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Wednesday 9^th: first racing day

            Race 1: Gusty conditions. Westerly wind (286°) round 20 kts. Starting line 208° from boat to pin. Heading to upwind buoy 250°. No significant tide. After 3 general recalls the black flag was raised and the fleet got away. Two times upwind, two times downwind, first through a gate, then finish. At the gun we were quite nicely positioned at the boat end half of the starting line but saw most of the fleet gradually sailing away from us with better speed and angle. We arrived amongst the last ones at the first upwind mark. We sailed a deeper downwind angle than most of the fleet and gained many places at the downwind gate. Upwind again in these bumpy waters, fighting the waves to maintain the best speed, but we seem less successful than the others. On the second downwind leg we chose to sail deeper angles again and we crossed the finish line in 58^th position.

            Race 2: We found ourselves starting in the direction of a very dark cloud with lots of visible precipitation underneath. It flew over us slapping us with painful rain drops in heavy gusts. Behind it a nice piece of clear sky followed with progressively diminishing wind turning to north. In the last leg we stayed to the right of the field with a few other boats, while the fleet chose the left side. Obviously ours was the better choice; we finished on the 34^th spot.

            Race 3: the wind increased again. It unfolded pretty much like the first race. We miss some upwind speed and we seem to accelerate a little slower at the start and after rounding the downwind mark. Unfortunately 2 crucial moments in a race. We finished 51^st.

            Race 4: It was already past 4 pm. We were on the water for more than 6 hours. But the race committee decided to give another start. We topped 15,31 kts in the last downwind leg. The speed stayed above 10 kts most of the time during that run. Result: 50^th.

            After-race: we quickly returned to our comfortable shed to take a hot shower and change for the sailor’s buffet.

Overall result for the day: 50th