today, so I am just gunna make it short. We had an early morning session around 11, and sailed for 2 hours. We did some practice races with the Japanese, Hong Kong, and Portuguese team, and then some straight line speed testing, which we did very well in I might add.  Came in for a short lunch, and then hit the water again within half an hour.  This time we put up a different main sail, just to test, and see what one would be used for the big regatta. This short sail was all the way back down to the Opera house, and under the bridge.  The bridge was pretty amazing, cause they let people walk up the arch, and get a full view of Sydney harbor, which must be spectacular.
After the short sail with the new main, we headed back to the beach, got in the rental car and immediately drove over to Bondi Beach.  There we tried to get our phones fixed at the Vodafone company, but they referred us to another store, which made that trip a waste of time.
After the phone expedition we headed back to the boat park, and put on our mainsail sponsor which is Vertical Yachts. This is a storage facility in Ft. Lauderdale Fl. where boat as large as 90 feet are lifted out of the water, and placed on racks as high as 90 feet. Usually they do this with some sort of a forklift, but this facility is state of the art, and uses computer science to do all the labor.
Oh and Taylor guess what? Your little hottie Swiss 470 girl is here. I have not seen her boyfriend either, so I guess some other jealous guy has “taken him shark fishing.” Haha inside joke from when we were all in Portugal.
Oh and once again Anthony and I went shopping, so that we could try our culinary skills one more time.  And on top of that we found the right sauce for our recipe.  If you recall the other time we cooked it didn’t turn out that great, because we chose the wrong sauce, but this time, the good stuff was there. But who cares about shopping right? WRONG!!!!  Shopping in America is not so fun, but over in the foreign countries, they make it fun with the types of shopping carts available. Just like when we were in Portugal, all the wheels on the cart are free to turn on their own, meaning that they can move sideways. This may not seem like a big deal, but with the child inside me, doing 360’s up and down the aisles and knocking things over is always fun!.  But as you know all good things come to an end, just like this amazing journal that I have written for the day.   haha
Aight racing starts tomorrow, and I am tired.
PEACE OUT!!!

December 15th  10th Day in Australia
Let me tell you what I like best when I first wake up in the morning.  Here it is! Opening the door to your hotel, stepping out into the street, and seeing 2 homosexuals holding hands!  This just goes to prove my assumption that I made the other day.
Got to the boat park a little later than normal, just because we didn’t have our first race until 12:00, but it was already packed. We had 470’s, 420’s, 49ers, 29ers, lasers, Finns, and Tornado’s, all launching out of the same boat park. This was by far the most hectic launching scenario that I have ever been a part of in all my racing.  We it was time to go, it was a scramble, and there was nothing polite about it. We were cutting people off the were in line, cause they were not aggressive enough!  Felt kind of bad, but you don’t want to be the one that misses your races.
Out on the race course, it was light to begin with, and there was a lot of chop from all the other motor and sail boats out there.  With all these boats in the bay of Sydney, the racing scene was more of a boat traffic management rather than a tactical race.  Besides all the fleets that we had launched, there were Etchels, J-24’s, and many other racing and cruising boat sailing right through our course.  I am not trying to sound like a little girl, but when you have a 49er that averages 12 knots upwind, and 17 downwind, it is very dangerous to have other fleets sailing right through our course. On the bay there were about 1200 to 1500 boats out. No lie. When we rounded the weather marks and looked downwind, we could not see the coast.
On one of the downwind legs, we were on starboard gybe with the spinnaker up, and we had a run in with a 30 foot cruiser/ racer boat.  Usually we can get out of their way, but when the wind is up, it makes it very hard for us to maneuver. We decided to go above them, but as we make our move, a huge puff rolled down upon us, and when this happens you have to immediately head down, and ease the pressure in order to stay upright.  The problem was that we were to windward of the other boat, leaving us with no room to head down.  We had too much power in the sails, and began to flip on top of the other boat. I quickly blew the sheet, and let the spinnaker rag, as I watched the crew on the other boat try and get off the rail.  It was so close, that when the spinnaker was ragging, it went across the faces of the crew on the rail, and hopefully it gave them a nice Nylon burn on the cheek, so they learn a lesson.  Anthony immediately turned on his bad mouth Australian talk and gave them a piece of his mind about the rules.
The last race of the day, and now the wind was in the high teens!  Get around the weather mark in about 7th out of 28, and my quick release harness breaks. Now I have to sail 2 more upwind legs, and 3 downwind legs not being able to be out on the wire.  At that point there is pretty much no reason to keep going around the course, but we figure that all we had to do was make it upwind.  On the down winds, I would be able to sit on the rail, and everything would be fine, but on the upwind legs, I had to figure out a way to get out on the wire.  This was achieved by taking the spinnaker sheet and tying it to me, and then to the trap wire.  All we could do was go to the lay line, untie, tack, and then retie the sheet. Not very good but we were able to get around the course, and beat 12 boats.  This was actually very embarrassing on the downwind legs, because it made me look like a PANZI sitting in the boat too scared to come out on the wire.
Alright after the racing we decided to try our luck with the phones one more time before we buy another phone for 60 dollars.  Now we have two other Americans from California that have been having phone problems as well.  We pull into the malls underground parking lot, and see this guy lingering near his car. The Californian Johnny asks “Excuse me are you parking?”  He replies “No,” and then the guy just looks at us like he had seen a ghost. I think he thought we were trying to rob him or something. Now since he said no, he is not parking we were waiting for him to get into his car and pull out so that we could get his spot.  Still staring we ask “So are you leaving?” he replies “NO!” Now were like all scratching our heads, and Anthony yells with his hands in the Frankenstein positing (which is like a zombie walking) “are there any aliens around here?”   It was the funniest thing I have ever heard.
There is nothing that has given me so much stress, as much as figuring out how to activate these phones. It is like talking to idiots.  Not to be hating on people with accents, but when you are in an English speaking country, and you have telephone operators, that can barely speak the language then it is so frustrating.  You have to repeat everything 3 or 4 times before they understand, and then when they speak, you can’t understand what the hell they are saying.  This has been the ongoing problem for the 4 of us, and to hear the conversations between each of us and the operators is just the funniest thing ever. They keep telling us that we will be receiving our phone numbers shortly through a text, but it never comes.  So Mr. California Johnny has a brilliant idea for Anthony and I to send a text to one another so that we can get our phone numbers, but if I knew what Anthony’s number was to send the text then that would be pointless. We had a good crackle at his stupid suggestion.

December 16, 2007  11th Day in Australia

I am starting this journal backwards from tonight, just to tell you that Anthony and I are back on track with the whole cooking program. The first time we tried to cook was a disaster, just because we chose the wrong sauce, but we found the good one at the supermarket, and were cooking with heat. Literally!  During our dinner we were lucky enough to have this show called Don’t Forget The Lyrics on.  What you do is choose a category, and then have 2 songs to choose. It is like karaoke where they give you the lyrics, and you start singing, and then they just leave 3,4,5, and sometimes 7 words missing and you have to fill them in.  You have life lines, and other things to help out just like the show Who Wants to be A Millionaire.  I am really embarrassed to admit this, but it was funny at the time. This guy chose the song by Celine Deon, and had to fill in 5 missing words. He said for all the LOVE I HAVE IN YOU, but it was actually for all the LOVE I FOUND IN YOU.  So I was a winner.
Anyways back to the reason why we are here in Australia.  This morning was looking very light, and it was going to be overcast.  Our first race was scheduled for 12:30 after the Lasers, but since there was no wind, we were postponed until further notice.  Usually they will send you out on the water, and have you sit around and wait for the wind to come up, but they were nice enough, and have the proper facility to keep us onshore until the wind fills. The laser finished their one race for the day, and that’s when they sent us out there.  Originally there are 3 races for each day of the event, but since we were 2 hours behind schedule only 2 we are on the agenda.
With the wind blowing around 6 knots, it was going to be fairly long and tiring race on the legs. Having to sit with legs at a 90 degree angle tire quickly!  Start of the race, and we went out to the left side of the course while the rest of the fleet went out right. It was a little nerve racking cause they were looking good, but we rode a puff back to the middle of the course, and rounded the weather mark in 3rd place. We sailed very smart, only increasing our lead on the boats behind us, and closing the gap on the leaders.  There was a very large car ferry that was now coming through the channel, and the race committee, was forced to shorten the course and finish the race with one more leg to go. With the wind a little patchy around the course, anything could happen, and it was nice to take a 3rd.  Same thing happened on the 2nd race! Went back out to the left side of the course, but it didn’t pay off as well. Rounding the weather mark in about 7th! A huge thunderstorm was now rolling in form the south west, and it was looking ugly.  On the downwind, I passed the spinnaker sheet off to Anthony, while I quickly ran in and began cranking on turns, trying to get a jump on the other competitors.  Sure enough the wind came up, and we were prepared!  We finished off the race in 9th after messing up a gybe at the finish, but the good news is that we went from 14th overall to 10th overall out of 28.

December 17th 2007 12th Day in Australia
Man were we in for it today! The weather forecast the day before said that t was going to be real windy, to the point where it was almost too much to sail our fragile boats around the course.  At the boat park, it as blowing in the 15 knots range, and that only meant that when we hit the water, and got further away from our protective land barrier, it was going to be another 10 knots.  Sure enough it was when we reached to the bottom of the course, and rounded up just below the starting boat.  Blowing 20 knots constant, and puffing in the mid to high 20’s, I really thought everything was going to be okay, and that we would be able to make it around the course. I knew that we were not going to be in the top 5 like we were the day before, but I thought we could hold on to some  low teens, while other wiped out.
First race was off, and it was a lot more wind than I thought.  We were not doing that bad on the upwind, and we completed the bear away almost better than some of the top guys, but when it was time to gybe, we had some problems!  Anthony’s bungee cord that retracts his trapeze wire broke, and was now dangling behind that boat, and making it impossible to reach whenever we tacked.  This is very unfortunate, because every time we had to tack, it was just an inevitability that we were going to flip!
Our brand new rudder that we had bought fromt eh 49er boat building company was cavitating., that means, that as hard as we had it over to one side, it was just stalling out, and was not allowing us to turn.  This happens when the rudder is damaged.  On the leading edge of the rudder, (which is the front) it was starting to unzip. Meaning that it was starting to split in half!
After not being able to complete either of the 3 races, it was a very big disappointment, having been in 10th overall after the very impressive day before itn eh light air.  As we reached the beach having retired from the last 2 races, things weren’t turning out to be that bad after all. There were already some good guys onshore that had broken equipment, and while fixing our gear, boats were constantly coming in. Looking at the results after the day, it was very surprising to see that we had only moved back 2 places.  In the last race, there were only 6 boats out of 28 that were able to finish.  The good young “hot shot” Australian team was only able to finish one of the races, so at the end of the day I wasn’t feeling so bad.  I was just frustrated at the fact that I had never, not finished so many races in one day than in my whole racing career!
On a lighter side, since we were in early, and finished our repairs relatively quickly, we were able to go and tour the city.  We drove the Sydney bridge, which was cool although, you couldn’t see the harbor.  The fences and railroad track were blocking our view.  There is this sight seeing attraction, that allows you to climb onto the bridge, and all the way to the top, but as you might have expected, it cost $200 a person.
After our sight seeing adventure, we figured that since we were in Sydney, we had to see the Opera House up close and personal, to fulfill our experience of Sydney. Up close, it was a hell of a lot bigger than I had expected.  Immediately the cameras were out.  We couldn’t have looked more like tourists in our life, then when we were snapping shots of the House.  We had an agreement, that at the end of our littl photo shoot, we would compare shots and see who had the best one, but we never looked at each others.  I guess the place is just so magnificent, that any picture looks great no matter what.
Anthony was really into the whole taking pictures thing. Since it was night, you have to turn you flash off cause the place is already lit, and when you do so, you shutter on your camera is open for longer.  This makes it harder to take pictures, cause if it shakes then it will be blurred.  So he was placing quarters, under his camera for the right angle, and setting the timer, and just a bunch of nonsense.  When I asked him what the hell was taking so long, he answers “Masterpieces take a long time to create!”
We tried all different angles, and circled around the entire building just snapping away. Oh let me tell you something!  The Opera House has a lot of stairs, and when I ran up it I felt like ROCKY BALBOA, stopping at the top, and raising my hands in the air. It was dumb but fun to do at the same time.

December 18, 2007 13th Day in Australia.
Last day of the event, and I was feeling kind of sad, that the time had flown by so fast, and we were going to be leaving Sydney in the morning!  Oh well!  The wind was a lot lighter than the day before and our spirits were high.  We usually do a lot better in the lighter air, just because our boat handling skills are not as perfect as the top guys, allowing them to pull away from us.  The laser fleet was already out there finishing up their last race.   It was nice to get out there and watch the finish to one of the most competitive fleets ever.
The first race was off, and it was the most difficult sailing that we had done while in Sydney.  The wind was puffy, and the shifts were all over the place making it difficult to choose the proper side to go to.  With a few mishaps, we finished 12th or 13th, which is fairly good.
As the wind was dying throughout the day, it was only going to get harder.  Although our result was abut the same, it felt that we had sailed a much better race, just getting our heads out of the boat, and looking up the course, but ont eh 3rd, and final race of the day, it was a different story.  Had a great start! We decided to just go for it, and not look back at all. Missing a few shits, we began to get a little down, but while on the downwind, we chose the proper side to go.  It paid off huge, setting us in 3rd by the leeward mark, with 2 more laps  On the drop of the spinnaker, the sheet somehow got wrapped around the front of the bow, and that cost us a little as I had to run to the front of the boat, and unwrap it.  Once again on the downwind, we capitalized on a shift, and made out huge again, finishing the race in 6th.
It is always nice to finish the last race of the regatta in the top, because it allows you to get in earlier, and choose a spot to start the whole packing up program. Sailors are like a pack of sheep, wherever there is green grass they just get up and move.  Wherever there is a regatta, we just pack up and drive, or put our boats on a ship, and ship them to the next venue.  Getting your boat out of the park, and on the road is usually the most important part, but since we weren’t leaving till the next day, we were not it that much of a rush.
It was kind of funny looking at our little rental car, and imagining that our 49er was going to fit on top, for a 889 kilometer drive down to Melbourne.  I think it was in the back of out heads ever since we got the car, but when it came down to the final day, it was looking smaller than ever.  With a little MacGyver handy dandy jerry rig, the roof racks were in place, and it was time for a beer at the yacht club before the awards.
So there is a fairly big party tat this bar near the yacht club, and all the sailors are going to be there. Not really sure what to expect, because my type of partying as a young adult, it probably going to be a little different, especially when it comes to dancing.  Not sure if you’ve seen me dance, but when I’m in the right mood, it can get a little out of control.  I am talking about having a good bit of “water” in my system.  Hopefully I will be good tonight, but you’ll have to wait till tomorrow to find out

December 19th 2007 14th Day in Australia.
Ok well last night was not as fun as I had hoped, and expected! We all went to this bar called the Golden Sheaf, and I was just too big. You know those bars that are too large, and everyone is scattered, so it makes the place seem empty?  Well that was scene at this one.  There was a main bar, and then a smaller one with a fairly large patio area between the both.  Decided to grab a few beers, and at $6.50 a pop, 2 was probably going to be all for the night.  Surprisingly there were not that many girls in the bar, so we played pool the whole time, and just hung out with the other Americans.
With the bar closing so early, we all packed into the rental car, and headed back to the Cross where there was a little better of a night life.  There are a lot of bars, places to eat, and strip clubs, which I unfortunately didn’t get to visit. DARN. I heard they were not that impressive in the first place, and after experiencing the ones in St. Marten, nothing will ever compare.  Anthony called it a night, but I went to another bar with 2 Canadians my age.  It was called D PANIC.  And I almost had a panic attack when I entered.  It smelled so bad!! It was like a bomb mixed with Jager, and black liquorish had gone off.  This bar was not so special either!  There were just a bunch of drunken idiots in there.  AND guess who was in the center of the dance floor?  A group of gay guys dancing and moving their hips like a girl would move hers.  Very disturbing when I was trying to dance, and they kept bumping into me!  What did I do? I left, and called it a night, leaving the Canadian boys with them.
I am writing this to you as I am driving down the HUME highway, in the Australian outback. Apparently it is supposed to be a very boring drive, and so far it has. I will be happier if I get to see a Kangaroo.
We had the boat all packed up after the racing yesterday, and all we had to do was put it on the roof of the rental car.  We bought some roof racks, which were a little iffy, and had a group of sailors lift the boat, and place it on the car.  POP POP POP POP!! Oh Shit, as each corner of the rack dented the car roof inward.  It was funny, but that was the way it was gunna be!! Looking at our car with the boat on top was kind of scary, but funny at the same time.  It is definitely a West Indian jerry rig project that we were able to muster up.  I’ll have some pictures sent along wit this journal.  Everyone at the boat park that walked by, gave a look at it, and made that face like “that shit aint gunna make it.”  I had the same thought, but driving is not so bad right now. Every time we hit a bump the roof dents in, and makes a loud popping sound.  Its not good for the rental car, but it is the only way we could get out boat down to Melbourne.  This is a 830 kilometer drive, and so far we are making good time.  I THINK!!
It was pretty much a straight drive all the way down, except for the last 60 kilometers. The directions that Anthony took from google earth, we not helpful!  There were a bunch of road signs missing, and it made life more difficult especially when we had an oversized boat on top of the rental car.  A few wrong turns here and there, and then we finally found the house.  It is a very nice house that we have been put up in.  The woman that is hosting us is a little spacey, she smokes, and lives by herself.  She seems to be very cool on the other hand, letting us do whatever we want.  As soon as we walked in the door, she offered us beers, which she had just bought for us.
Unfortunately we only saw 2 kangaroos, and didn’t get any pictures.  There were DEAD on the side of the road.

December 20, 2007 15th Day in Australia
Nothing too exciting really happened today!  Today was us just putting the boat together which usually takes a long time.  The sun was hot, the wind was up, and the flies were awful.  There were some other teams out on the water, but they slowly came in one by one.  2 of the teams ripped their spinnaker bags, one ripped out their footstrap, and the Swedish teams broke their mast in half.
After the end of the day we came back to the apartment and cooked our delicious rice, peppers and chicken.  It is a little weird being at the house now, because she has this guy come over every night so far, and I get the feeling that we are kind of barging into her life.  I mean where we sleep, is right across the hall from her room, and she really doesn’t get any privacy.  We share the same bathroom, kitchen, dining room, and can hear through the doors pretty well. I just feel a little weird about the whole thing. I thought that we were going to have our own little cottage away from the house, but our rooms are really nice, and everything is going very well so far

December 21, 2007 16th Day in Australia
This morning I got to sleep in a little while longer.  When I finally woke up at 10:00 I mad some breakfast, and it was so good. I think I am going to open up a bed and breakfast at some point in my life. It was a simple breakfast that I conjured up, filled with rye bread, 2 eggs, slices of tomato, and half an avocado, with ketchup, salt, and pepper.  After I ate and washed the dishes, I went back to my bed, with a smile on my face.   The reason for this was that the food was excellent, but mostly because Anthony had to return the car back in Melbourne.  This was  far drive to begin with, and then he had to figure out the whole train ride, and just a bunch of other stuff that I thought would have taken a while.  Turned on the television, kicked back and realaxed!  Ring ring!.  This was my text message going off on my phone.  It put a smile on my face, cause I thought it was someone else. (and you know who you are!!) text read.  “only had to drive halfway to Melbourne, be at the boat park in 5 minutes.”  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh so much for the relaxation.
Down at the boat, was hott!!  And don’t even get me started on the flies.  Not mosquitoes, but flies.  The buzzing sound of their wings aren’t as annoying, but they are ruthless.  Trying to do any sort of boat work, it basically pointless.  Let me explain.  It is hott, so your shirt if off!  Now since there are not that many people around there is a larger concentration of flies around you specifically. (hopefully others will come soon to share the hassle.)  The most difficult part of the day is when you have something very tedious to accomplish, and every time you begin 4 or 5 flies land on your back and start walking around.  So you swat them off, and begin working again. Now instead of landing somewhere else in the damn world, they come dive bombing into your face, up your nose, in your ear, on your cheek, and basically anywhere on your body that makes it impossible to not stop, and try to shoo them.  Its like Blitzkrieg.  Anthony asked “do you think by the end of the trip here, we will be able to sit like those African tribes, with flies crawling all over our face?” we had a good laugh.
There was a little more boat work to finish, before we could hit the water, but everything was going well, and we would make it out there at the same time as all the good guys.  There was a Spanish team that had just bought a brand new boat, and were making all there little modifications right next to us.  Usually they don’t talk to us, and Anthony got yelled at by their coach for taking pictures of their mainsail, while going upwind one day at another regatta, but now they were using all our tools.  Every time they came for a new one, they had no idea how to say it in English, but we were able to understand by their hand gestures.  This one time they needed a file, and Anthony told them that it was called a rat tail file. And explained to them that, since it looked like the tail of a rat, that’s where it got the name from.  They just looked at him , and said “yes ok” and really didn’t care what the hell it was called.  I told Anthony that they didn’t care, and he said “ Well if their going to use my damn tools, then their going to learn the frigging language!”
Finally got to go out on the water, and there were some good team practicing.  There were the top American team, the German team that finished top ten at the worlds, and the Austrian team that was second at the worlds, in Portugal this summer.  It was light wind, and usually when there are 3 boats off by themselves, it is a private practice, so we made sure to keep our distance, but also making sure that we were close enough so that we were able test our speed.  With a thunderstorm rolling in, the wind began to get light, and the group that we were testing with was not sure what they were going to do, so we went over to a larger group that was running races.  Unfortunately it was not the best practice in the world, cause with the current running so hard, it made it very difficult to set a fair course.  We did very well throughout the day, but it was getting real light now, and the rain was coming down with a little more force, so we called it a day.
The beach that we launch from is pretty cool, because when the tide is low, there is a very shallow sand bar that stretches about 30 meters from the shore.   There is a nice long beach that we all get to store our boats on, but the only problem is that sand can get in the blocks making them harder to turn, and that there is no hose to wash off the boat at the end of the day.  Around 5 o’clock today the wind started to increase something fierce.  This is what the race committee was expecting as they cancelled the practice races for the following day.  By the time we left the yacht club, their wind speedometer was reading a steady 34, with gust as high as 48 knots.

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June 17th 2007 1st Day in Portugal

Last night was by far the worst night I have ever had. I went to sleep way too early and my routine was all messed up. I had opened the window because I have to sleep with a constant breeze blowing on me. This was the biggest mistake of my life, having let in all the mosquitoes. I was swatting at my ear, because of all the sounds in the world, I hate the buzzing sound of a mosquito near my ear. I thought hearing a baby cry on the airplane was bad, wait until you have to cover your head with the blanket, and open it every few minutes to let the carbon dioxide out.
The fact that I had to play sodoku to kill time was very depressing, so I was up and out of bed at 5:45. If I had called my dad at that time he would have been very impressed because when he tries to wake me up for work, it is like pulling teeth. Breakfast was a little difficult because I am by far no morning person and trying to make sunny side up eggs was a feat, so they just turned into regular eggs, and some toast.
After breakfast I went outside and looked to my right and there was the Guincho beach which holds some pretty big surfing competitions. The breeze was very cool and I had on some sweat pants and a jacket, and for the first time in my life I felt like taking a jog, but I did not want to use my nice shoes in the semi muddy terrain.
My skipper then woke up and had some breakfast around 10:00 and we then had our land lord whom is a very little old lady drive us down into town ad show us around a little before leaving us down at the boat park.
The sailing venue was perfect. It was an ideal spot for the very unstable 49ers. There was a small ramp that led down to a fairly large beach, which was protected by all the adjacent buildings. This allowed for easy launching because there was not that much wind in the little harbor. There was a large parking lot where all the boats were to be kept, and enough room for all the competitors spare parts, and trailers. Since there is not that much room in the parking lot for the 82 49ers, some of the sailors have to store their boats down on the beach. We were you could say one of the lucky ones, or the unlucky ones by getting this spot. It is lucky to have this spot because in the morning when it is time to leave and head out to the race site, we were right on the beach and did not have to trailer the boat very far. The unlucky part about being on the beach, was that, you can lose parts very easily in the sand, the hose was up in the parking lot, meaning we would have to bring the boat up there to wash it, and the fact that sand gets everywhere and we would pretty much be living in it.
Security is very tight at these large regattas, and you need to have some sort of accreditation passes to be allowed into the boat park. This was our first exercise of the trip, as we had to walk a couple miles up the road to acquire these passes.

June 18th Portugal 2nd Day here

Best night of sleep so far considering it was only the second night. I figured out my problem. The window needs to be open to stay cool during the night, allowing the mosquitoes an easy access to my blood. The trick is, since the outside of the windows have hurricane type shutters that roll down with the pull of a cord, you roll them down to the bottom, but leave the cracks open. The cracks in each row are just small enough so that the mosquitoes cant get in easily. If they really wanted to they could squeeze through, which some of them have figured out.
I was a little disappointed with myself this morning, because I did not get up early and make a good breakfast. With a good plate of food in my stomach, I really feel energized and ready to tackle the day ahead. You could say that the morning walk towards the bus stop got me energized and was a subsidy, but the fact that there was no real food in my belly made me hungry and left me with no choice but to wait for lunch.
Amazingly the bus schedule was right on time, and when it arrived everyone rushed on and sat down quickly. At first I was in shock to see how aggressive everyone was to get on the bus and grab a seat, but as we pulled away from the bus stop I realized why. It was not a gradual acceleration by the bus driver, but more of a burnout. He floored the gas and since I was the last on the damn thing and making my way to the back seat, I was the idiot that almost fell over. From then on my bus experience has been pretty fun. I get a real kick out of watching the last person on the bus stumble as we depart from each stop, making it a constant reminder of how the American kid looked when he entered an unfamiliar scenario.
Boy was it hot today down at fisherman’s bay. That is the bay that we sail out of. We don’t get much breeze passing through, and there is no shade, so it makes for some sweaty boat work. Just like any new boat, you have to customize it to your liking, which was started yesterday when we first got her, and finished today. The boat was bought from a Danish team for 9500 euros, and it is in very good shape. It took us a little longer than expected to get the boat totally rigged and ready to go because we are using all the equipment from the Danish guys. There are a lot of different ways to rig the 49er and our way was definitely easy, so we had to learn their way which eliminated excess lines, and just made it easier all around.
When we finally got the boat all rigged, we decided to go out for a quick sail, and it was really nice. The current was running pretty hard, and it really made us look like freshman (which is a metaphor for the word novice), as we understood some marks and got into a lot of trouble doing so. Everyone is really nice out on the water, and sailing is great.
On the bus ride home it was the same thing. Get on the bus early and find a seat. Anthony was the lucky one this time as he sat right in front of this guy that was humming the whole ride. We took a different bus this time and it traveled on the coast which was absolutely beautiful. When I turned my head back towards Anthony, I looked at him and he had on a face that looked as though he had just eaten something terrible and was trying to get the sensation out of his body. I asked him what was wrong and he said that the guy behind him had by far the worst breathe he had ever gotten to smell.
Anyways we got home and I made some more exciting pasta, and then we went to bed.
June 21, 2007 5th day in Portugal
Had a good nights sleep besides the dog that was barking when I went to sleep and was still barking when I woke up. My legs are starting to get tired. We walk fast everywhere we go. 10 minutes to the bus stop in the morning, then down to the boat park, after sailing, back to the bus station, and then the 10 minutes back to the house. I really look forward to the days, and going sailing, but it is at the end of the day that is by far the shortest and hardest part. As I have said we have to pull the boat up onto the beach and into the parking lot, but the sand is really soft and we have to charge the thing. There are guys and girls down on the beach as crew and they all help pull the boat up, but you really have to dig in and get some momentum before you reach the soft sand. Especially when it is windy and you have to be on tip toe while out on the trapeze, really starts to wear your legs out.
Today there were about 30 49ers out when we got to the boat park, and we were a little late getting there because Anthony had to get the traveler checks cashed to pay for the cottage. So we rigged up as quickly as possible and headed out to meet up with all the good guys out there, but as we joined in with them, they all went in. We thought oh well they are going in for lunch and they will come back out afterwards. The wind was blowing really hard and we had to really depower the boat. It was a little sketchy being out there with not that many coach boats, because if something had broken then we would have been swept out into the Atlantic.
There were still some boats around us and we decided to link up with them and test our speed but when we got near them we noticed that they we just sailing for the camera. It was the whole GBR team and they we just posing for sponsor shots, so that was not helpful. So we decided that we would go and try to catch up with our German friends that helped us out when we were in Miami training. It was a downwind sail for about 2 ½ miles out offshore. We were practicing surfing the waves and moving our weight back and forth to get over the crest and not plowing right into the trough. The funniest thing then happened. There are some conflicting winds around the area, and we got dunked, and then a gust of wind picked us right back up and accelerated the boat from under our feet.
When it is really windy and wavy, Anthony and I will move into the back foot straps, and my back leg will be crossed over the top of his front leg securing us just incase we decide to nosedive. So when the gust jolted us out of the water, Anthony lost his footing and started to fall backwards. His front foot crept up into the upper part of my leg region and then I knew something was wrong. I looked backwards and there was Anthony balancing on one foot the other under my leg trying to hold himself from going around the back of the boat, the tiller extension in his mouth, and a helpless facial expression that I will never forget. I reached back grabbed his shoulder, pulled him forward, and we both started to laugh uncontrollably. So that day of practice was not very beneficial to us, so we packed it up and decided to get some of the stuff on our work list done onshore. By the way a small beer called Sangras, after a tiring day has never tasted so refreshing in my entire life.
Nothing else really happened for the rest of the day except that we went shopping at the grocery store and their shopping carts are so fun. I know that this will sound a little immature, but all the wheels turn independently, and the cart can move sideways, and do 360’s. I had a blast up and down the aisles standing on the cart and doing turns.

June 22, 2007 6th day in Portugal
Yesterday we missed out on the good racing with all the good guys, because they went to the boat park early and decided to all go out before it got to windy in the afternoon. So we decided to get down to the beach early and make sure that we were part of the action pact sailing. Wind was blowing as usual when we got there and although it did not seem that windy in the rigging area, it was outside the bay.
Got the boat all boned up and ready for a windy day of sailing, went out to the designated racing area, with all the good guys, and as we got down to the starting line, we had about 2 minutes to get the boat prepared for what we expected to be a race. I was ready on the 5 minutes when the Ukranian coach (same guy that gave us a tow in when we broke our mast down in Miami. Mind you it was no ordinary tow in. we were going about 30 miles an hour, and all Anthony and I could do was hold on to whatever was there to grab.) pulled along side of us in his inflatable, and told us in his broken English that we were not allowed to race with them. There was a notice during the practice days that there would be a little regatta only for the top 25 teams. So we were quickly told that we had to leave.
Decided that we would go and match up with other guys out there on the racing area. There was a GBR boat and an Aus boat doing speed testing so we went along with them and we did very well. I am not to sure that the GBR guys wanted us there, because we were fixing something and they started the speed test and Anthony yelled to them to wait up and they didn’t. Carma got them about 1 minute into the speed test as a huge gust of wind hit them and flipped them immediately, throwing the skipper right onto the mainsail. This is the same thing that happened to Anthony and I as we attempted out first sail ever in the 49er in Newport, but when I fell onto the sail I went straight through it.
I had my waterproof camera out there taped onto the rudder gantry, and I had too small of a memory card so I got about 1 minute of movie, but the footage was very clear and I am really happy about the quality of the cheap looking camera. The only problem that I have is that it is hard to find a good place to strap the camera to the boat, but as we sail more and more I will think of a better way to do it.
Came in right before the whole group of top 25 sailors and dropped the rig down to have a look at it, and we noticed a hairline crack. It may not seem to be that much, but with all the pressure from the spinnaker on the carbon rig, it really starts to stress the rig out. And the crack was in a very common breaking point for the 49er masts, so we had a repair guy named Gordo who is our friend come over and get it patched up.
Everyone at the regatta has a bicycle to get around the boat park, over to the notice board, and over to other boat areas, so I went to the Jumbo super market and bought one for 70 euros, that I will be able to break down when the regatta is over and have it travel with the boat to other regattas. I thought it was a very good purchase. Everyone has their own individual bike but we do it island style and Anthony sits on the handle bars, and I peddle him around.
Sailing is going great and I am really getting strong and in good shape. I am really happy about my stamina, and Anthony and I are eating good food. Lots of pasta, and a lot of green and red peppers. I am a pretty good cook I might add. And the six pack is starting to come in. haha I am so excited. But what I am really excited about is celebrating my birthday here. Thank god I have a good amount of days before the regatta starts so I can recover.

June 23, 2007 7th day in Portugal
Got to sleep in this morning because we checked the forecast the day before and it said to be really windy. All night the wind was howling, and I knew that I was gonna be able to get a lot of sleep. The legs were sore from yesterday, and I needed it. Our land lord actually woke us up this morning asking if we wanted a ride into Cascais which is the town where all the sailing is being held. The are two ways to get into the town, one through all the back roads that we take every morning on the bus route, and the other is along the coast, that leads right to the marine where the laser, yingling’s, and stars are launching from.
It was blowing about 25 knots right on Guincho beach and as we got closer and closer towards the boat park, the wind started to die off, and there was no wind in the sailing area. Our plan for the day was to watch the Americas cup at 2:00 while waiting for the wind to die down a little and then go for an afternoon sail. Plans changed when we arrived as we quickly rigged the boat and got out there.
I have never seen wind fill into a bay as fast as it had today. By the time we launched the boat it was already blowing in the teens, and when we got out into the bay, it was in the 20’s. I immediately turned on the waterproof camera which I had strapped to my wrist this time. With the kite up we were hauling the F@#$ing mail. I had some good camera angles as I held my wrist down near the water and faced it towards the front of the boat, and got in a jybe which would have been really unsteady as I pull quickly on the sheets.
The rest of the sail was pretty fun, but it was really short as was everyone else’s sail. Matched up with some Finish sailors and did really well against them. When we rigged the boat we did not have that much tension on the shrouds because we did not know the wind would have picked up that aggressively, so changing the tension was a pretty fun task as waves came over the bow and into my face.
Decided about half an hour was enough, and packed the boat up and headed off to watch the Americas cup. Alinghi won pretty easily. Their predictions were true about their boat being a lot faster as they went from a 56 meter lead on the last downwind leg to a 182 meter win. Watching the Americas cup and cheering for NZl was the kid Matt, whom I hung out with a lot while in England during the youth worlds. The really cute Brazilian board sailor was there, and she remembered me because she kept stealing glances at me. And my favorite person Kevin Bernham was having a beer at the bar and I joined him and had a chat about sailing the 49er, or if I was going to keep sailing the Laser. He told me that I should because I was very good in it. Coming from an Olympic gold medalist, I thought it was pretty cool.
At the lounge where I had a beer with Kevin there is wireless and it is free so everyone goes there and checks their mail. I went there to download the video from the sailing, and come to my surprise there was nothing on the memory card. I was very disappointed because I thought I had some good footage.
Nothing much was going on down near the sailing venue and everyone had pretty much packed it up early so we decided to catch an earlier bus. This time it took us back along the coast, and it was even windier then when we first came in the morning. Approaching Guincho beach we could see some windsurfers, so we got off at that stop. They were ripping. There were waves crashing on the beach and it must have been blowing 30 knots easily if not 35. They would come surfing down the waves right onto the beach, and then go back into the waves. There was one guy out there who was very good, and he would be jumping impressively high, and doing front flips. I got some pictures and video of that.
The beach slopes upwards and then it levels off into a road that is parallel to the beach, and at the top the sand was coming over the slope so hard. That was mine and Anthony’s only way back home, so we dared to cross it. I was in it first and it was stinging so badly on our legs. When Anthony got into it he sounded like a little school girl. “Ouch this hurts” (mind you that I had a hooded jacket and he had nothing, and the fact that he is short meaning he is closer to the ground.) we had to walk in it for about 2 minutes and all the people passing by were looking at us like we were idiots. Our pockets filled with sand and he had so much of it in his hair. It was a legit sandstorm, and I thought it was pretty cool.
I think I am kind of starting to figure out what I like in life and that is cooking, and taking pictures/video. I don’t think I would like it as much if I was not in the video, but if I get a lot of good footage I may want to make it into a small movie that we can present during our next fundraiser. I’d like to see myself on video, and use it in training, so we can see where we are going wrong out thtere.
Cooking is another thing that I like to do. It is nice when you make something good, and you begin to appreciate the food more then ever. I like cooking for girls. When I was with Stephanie (my girlfriend at the time) I cooked some breakfast. Nothing to special. Bacon, eggs, and a bagel, but I really enjoyed it and I know she did too. I also cooked for the guys one night and they liked it a lot. I am not good at figuring out what kind of sauce a meal may need to spice it up, but I guess that comes over time. The only problem that I have with cooking is that you have to clean when your done. I hate doing that.
Anyways I can’t wait to get my computer back and send you guys the rest of these emails. By the way I am really missing the Laser. When I sailed the full rig I was always too light for the boat, and now I am 175, and in good shape, and Kevin Bernham said that I should stick with it.

June 24, 2007 8th Day in Portugal
Didn’t get to watch the Americas cup this time. Anthony and I decide that 2 sessions would be good for us. We were really focused on getting out on the water and trying to sail with all the good guys out there. It was basically the same as all the other days out on the water. Join a random group out there and try to match up with them. Some of the teams have their coaches out there running races, and that is the group that we usually join, but if not there will be other guys out there testing speed, and starts.
We matched up with the fellows from Ukraine, whom are the past world champions, and are very nice to us. They had no problem with us joining, and they even waited for us to get in line with them. We were doing really well with them because we were focusing hard, and then I noticed that their bodies while out on the wire were much closer then ours, so I said something to Anthony. We learned quickly that when we take our mind off what we are doing, it is not good, as they just sailed away from us.
They were on their way in for the day, and we wanted to stay out for some more. Off in the distance there were two Japanese 49er’s dueling it out, and we made our way over to them. When I say off in the distance I mean far away. If I were in an optimist I wouldn’t even look that far for a training partner because you would spend half the day getting there, but since the 9er goes so fast we were over there in 5 minutes, matching up with them. Trained for a good while and then headed in. On the way into the marina, we were on a very tight reach and that is when the boat is very hard to keep steady, and can be thrown around easily with a gust. But we were both out on the wire going very fast, and out of nowhere BAM, BOOM, looked at Anthony “what the f**k was that” and behind was a Sunfish floating upside-down. Those and manatees have to be the dumbest marine animals ever. What the hell are they thinking floating on the surface of the water. You think over time as boats have been coming and going, they would have adapted to a greater depth and out of harms way?
Whenever I am training I always leave the shoulder straps loose on the harness, and I use my abs to hold my body out straight. During the regatta time I will most likely not do this, but when we are practicing I do it to get my abs really working, and I can see that it’s making a huge difference.
For the first time in a while I feel really good about myself. I am eating well, lots of vegetables, and fruit, and I am doing a lot of physical training. I really like the lifestyle of being a full time sailor, and am having a teenage crisis. I know that if I go back to school I will have a lot of fun, and be able to graduate which I would like, but on the other hand traveling around the world and doing all these regattas is such a great life. I mean Anthony has met the King and Queen of Spain twice in person, and I want to be able to tell people stuff like that. It will make it even harder if we do well and start to get funding for all these regattas. I guess its just one of those choices where you have to sacrifice one for the other.

June 25, 2007 9th Day in Portugal
Decided to start backwards in my journal today. Just had dinner with the hosts, and it was a very traditional Portuguese meal, made up of rice, clams, and pork, and it was so delicious. I had two slices of pizza just before because I figured that in Europe they don’t have large portions when they eat, and I would be hungry afterwards. Sure enough the food was so good, and I wanted to eat a lot more, but I didn’t want to be greedy.
You can learn a lot by talking to elder people, and they really like to share their experiences. One thing that I learned, is that you can sound really intelligent when you know a lot about the history of countries. This week Jack has had one of his very good friends named Fernando stay at their house. His English is impressively good and his Portuguese is even better. I haven’t seen his work, but from what I have heard, he is a very good photographer. He is polite, and interested in different cultures, which may explain the reason he travels around the world. He is extremely knowledgeable is the aspect of sailing, having not been a sailor. Anyways some history topics came up about circumnavigating the world, and they said that it was a Portuguese man named Magellan. The name rung a bell to me as I have read a decent amount about early sailing history. I wanted to correct them on the fact that Magellan was not the first, as it was his first mate. This is because when they landed in the Philippines, he tried to make peace with the natives and they killed him. I was not quick to make this correction because Clara our host is actually related to him, and I did not want to take away from his fame.
Our hosts names are Jack whom is an American, and Clara, whom is Portuguese. By the way Jack is a very famous violinist and travels around the world to compose. He has had the same violin for 30 years, and would not disclose the value of the violin. Here’s the catch, the violin was made in the 1780’s. One thing that I learned from these two, just like nana and pops is that having a good amount of real estate is one of the most important things in life, especially if you are interested in different cultures, and backgrounds. While sipping on Jin and tonics at the dinner table Jack was telling us about all the extraordinary people that have stayed at his places and how intriguing they have been.
Back to the reason why we are here in Portugal. Got to sleep in for a good amount. There is no real reason to get to the boat park early as the wind comes is stronger in the later half of the day. Surprisingly catching the bus is so easy as we do it every morning. We have the time down in our head of when they arrive and depart, and the bus driver is very accustomed to us standing in the wrong spot on the streets. I have watched him drive by some people because they were not at the bus stop. So I guess he feels bad for us and helps us out. Today it was expected to blow something fierce around the hour of 6, so Anthony and I decided that an afternoon sail launching around 1 would be a good time. Got out on the water and linked up with the Americans Pete Spalding, and Morgan Larson. There was also two other Australian guys out there whom are very fast. One of the sailors won the Youth Worlds in the club 420 not once or twice but three times in a row. That’s impressive. Did a few races and did fairly well. And on the way in we did some straight line speed testing, and we held off the guys, until a right shift came in and we were on the outside which is a bad place to be. Had a good little practice and called it a day.
Internet was now being restricted in the area that we usually went unless we had a username and password. This was all acquired at the credential office about a mile and a half down the road. So I decide to take my sweet bike and go get the internet card. My legs we killing me and I wasn’t even 2 minutes into the ride. It sounds pathetic, but when you have 20 knots of wind blowing in your face, it makes the ride hard. Arrived at the office and there were all these girls in there, and I was completely out of breath. I didn’t want them to see how tired I was so I tried to slow down my breathing and act cool, but I was about to pass out. Kind of embarrassing.
The bike ride back to the marina was so easy as the wind was blowing from astern and pushing me along the way. I was riding right next to the cliffs which are absolutely amazing, and the pictures that I took can’t even compare to it. There are steps down to the water where people are chillin, some fishing with rods, and others in the water scuba diving. But it is no beach. There are jagged rocks, and about a 10 foot jump into the water. All I could think about was how much fun it would be for Nate and I to go spear fishing there.
That was pretty much my day, except going back to the boat after the cliff experience and watching Anthony make extra halyards while I was tanning.

June 26, 2007 10th Day in Portugal.
It only happens to me. You are staying in such a nice place with nice people all around you, and you think there has to be something wrong. It can’t be this nice all the time. There has to be some kind of disturbance or abnormality. Sure enough there is. Nothing like trying to get some rest after a hard day of training, and when the clock strikes 11 there is a little dog outside barking. And it is not the bark of a big dog that’s voice is deep, but of a little dog that doesn’t seem to have gone through puberty. I thought it would go away after a while but he or may I say she doesn’t. All night, nothing aggressive, but the same 4 barks then a 3 second break.
Anyways I got my haircut today and that was a little nerve racking. As you know I am very picky about my hair, but I have been contemplating shaving it while I am overseas since I don’t know anyone. At the hairdresser the lady doesn’t speak any English and I try to show her how I want it cut. I do the hand signals for short, and then motion how I want it to go around my ears, and what not, and the best she can do for me is bring me those catalogs of male models with different hairstyles. That would have been ok if I were in America, but when I looked at these cuts, they were all European with the shaved head and spike sin the front, the wavy brushed back, and the part down the middle. Besides the point I showed her one close enough for me and it turned out pretty well.
Today was our day off because we had been going at it for 7 days straight, and decided that there was some boat work to be done. Besides it was blowing 25 + and the teams that went out came in after about 15 minutes. The Estonian team broke their mast. As Anthony would say it when he talked to others asking why we were not out there in the breeze “we want to preserve the assets.” Most of the largely funded teams can afford that as they have about 3 to 4 spares of masts. Boat work was nothing massive until Anthony forgot to tie a knot in the end of the halyard, and it slipped into the mast. That was pretty fun when the Americas cup was supposed to start at 2, and it was about 1:55, and we had to get it out before anything else could be done. Luckily the Cup was postponed and we got to watch the start. Didn’t look like much of a race after the right shift came in for team New Zealand. So we headed back to the boat and tidied up. Turned out to be a pretty good race with a couple lead changes. Kind of glad the Kiwis came away with the win, because we want Peter Holmberg out there manning the helm.
It’s one thing to be a foreigner, and not really know the area, like when we are trying to get the bus, but it’s another when you are running to the bus stop with a 20 foot cardboard box used to hold our sails when we travel., dropping it in the road to catch the bus as it’s pulling away with a full load of people and then squeezing the box onto the bus. There is complete silence while everyone watches to see how we are going to hit with the box because most have never seen this, and then when settled there is a lot of discussion why the American always have to be so different. It was a little rude having the box take up more than half of the walkway, but the box is important and would be hard to find come the end of the regatta.

June 27, 2007 11th Day in Portugal
Slow start today. Got down to the boat a little late, and rigged up and quickly went out. You would never guess what the wind was blowing though. Yes you got it, it was in the 20 + range again. Had a little problem launching because the wind in the bay comes from all directions, and it can go from 0 knots to 20 in the gusts. It can really make any experienced 49er sailor look like a novice. We have watched the good guys flip over in the gusts, going out and coming in.
Did a quick downwind run by ourselves, dropped the shoot rounded up and practiced the leeward mark rounding. Anthony asked me to put on some vang, so I did, but it was stuck and he said to pull on it. So I cranked on it, and it just bent in half. That was the new vang lever that we sent to a welder to get a metal plate on to make it stronger. $120 down the drain. “God dammit, this is why we have to get to the boat park earlier because when stuff like this happens then we can go in and fix it and then get another session in, and when we do a project we don’t half ass it” I was the one that was working on the vang lever, and since the welder made it wrong I had to shave it down so that it could work properly. But if youknow about shaving stainless steel, then you know that it is not easy by any means. I had not finished shaving it down and Anthony wanted to go sailing. he asked if it was good enough and I said I am not sure, “SHOULD WE USE THE OTHER ONE JUST IN CASE?”
Sailing in the wind is hard enough, sheeting the main, hoisting the spinnaker, trimming, dousing, and pretty much doing everything, but when it is windy and you are constantly flipping, now that gets tiring. Talked to Morgan Larson today, and he said “that 90% of the times that you flip, it is the skippers fault, and all the crew can do, is deal with it, and try it again”
You know some days things work out for you and others they just don’t. We have sailed in these conditions before and been able to jybe and bear off, and today was just not the day for it. On one of the flips, I tried to hold on, but 175 pounds going from 10 miles and hour to dead stopped hurts. My arms were behind me, holding the rail, and I didn’t want to let go and fly into the boom, mast, shroud, or go through the sail, so I tried to hold on and almost dislocated both of my shoulders. That was about the time we decided that we had enough for one day, and would try again tomorrow.
After a hard day of sailing there is nothing better then going home, and watching Half naked Africans run around screaming on the discovery channel, while eating a very good dinner. Some of the dishes we make, I would never guess taste good, but when all sudden done, it turns out very good. We had already cooked rice, mixed with green and red peppers, sun dried tomatoes, sliced boneless chicken breasts, some already cooked rotisserie chicken with salt, pepper, and oregano, and a splash of curry sauce. You should try it, I wolfed it down, and was still hungry. It is really funny watching us cook, because we use everything. The curry was never going to be added, but I looked at it, looked at Anthony, did a little head nod, put some water in the bottle (because there was not much curry sauce left and we wanted the taste mixed in) shook it around and threw it in.

June 28, 2007 12th Day in Portugal
If anyone ever asks you to take the core out of one line and replace it with a stronger core, tell them either no or ask for a lot of money. That is what we had to do today to make some new spinnaker halyards. We had to take the stretchy core out of the line and replace it with a much stronger less stretchy line called spectra. And the spectra is one size less in diameter, and it is a tough job to get done. The line sometimes gets stuck, and when you are milking the line down you have to go slow so you don’t get rope burn, and the line bunches up you have to milk it in sections. Basically it is not a job that you want to be doing.
Showing up to the boat park early was our main goal so that we could get the boat ready and be able to head out on the water when all the good guys go instead of going out when they are coming in, which has been a common occurrence over the last week. The funny part was that everyone else decided to show up a little later, and we just sat around, and made extra lines for the boat so we don’t have to do it some other time when we could be sailing.
The weather was great. It was very easy to sail in compared to yesterday, and after yesterday’s bad experience, that is just what we needed to get our confidence back up. There were a good group of boats out on the water and we got to train with them. It went very well, and we had some good races. Then as usual the wind started to increase, and it was to the point where we had to pretty much let the mainsail rag and just be powered by the jib. A few capsizes here and there, as many of the other boats did as well.
Boat was packed up, we were tired, and ready to get on the bus, but we were running a little late on schedule. YES another bus story. We could either run to the bus and be a little early, or we could power wake, and look retarded, cause when you power walk, your hips rotate back and forth a lot. So we chose the power walk, until we were going down the street where the bus was to pass and, there it went. “AHH lets go” as I looked at Anthony. We started to run after the bus hoping to catch it in traffic. Around the corner and there it was stuck at a red light. As we got about 50 feet from it, the light turns green, and it was first in line. Dam we missed it. Then it stopped at the bus station, so we started running again, but what do you know, as we got close all the passengers were on and there it went again. ‘Anthony it stopped” because there was another car trying to parallel park, so we chased after it again, but the bus got aggressive, switched lanes, and took off for good. So we tried to play it off, by going into BlockBuster and renting Blood Diamond, because everyone on the street was looking at us run, stop, cuss a little, run some more, stop, catch our breathe and look around half dazed, but more confused.

June 29, 2007 13th Day in Portugal
CRASH “AHHH my god” was the scream from a Portuguese lady as a sailor on a bicycle ran into her while she was stopped in traffic. He had broken out her tail light, and now there was a little traffic jam while they waited for the policeman to show up. I wonder if that will make his insurance go up. Haha.
Today was supposed to be the first day of the clinic by a Great Britain coach but as we waited around in the assigned room with a bunch of other teams, it seemed as though he wasn’t coming and there was no reason to wait for him. Instead we got the boat rigged up so that when all the good guys started to go we were ready at a moments notice. All the good guys are only doing one session a day practices. I think this is because the regatta is getting close and they want to have a good but easy practice every day, instead of going out 2 times a day, being exhausted, and have to take a day off to recuperate. Practices are going very well now.
The day was kind of light, but towards the end it started to pick up like always. We have been able to keep up to the good guys now but we really have to concentrate. “You are a completely different boat, then when you were in Florida during Christmas, and it has been really cool watching you guys progress so quickly” This comment came from the American 49er coach Luther that kind of looked out for us in Florida, and is now helping us out a whole lot more. We have gotten to the point that our boat handling is much better then when we were down in Florida, so now we can focus more on our attention to tactics, which Anthony is very good at. I am learning a lot from him and beginning to think like him. The only problem is that when we are full hike it is very hard for me to get my head up and look around the course without sacrificing much heal.
Compared to a lot of other teams that I have watched throughout the boat park, and on the racecourse, Anthony and I get along very well and there are usually no arguments. Some of the maneuvers on the water are a little dodgy, and we raise our voices a little to get a point across. I have tried to be quiet the whole time and learn from the mistakes.
During our lunch break I rode my bike into the little village to pick up some rice and chicken and decided to give Nathan Rosenberg a call because they were supposed to be in Portugal by now. Lucky enough they were a 2 minute bike ride, and it was so good to see them and just be around the gang again. We walked back to our boat park, saw Anthony and I pointed them in the right direction to get their accreditation. This accreditation allows them to get into the fenced gate and to their boats. After the lunch break not many teams went back out, but we did for a little and met up with some Danish sailors, and speed tested for a little while before calling it a day.
Not allowed up in the parking lot, because it is getting too full and we had to move down to the beach. This is not a fun place to be at all but Anthony found us a good spot next to the sea wall that is about as close as you can get to the water. This is good so you don’t have to pull your boat through the mushy sand. We were lucky enough to get a green mat, left by the Portuguese team, which now accommodates our 49er. There is a line that we tied to the top of the sea wall that holds our two big plastic storage boxes, waist high, and out of the sand. it is a pretty ghetto set up but it works well, and that’s the best we can do with what we were provided with.
Dinner with the boys was fun. We were all cracking jokes, making fun of each other, and just being us again while sipping back on some big glass full of beer. They had not checked into their hotels yet, and I kept on persisting that we go and watch Ocean’s 13. The movie was really good, but before the end Thomas and Taylor dosed off a little.

June 30, 2007 14th Day in Portugal
I was tired this morning, and woke up a little late. This was not a good start for our clinic that was supposed to take place at 10:00, starting with a meeting in the same tent as before. Once again nobody was there. We later found out that they had moved the meeting to the yacht club, but we were able tot meet up with the coach and figure out what the deal was for the day.
12:00 and we were on the water, with the shoot up. It was not windy at all, but expected to increase a little. We had a very nice practice with the group, but the boats got so spread out with their speed, making it very hard for the coach to instruct everyone. We did very well for about an hour and a half, and then decided to join the racing group that was going on right next to us. We were running our own races in our group, but the other group had the Americans, Australians whom are very fast, and basically all the good guys.
There were a bunch of races they ran and every time it got better and better. We were in the mix fighting for a spot on the line, ducking people up at the weather mark, and setting in front of the Spanish gold medalists. They rolled us pretty easily, but our tactics downwind allowed us to catch back up with them. It was a very good day of racing as we made huge gains around the course, and making some heads turn. It was a very good feeling being up in the top half with a bunch of experienced sailors. When something went wrong though it really got to Anthony, but those guys are good and it is expected that they beat us.
Some of the things that have been are weak spots, is tacking, making transitions from light to heavy wind, some of our positioning in the boat fore and aft when there is chop, and starts. It is really hard to hold a lane with someone trying to pinch you off and the other trying to reach down over the top of you. The tacks have been hard, but I have been missing the proper handle, which could be a factor. And the transitions! Moving in and out of the boat when it gets light, throwing off the controls, and our weight placement has been a little off, but we are catching on very quickly.
Met up with the boys again, and chilled with them for a while. Taylor and Nate were giving Elizabeth Kratzig a hard time asking all these questions about the rigging on their 470. She was coaching other girls, but she is a good friend of ours and has always liked us, so she helps them for free.
Tomorrow is my birthday and I am a little excited. The clubs don’t open up here until about 2 in the morning so I know it is going to be a very late night ahead of us. And it will be even more tiring after a long day of sailing. I wish I was spending it back in St. Thomas with all my friends but I am very glad that I have some of them here with me.

July 1, 2007 15th Day in Portugal
My Birthday nothing better than going sailing on your birthday. Got to the boat pretty early, because we had the clinic to attend. Our coach went over the game plan for practice that day, and said that we would hit the water at 12. There was not that much wind but the swells were huge. At some points half of the 49er in front of us would disappear into the trough, and then come ripping up the face go over the crest and back down into the trough. It was a pretty cool sight to watch.
As a warm up exercise, our coach had to buoys set up like a starting line, and we were to go around them in a figure eight pattern. This was really quite a challenge with the swells. As we tacked around one of the buoys we quickly accelerate down the face of a wave, and made our way over to the other on a reach, all I heard was a splash behind us. I didn’t even have to look back to know what it was. I immediately balanced out the boat, grabbed the tiller extension and kept the boat in irons while Anthony swam back to the boat. It was pretty funny, but I didn’t laugh because Anthony was very frustrated, and a little embarrassed having fallen in the water.
Once again all the good guys came out at once and set up a racecourse right next to us. And once again we left our mediocre group and went to fight with the big boys. The wind had picked up, and made for some great sailing. Our starts were not the greatest, but were able to tack out duck a few, put the bow down and make some serious headway out to the right side of the course. When we raced down in Miami during Christmas, all these guys were there, and they would beat us by legs, but now in these races, we are able to match speed with them, and be about 100 yards behind. We have had the Spanish world champions duck us, and were sometimes in the mix at the weather mark. This glory was soon ended every time when the spinnaker was wet and made it very difficult for me to hoist. On starboard tack upwind, the short chop made its way over the bow making the spinnaker very soggy.
Out there today there were a few events that took place, which were very intense, and could have caused some serious damage. First was the Chinese windsurfer girl that was screaming on a reach doing about 20, and we were doing about 12 on an upwind. She didn’t see us, and Anthony caught her out of his peripheral and yelled “hey watch out.” she made the right move by not turning, and just dunking herself in the water. The board slid right under our butts and hit the side of the boat, but that was much better than having an RSX board sticking out the side of our 49er. Then while flying down on a reach with the shoot up, there were these 470’s comign upwind right in the middle of our course, and I just saw them in front of the spinnaker. I told Anthony that they were there, but that doesn’t really help him because the closing speed is so quick, he needs to know weather or not to head up cross their bow, or bear off and go behind them. I told him to keep going, straight, and we crossed their bow by inches, dunking their crew into the water. And last but not least, we were coming into the harbor, both on the trapeze fully hiking, and about to roll over the top of this laser guy from China, and without looking behind him he decided to throw in a tack. We had to immediately dump the main and duck him. As we sailed by since we are so far out off the boat, I was hanging over his transom, and said “you should look behind you before tacking next time.” He gave us the typical I don’t understand what you are saying look, but I will wave to you and smile anyway.
The swells had gotten really bad when we arrived back at the beach. They were sort of bad when we left, but now there were these helper kids in the water holding the boats for us as the waves came in and then surged back out. Our sweet little set up that we had against the sea wall was completely gone, and our bags were not there. Luckily someone had been nice enough to see that the waves were slowly making their way up to our stuff, and moved it to drier land before my laptop was soaked. So I guess I can say that you guys are lucky that I am still able to write these incredible journals to you.
I have not been drinking any alcohol really while being here and training, except for the night our hosts had us over for dinner, and I had a jin and tonic. So I decided that since it was my birthday I would start the night out early and have a few drinks with Thomas over at this bar. It was very nice having Taylor, Thomas, Nathan, Anthony, Elizabeth, and the 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist Kevin Bernham, all sitting down for dinner with me at a little Italian restaurant. He is a very nice guy that likes the whole Virgin Islands team a lot. He bought me a beer and told us stories about how he first hated sailing because his father would make him go every Sunday, while all his friends were doing something else.
My birthday was nothing too special, and it was supposed to go on all night, ending at the clubs at about 6 in the morning, but it was a Sunday night, and everyone was very tired, so hitting the sack sounded like a great idea at the time.

July 2, 2007 16th Day in Portugal
Measurement was a day away, so we wanted to make sure the boat was fully prepared for it. Every day after sailing, we write down all the things that need to be changed, fixed, or replaced, and when we have a lay day then all the work gets done. So our work list after about 6 days was getting pretty big, and needed to be taken care of.
I had the fun task of making a new spinnaker halyard. This was very time consuming, as I had to take this really tightly woven cover, and snake the core through, and then bury the cover back inside the core to make it tapered, and like a Chinese finger trap. I have to say that my work with lines, and fids which are used to splice ropes, and join two ropes together is pretty good, and nice to look at when all completed. Hopefully this new halyard will run smoothly, and make my job out on the race course much easier.
Tonight was the opening ceremony, where all the teams get together, and walk down the street holding their country flag, and a sign that says were you are from. Every time you sail in one of these world championships, this is done, and it has been the 6th one I have been to. I have done them in Martinique, Spain, Texas, South Korea, England, and now Portugal. It is a very cool ceremony where all the citizens come out and cheer on the competitors. One of our ongoing problems, over the years, is that, even though we are a very small team, we are still not able to acquire nice uniforms. All of the large teams have matching uniforms, and a lot of clothing to wear throughout the event. This is something that I have always been kind of embarrassed about, and am going to take charge of for the next world championship down in Australia. I am going to have Brendon design the logo, and then I am going to get it embroidered, and it will be paid for out of our sailing fund. And we are not gonna only have one jacket, we will have shirts, jacket, and pants that represent us very well.
Anyways besides that, we all marched very proudly. There was a huge group of cub scouts that were assigned to hold our country signs, and our guy named Francisco was very short, and it was hard for him to hold the sign up high, so I put him on my shoulders and marched on with him. All the spectators loved it, and although he was a little scared I was going to drop him, he was very excited.
Quote of the day was by Anthony. “don’t worry we’ll take him shark fishing”
There was this very good looking girl that was from the Swiss team, and I mean she was very hot. The best looking girl in the regatta by far, and I am not attracted to sailing girls. Anyways we saw her standing up against the side of the wall and there was this guy from her team that was all over her. We guessed it was her boyfriend and sure enough when they kissed it sealed the deal that it was. Anyways Taylor was like “damn that lucky guy gets her!” Anthony heard this and was like that’s alright “Don’t worry we’ll take him shark fishing. I thought it was pretty funny, and Anthony always has a good little comment or 2 like that every day, so from now on I will leave you guys with the comments of the day.
It was a very cool opening ceremony because after the marching there was to be a Pink Floyd laser light show. The setup was pretty amazing. They had all the laser lights strapped to this half circular metal frame that had boat fenders underneath. This was then pushed out into the bay, and there was a motor powered fountain in the middle that sprayed water into the air, and made a mist. That was the screen for a projector that projected images of sailing, and was basically the big screen television. And then for the laser light show, they had all these fog machines, used to show the lights. It was pretty cool and well thought out. It was then rapped up with some fireworks out in the harbor.

July 3, 2007 17th Day in Portugal
Today was a good day. Anthony allowed me to sleep in and relax because today was a day for measurement. Many of the smaller regattas that I have been to in the past decade have not required measurement, except for all the big world championships. This measurement ensures that every boat, mast, boom , and sails, are manufactured properly, not giving one competitor an advantage right off the bat. Measurement is a process that can either take forever if the workers are clueless and are learning from the book, or it can be quick with experienced workers at hand. Today was our lucky day as the measurers, were brought in from England, and knew exactly what to look for.
It is a little frustrating when you have to take the boat apart completely, which takes hours, and then the measurement takes only a few minutes. Having been able to sleep in, Anthony took care of striping the boat, and only left a little work for me when I arrived. Before I got down to the boat park, I was doing some errands. I had to find some grip tape, because the boat was slippery, acetone, to get off all the tape residue, and lunch. It may seem like small things to do, but it required a lot of walking, and when we first got to Portugal, finding acetone, and grip tape were hard.
The boat was measured, and now the best part of all was to begin. Rigging the boat from scratch was always a fun thing to do in the sun. Actually the sun was not out today, and it made for a very enjoyable time. Halyards had to be run, blocks put back on the boat, class sponsor stickers on the sails and hull, re-stepping the mast, attaching the boom, and all the very time consuming things that made the boat race ready. This was the last thing on the agenda today though.
The Americas Cup was on television, and it was maybe the last race if Alinghi was to come out with a victory. We arrived to the yacht club a little late, and the race had come down to the last leg. Alinghi was in first by a good distance, and New Zealand had gotten them into a jybing duel. Alinghi went for the separation, and ended up coming short of the layline down to the finish line. The wind started to clock to the right and New Zealand had the advantage. They quickly hoisted their jib dropped the shoot and started to cruise past Alinghi. They were now in the lead. Alinghi was beat to the punch and they were having a hard time getting the jib up. The spinnaker was just pulling them sideways, and even further off the layline. I thought New Zealand was surely going to win the race, and the yacht club started to get a little restless, and everyone started talking loud, and getting excited, but right at the finish line, New Zealand rounded up to complete a penalty turn, got back on course, and lost the race by 2 seconds.
Dinner was eaten out at a restaurant again. I really miss our home cooked meals, because they are very healthy, and I just take more pride in the food after I took the time to make it. Taylor, Thomas, Nate, Anthony, and I had dinner with two of the American girls. It was a nice dinner, but by the time we are done and hone it is late and time for bed.

July 4 2007 18th Day in Portugal
Happy independence Day to you all. Today the bus was packed. There was a sort of cute girl on the bus, but I did not pay any attention to her because I was so deep into The Davinci Code, and did not want to take my eyes from the pages. I am only to chapter 24, and that is about 160 pages, but I have learned so much about symbols, religion, and the PHI number. I find the book quite fascinating. It is hard to put down even when it is late at night. At the end of every chapter, it is like watching a good movie on television, and right before the good part is about to happen they switch to commercials. They know you are not going anywhere and will stay tuned. Well Dan Brown does a very good job at keeping the readers attention.
After a long day of boat work, that we had on the 2nd, and making sure that everything was ready for measurement on the 3rd, there is always something that will go wrong while out on the water. We knew this was going to be the case, and planned on getting out on the water early just in case something did go wrong, we would be able to come back ashore, fix it, and still be able to make it back out for another session. Sure enough something went wrong. I let Anthony rig the spinnaker, and he had it all backwards. Went back to the beach because that was the only way that we could fix it, changed out a line, and was back out on the water in no time.
Once again there were races being run buy one of the coaches out there, and we were able to join in. They went fairly well, but today was by far the shiftiest it has been, and the wind was very inconsistent in strength. We had a hard time in those conditions, but learned a lot from it. Now that I have the proper trapeze wire, our tacks have gotten a lot better, and I knew that was the reason they were bad in the first place.
Today for some reason there was an abundance of hot Portuguese girls mingling right outside the boat park, and that made it hard to get anything done on the work list.
Since it was the fourth of July, and we were an American territory, the US team invited us to a fourth of July party at the 470 guys house. I am not to sure whom on the team was living there, but I did know that is was the 470 guys. Trying to find the house took a while, and as we arrived the Ambassador of the US was just finishing his speech to the crowd. Not too sure what he had to say, and I was grateful that I had missed it, because all that was on my mind was eating their food and drinking their beer. Never really had to eat a hamburger, without a bun, but that was a very common thing in Portugal. The food was great, and the company of the other sailors was nice. I talked to Mike Anderson, Elizabeth Kratzig, Gram Beihl, Kevin Bernham, Kyle Rogochanko, and some of the other sailors that were there. It was getting a little late, and about time to go when the younger US guys challenged us Virgin Islanders to a boat race. This as you might know is a drinking game, where you have two teams with the same number of people on each team. You match up the amount of alcohol in your cup with the guy or girl in front of you, and on go you chug you beer, and when you are done then your teammate can chug his. The first team done is the winner. I finished my very quickly and then it was tailors turn, and he was sipping at it, which lost us the race. It was funny, because all the guys gave him a hard time, and told him to practice it before he goes to BC which is a pretty big party school.

Quote of the day. While looking at one of the girls, which is a normal reaction of most men when a good looking girl walks past, Anthony turns to me, and asks “don’t you have a girlfriend?” I said yes immediately, and remembering a saying that Ethan Holtzer once said to me, I repeated it “Yo just because I am on a diet, doesn’t mean I can’t look at the menu.”

July 5, 2007 19th Day in Portugal
The day before the start of the 2007 World Championships in Cascais, was a good one. First allowing me the luxury of sleeping in and relaxing my muscles, and second just being a very nice day for sailing. Anthony and I did not have a very regimented schedule for the day except that it was supposed to be windy, and that if we were to go early, then we could get a good sail in before it started to get a little out of control.
It’s pretty amazing watching the number of boats leaving one harbor, as the Stars, Laser’s, and Laser radials headed out to their designated racing areas. Just so we were not in their way, we waited until the majority of the fleet was past the point.
Its really nice having all new equipment, just because it makes you feel like you belong there, and have a fighting chance. All the teams have sponsors on their sails, as well as matching uniforms, it is nice to have Harken, (which is the biggest name in hardware), Magic Marine, (gear that is wore by a lot of the good sailors), and Samson’s, (whose motto is strongest name in ropes) logo on your racing mainsail.
Set the chute immediately, because the Italian brothers were sailing downwind as well, and it would be very good practice to match up with them, considering they are ranked number 1 in the world on average. They have not been able to win a world championship, but have been in the top 3 in the last 2. they got away from us in the beginning, but when the waves started to increase in size, we were able to gain back some of that distance. They dropped their chute, and headed back up to the shore, and we stayed right with them. Tacking back and forth, we took their stern every time, and lost barely any distance for about a mile and a half. It was a very good morale booster, being the day before the show.
The wind was very different today, because every once and a while there would come a blast from land, and instantly you could feel the temperature increase by 10 degrees. It was a hot day today, perfect for tanning, but not for boat work. Wind started to increase, and we did not want to tire ourselves out, so we packed it up and finished off what we had on the work list. Flipped the boat over on land and I got the fun job of applying Teflon, which polishes and helps get out scratches.
It was very nice getting home earlier, and not eating out anymore. That is what we had been doing lately, and our typical peppers, rice, chicken, and curry tasted so good. There was a happy hour over at the club, but we wanted to make sure that we were prepared for the regatta with a good nights sleep. The racing was supposed to start at 1.

July 6, 2007 20th Day in Portugal
Some days I don’t need that much sleep, and others I just feel worthless if I don’t get much sleep. Today is the day that I could have gotten more sleep. First race was to start at 1, and Anthony wanted me down at the boat park by 10:30 the latest. Being a little groggy this morning, I was hesitant to be down at the boat by that time and showed up 20 minutes late to find out that the racing didn’t start until 3. This was posted, and we did not know about it.
We had a long time before hitting the water was even a thought, so I went to hang out with Taylor, and Nate. As usual Nate was standing on the bow of the 470 taking turns off the spreaders, sort of the same position that I had left them in the day before. For some reason it seemed like they never were happy with their settings, because every time I was over there, they would put tension on, take it off, readjust, tension back up, and this routine would go on for about 20 minutes. It seemed as though he had a permanent spot standing or sitting on the bow of the 470, while every other crew in the boat park was up there for a very short time. While I was standing around them I got to check out some of the good looking 470 girls, which is very few, and eventually I was put to work on their boat. This is not what I wanted to do because we have enough work to do on our boat already, and I just wanted to hang out and kill some time before our races, so I left them, Nate still standing on the bow, and Taylor telling him what to do. Oh and by the way Nate has those BOSE sound system headphones that block out all other sounds, and whenever he and Taylor are rigging the boat he always listens to music, and blocks out everything Taylor has to say. It is pretty funny to watch, and listen to them. Every time Taylor asks Nate to do something, Nate has to take off the headphones, and ask what he wants.
I was not a typical day down in Cascais. There was no wind and it was hot. There is no shade in the boat park, and the genius idea is to hide under the boat. So I took refuge under one of the wings. There I was able to check my email, and when that was finished I dived right back into The Davinci Code. I am about halfway done. I don’t get that much time to read the book, except for a little at night, and then some on the bus ride. Anyways having to crawl out and under the 9er is not so fun, and nobody really like lying on the ground, so I ingeniously made a tent with our boat cover. Tomorrow it will be perfected, but at the time it was good enough for me.
The postponement flag dropped for our class, and it was a race to get on the water, because they can start a race 30 minutes after the flag is down. Sending us out was very stupid, only because the windsurfers still had a couple more races to do, and they were on our course.
Kevin Bernham was out in his coach boat, and he made sure to find us, and offer some advice. He asked us to go upwind so that he could look at our sails, and it kind of struck me as an awkward request because usually we would have asked him to look at our sails. As expected he offered us some advice, which was to tighten our vang, but it was maxed and the slit splice would have to be adjusted. When I looked at it, I realized that it was actually not in the right position for the wind conditions, so that was a savior.
Racing was hard! The first race we were late to the line, because we were on the right side of the committee boat, and bearing off in that wind is extremely hard, and it had to be done with precision, but what part of sailing that boat doesn’t. cruised out to the left side of the course, and tacked at layline just after the leaders. This was pretty funny now. As we were making our way towards the top mark, we were headed, and as we were pointing right at the guys on starboard, they we bow down pointing right at us. The wind had gone light, and there was a build up of anxiousness, while everyone waited for the next puff either lifting them and putting them among the leaders, or heading them, and leaving them in the leaders dust. We were the lucky ones this time with the slight lift, rounding the top mark in 5th. The wind was very shifty, and when you are new to the boat, it is really hard to keep the speed up when it goes from 20 knots, to 4, and then back to 15. Having to avoid this GBR boat that fouled us did not really help our situation, so the racing did not go so hot.
It was kind of unfortunate because
on the way back to shore, the wind picked up, and was steady. It was a little too much for us to sail in, but it had consistency, and thats make a big difference. We had the jib eased, and the main ragging, but the power from that little jib was still trying to flip us over. My goal on the way in was to hike hard, get the boat flat, keep the speed up and try to jump some of the waves. A couple of times from just behind the centerboard and forward, the boat jumped out of the water. I was not happy though! When we least expected it there was this little wave that we jumped, and at the same time a gust caught under our wings and lifted the entire boat out of the water. We were floating for a while. I can always tell when Anthony is a little uneasy or nervous, because his hand always land on my shoulder, looking for support.
The next challenge was waiting until there was a lull, so that we could bear off down towards our launching place. When we first started heading in I asked Anthony if we should tack because we were already making the point, and he wanted to keep going because he thought the wind was more consistent closer to shore. So initially we should have tacked when I said too, so that we would not be caught over standing the beach, eventually having to make a maneuver that was not only the hardest, but almost impossible in 30 knots. Luckily there was a small break, and pretty much the only time that we could make our move before landing on a beach about a mile up the coast. Made our move with ease, and had Taylor at the beach to help pull the boat up and derig.
Quote of the Day
While Kevin was out on the water, we were looking at the board sailors, and discussing how the right was looking good, and then the left would come in, Kevin said
“The goal is to stay in the lifts!” and Anthony responded “I read that somewhere.”

July 7, 2007 21st Day in Portugal
Usually I will plan to have a very good breakfast with eggs, some toast, and bacon, the night before, but when it is time to wake up, I don’t and I rush to have a bowl of cereal, and I was not about to let this happen again. I got up, and made that long thought out breakfast for the first time in about a week. It has never tasted so great, and really works magic when it comes to having energy throughout the day.
Every morning I am very regimented on getting down to the bus stop early, just in case they decide to arrive beforehand. Throughout the week, the times are always the same, but now that it is the weekend, they come 9 minutes earlier. I usually end up waiting between 15 and 25 minutes because they are late, but that was not the case this morning. As I was making my way down to the main road, I started to jog for about 30 seconds, because I was cutting it a little close on time. I think the bus driver knew I was going to be waiting at that bus stop, because when I got down to the main road, he was pulling into the stop. I was not there yet, and usually they take a look, and if you are not there then they just drive past.
Since the racing conditions were not so great yesterday two of the 49er fleets were not able to complete any of their races. I felt really bad for them, as I was arriving down at the boat park, they were out there finishing their 2nd race. It was bad! They had to go out sailing around 10, do a couple of races, come in, switch ribbons, and go back out for another 2 races. Talk about tiring.
Racing was very frustrating! The wind was once again consistently light, with the large 15 to 20 knot puffs, and shifty. The first race was a little uneventful, because these German guys accidentally tacked on the starting line, and tangled us up, keeping us from getting down to the pin end of the line. This hurt as our goal was to get out to the right side of the course. As we rounded the leeward mark, the spinnaker sheet had gotten wrapped around the sprit pole, and I mentioned it to Anthony. There was a lull in the wind and I could easily made my way to the bow, untangled it and gotten out on the wire ready for the next puff, but Anthony told me to just pull on the sheets. I did and told him that the sheet was still wrapped around, and he ignored the comment. Being so caught up in upwind leg, I completely forgot about the sheet being wrapped, and arriving at the windward mark, we were all excited to hoist the chute, hoping to catch the guy right in front, and possibly gaining some distance on the other competitor behind us.
Chute was up , and as I went to sheet in and fill the spinnaker, it snagged, and I knew exactly what had happened. Anthony told me that I had to drop the spinnaker down a little, pull in the pole, and then unwrap it. I lowered the chute, and as I went to the bow to unwrap it, we started shrimping. (this is a term used when the spinnaker goes into the water, and under the boat. What happens then is the spinnaker fills with water, and stops the boat. It is very slow, and is like fishing for shrimp) The boat rounded up into the wind leaving Anthony on the wire all by himself trying to hold the beast down. Scrambling to the windward side, and out on the trapeze, we were able to save it from flipping. The hardest part was to come, as I had to hoist the spinnaker while it was full of water. Half way up, and I wished we had flipped, because it would have been 20 times less tiring. I had to give everything I had to get it to the top of the mast. I felt like I was doing squats in the gym with 200 pounds on each side of the bar. This could have all been saved if I had just gotten it unwrapped down at the leeward mark, when the wind was light.
Shook that race off, and prepared for the next one. Created a hole at the starting line, and had a great start. Pinched off the guy on our hip, and created enough distance from the boat to leeward to put the bow down, and make some headway. Rounding the weather mark in 5th place, we were pretty stoked with our performance so far. The wind went light, and allowed us to concentrate on tactics more than keeping the boat moving. Made some great calls upwind, looking for the puffs, and before we knew it we were in first place. This was a pretty cool experience. It reminded me of the time in Mississippi, when I was winning the race after going to the right side of the course. I was 9 years old, and my dad told me to go left. The smirk that I had on my face when I came in to tell him that I went right to win the race was priceless.
Anyways we were looking good, and decided to turn our focus towards boat speed more than tactics. This was a bad mistake, as the right side of the course caught a nice puff sailing them right into the mark with speed to get around set, and be gone. Rounded the first mark in a very disappointing 7th, and half way down the leg the pack behind us was coming fast. They were all riding in a huge gust, and just making huge gains. There was nothing to do except get to the side of the course where the gust would fill in first. It was too late, the group was right on our tail, and the leeward mark was only about 100 meters away. In the breeze the closing distance on these boats is, incredible, and scary at the same time. Room for the mark is being screamed from about 20 lengths out. Boats in front had already dropped, and were lining up single file to get around the mark. I knew something bad was about to unfold, and we were powered up and double trapping into the cluster of boats.
Anthony told me to get the chute down, but in order for that to happen he has to bear off, and get the boat flatter to compensate for my weight being off the wire. He did not do that and as I went in the boat to drop chute, we got powered up, he lost steering, and flipped. It was like a downward spiral of events. First the missed call on the wind, and then the flip, while in striking distance of a top five finish.. The power exerted from these boats is unreal, and you have to make sure you have the beast under control before making maneuvers like that.
There was some frustration at the end of the day, but after each incident we were able to shake it off, learn from it, and move on. It was nice to be back on land again, and out of the cold. Up at the fort beers were given out to the tired and weary sailors, and music was being played for whom ever dared to get out on the dance floor. Watching some of the girls, and guys dance, was a little comforting, because you could be the worst dancer over in America, and come over here , and be like Michael Jackson. There were terrible, and I was embarrassed for them, but they we all bad so it cancelled out a little.
It was coming up around 9 and dinner was sounding so nice. The gang and 2 American 9er sailors sat down with us, and it was really good. Had some good laughs, and went on our way around 10. Walking back to the boat park, I have never felt bad for a group of sailors as much, as I did for the women board sailors. They had just gotten off the water, there was no light, and they were soaking wet and still trying to pack up their gear. The thought of being wet just made me quivery

July 8, 2007 22nd Day in Portugal.
Got to bed at 4:00 this morning. Just like the first night, the mosquitoes came at me in full force. For the past 2 weeks the window, has remained neutral, and there has not been one bug, but tonight it was a different story. You know when that one bug flies up your nose, and yes you know it has happened to you, and you have to sneeze, well that happened about 7 times last night. Before I go to bed I look around the room and kill every single one I see. I have no idea where they were coming from, because from about 1 to 4 I turned off the lights about 8 or 9 times in hopes to sleep, but that buzzing sound next to your ear is just irritating.
Today was going to be a long day out on the race course! We were behind schedule by 2 races, and they had to be made up, otherwise our lay day was looking very slim. At the boat park the wind was on, and the sun was strong. We were scheduled to go out at 3:00, but a little postponement, and schedule changed to 3:30. It is always nice to get out to your designated course, and the fleet before you still has another race or two. SARCASIM
Wind was light to medium, and the puffs were rolling in from every direction. There was about 30 seconds till the start, and these German guys accidentally tacked onto port, and we had a little raft up. Anthony told me to pull in the jib really hard, and I knew this was just going to put the bow down, and create more of a problem, so I didn’t do it and he got mad. Eventually I pulled it in, and their wing was on top of our bow, just making things worse. “You guys are some serious clowns, this is absolutely ridiculous” Anthony screamed, as the windward guy tried to sneak between us and the race committee boat, also rafting up.
Got free, and headed out right full hammer down. I didn’t dare sneak a peek over my shoulder, to see how much that cost us on the rest of the fleet. Concentrating on keeping the boat moving we did a very nice job holding our lane, and when the layline came I was a little concerned on our positioning. After the tack I was shocked. The rest of the fleet was coming out to the right, and we were crossing them heading right for the mark. Rounded in about 5th place, set the chute, and tried to hold on to our place. We got a little out of sync, and lost big.
Racing conditions are hard on every course. Courses 1, 2, and 3 can be either light, or windy, and the shifts are unbelievable. Then out on course 4, and 5, the wind is smoking, and the waves can be quite large. The race committee is always faced with hard decisions. Is it too windy for them to sail, or is it too shifty. Today on our race course, our PRO hard the fun task of trying to run a fair race in a very shifty, and puffy racing area.
After a few general recalls, and postponements, the race was underway. Had a fairly nice start, going out to the left side of the course. Wind was really light, but we had the boat moving very fast. Rounding the weather mark in about 10th, I have to say that my hoist was Olympic material, right onto a nice jybe set. Always checking out the boat in front, I noticed that it was getting light over by them, and that there was a large puff to our right, that was steady leading back to the middle of the leg. I told Anthony that we should jybe, and boy was it a good call. We took the puff right down to the leeward mark, passing about 5 boats, and putting us in the money. From that point on the tactics just flowed smoothly. Wind came up to about 10 knots when we rounded.
Put the bow down in the puffs, and just made huge gains. Together Anthony and I were like Bonny and Clyde. I would feed him the information that I was seeing out on the water, and from there he was able to make quicker decisions. We were powered up, and the feeling after making a good call is like an adrenaline rush, but I had about 4 adrenaline rushes just on the weather beat. Tacking on the layline, we were about 50 meters from the mark, and just one more leg to go. I was thinking, you know all the other times we were in the top five it was early in the race, and then we got passed on the other 3 legs, but now we were in 2nd, and only one leg to go, there was no way we could finish out of the top 5.
The most heartbreaking sound then filled my ears. The sound of 2 horns coming from the mark boat, with the raising of a checkered, blue, and white flag, signifying that the race has been abandoned. Our joke was that the race committee saw us in the top 5 and knew that something must be wrong. So that’s why they called the race.
Struggling to get at least another race in before the end of the day, the race committee was desperate. It was about 6:00, and time was running out. In hopes for more wind, the committee pulled up anchor, and headed close to the harbor. Yes there was more wind, but it came in blasts of 20, and it was even shiftier. Boats were auto tacking, and some that were only 50 feet apart were sailing in the same direction on opposite tacks. This was so difficult and frustrating. The last ¼ mile to the beach must have taken us 45 minutes, as the auto tacks made us capsize. Arriving on shore was such a delight. Thomas greeted us with a full plate of food. ISAF was having a pig roast in the fort, and that was a good incentive to get the boat packed up quickly.
Quote of the day
As we were waiting in line for the hose on the ramp, the Greek guy was washing down his boat. He had, had the hose for about 5 minutes already. While waiting Anthony started up a conversation with the German kids, that fouled us at the start. He had been talking to them for a couple of minutes, and when he turned around the Greek guy was still rinsing the same part of his boat. You know Anthony is one of the smallest guys in the boat park, but that J-24 world championship under his belt adds a little height. He walks up to the guy and was like “alright lets’ go here, you’re not washing your mothers clothes,” and takes the hose away from him.

July 9, 2007 23rd Day in Portugal
When I went to bed last night, it was blowing in the 40’s, and when I woke up it was still blowing in the 40’d up where we live. Being behind schedule we had to get down to the boat park early. This was supposed to be our layday, and as I write this down by the water, it looks as though it will still be our layday. Great now I am going to jinx myself. The postponement flags are up, because just out on course 1 where the wind is supposed to be the lightest, it is already in the mid 30’s at 10:00. Now there is a slight problem. Usually when the land begins to heat up, the wind that we see in the morning over where we live, starts to make its way down by our sailing areas. The sun is out, and things are not looking good, For the race committee, but I am enjoying the minor break.
Hunger was setting in and there is a great little spot that makes ham and cheese sandwiches. They are cheap and the girl that makes them is sort of cute. And it is always nice to get out of the 49er boat park, and chill down by Taylor, Nate, and Thomas. There are more girls in that area, and that is where everyone really likes to hang out.

July 10, 2007 24th Day in Portugal
7:00 is not a fun time to get up at. We were supposed to have a 10:00 start, but that was postponed. It is about a half hour bus ride from our house, and we have to get to the boat park an hour before the start. Today in general was a nice day to go sailing. There was not that much wind, and the sun was beginning to do its job. I knew it was going to be a long day though. Since we were behind schedule, we would have to go out sail a couple of races, come back in, switch fleets, eat some food and then go back out.
Course 3 was the designated course. It is about 3 miles from the harbor, and the farthest course away. Have not raced there before so we had no idea what the conditions were going to be like. The race committee was not wasting any time today. They had to get races done quickly, but also making them fair.
The first start was a general recall, so they went immediately to the black flag. I thought this was a little harsh. Next start Anthony and I won the pin. I know it sounds good, but everyone was stacked up at the committee boat. Its always a little sketchy going off to one side of the course all by yourself, but before the start we had seen the wind coming form the left side, and decided that was going to be our route. Man were we looking good out there. Tacked onto port, and sailed this puff back to the right side to consolidate. A couple of boats came out going right, and we rounded the weather mark in 4th. Fortunately we were able to hold onto our positioning down to the leeward mark. Then it got shifty. The whole fleet was catching us, and we lost a couple of boat on the weather leg. With the fleet close on our tail, we rounded the weather mark still in the top 10 with only one more downwind leg to the finish. Having an 8th in that race was such a nice feeling. Got the morale up a bit, and made us realize that we could really compete with these guys.
On the next race the wind came up a little more, and the left was still looking nice. Not a great start, went out left, but the wind shifted to the right pretty hard. It was disappointing, and we weren’t able to battle our way back up to a decent position. As we were coming in from the 2 races, the windsurfers, and laser were going out for their racing. It was really light then, and I felt really bad for the board sailors, because all they get to do is pump and get tired.
I like the whole, go out and race, then come back in, get some food and then go back out to race some more. It really allows you to rejuvenate you body, and put back in the nutrients that you have lost. We had a very nice 2 hours lunch break. Since there is not that much shade during the day in the park, I always take our boat cover, tie it to the fence and trees, and provide a lot of shade. A bunch of the sailors realized this, and some days we will have 15 sailors packed tight under our cover. They really enjoy it!
Postponement came down, and the wind came up. Racing on course 2 was going to be a challenge now that it was blowing 20. Had a little problem at the starting line! We had positioned ourselves to close to the boat to our leeward, and were not able to accelerate, until they had. Left us in the dust right at the start. Wind was cranking and we got the boat moving very fast. Catching boats was always a good sign, and at the weather mark there was a graveyard, while bearing off boats were flipping, and there were so many opportunities to catch back up. Unfortunately we were one of those boats. Without the spinnaker up yet, we were able to get the boat back up, and take off. Passed 2 boats that were flipped, and then one at the leeward mark. Another had broken his jib halyard, and someone else retired. It was a course 3 and we just had to keep the boat upright, and capitalize on the flipped ones. But we flipped again, and the 2 guys passed us.
The funniest thing then happened. As we were flipped, Anthony and I have to use this buddy system where I hold onto him and lean backwards, while he holds onto the boat. When this happens the boat starts to come out of the water, and Anthony then has to climb up on the wing while I stay out on the centerboard. As he was climbing up I got hold of the boat, and my hand was positioned between his feet. Losing footing Anthony fell down onto my arm, his butt was in my face, as I was trying to hold us both up. It is like watching those skateboarding videos, when they try to grind the rail, and end up taking the rail between their legs and wrecking themselves. It was the funniest thing, because he was completely helpless, his legs were flailing all over the place trying to find a place to stand, and now the boat was starting to tack.
On the way in to the harbor, there was a helicopter flying overhead, and a large pack of coach boats right near the entrance. The laser medal race was going on, and those guys were hiking hard. It must be a really good feeling to be in that medal race, knowing that you are automatically ranked top 10 in the world.

July 12, 2007 26th Day in Portugal
Our last day of racing, and the wind was very nice. We were scheduled for 2 races, in the afternoon, following the gold fleet and silver fleet races. I was not feeling good at all! I was a little light headed, and possibly dehydrated. It was also a very hot day! Right when we put the boat in the water, it was very refreshing. Almost immediately I began to feel a lot better.
For some reason we were slow to rig the boat, and were last on the water. The wind was very patchy, and just to our luck we got stuck in a whole. I know this will sound weird, but all around us there was wind, but right there was nothing. We were getting a little scared, because we were the only boat stuck in the lull, while everyone had the kite up going down to the starting area. There was really nothing you could do at the time except wait for the wind to fill.
To our luck once again, the wind filled in just enough to get out of the lull, and down to the racing area. The gold fleet was still on our racing course, finishing up their races. The wind was light, and they had been delayed for a while. As the gold fleet left the racing area, the wind started to increase, up into the 20’s, and we had to go turns on.
I can’t remember the finish of our first race, but I think it was mid fleet. To do well in the racing today, you had to go hard right, and tack just before lay line. The current was pushing us to weather of the mark, and when you got to the top, you found yourself just reaching in. I know this is going to sound very stupid, but we figured out the trick to surviving the windy weather mark rounding. Now don’t laugh, because it is so stupid. You have to move back to the foot straps and strap in.
Going around the weather is hard if you can’t get the bow down onto the run quickly. We had always had a problem because if Anthony tried to turn to quickly, I would be flung up and around the head stay. And if he went to slow, then the boat would just get powered up, and we would flip. We never did this before because we thought being that far back would not be fast, but I guess it is faster then flipping.
The next race was our best so far, as we pulled off a great port tack start ripping off to the right side of the course. Holding on downwind, was a challenge, because of one little wipe out, but were still able to pull off a 4th place in that race.
Great the fun part begins now. Packing the boat up to be stored in England. We tried our best to make it a quick process, but making sure that the halyards are not tangled in the mast is always difficult. The boat had to be completely stripped, but thanks to Taylor and Nathan’s help it was done fairly fast.

Elizabeth knew a good restaurant to eat at down in our little town. The food was great, but it took a while, and of course Kevin was complaining. Haha. No he had not eaten in a while, and was starving. I think the couple beers at the bar when we got there held in over for a while.
Being the last day for the board sailors, they are always the group to hold a pretty big party. I didn’t think it was going to be that great, but when we got there, it was amazing. The girls that we had met the other night didn’t think we could get them in, and wanted to try their luck at the door. 2 of the girls came with us, but it was not the 2 that we wanted. They were so excited that they got in 2 hours before the club even opened. The line outside was huge, and the crowd was young. The night started off being expensive as a vodka red bull was 9 euros.
Besides the point. Techno was being played, which is a little different from American music, but it was the most fun I had at a club. The girls here are amazing, and I could only imagine what they would be like down in Brazil. I wish I was going there for the Pan American games, Thomas will get to tell me all about it.

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