Day 2

The shifty Meltemi conditions of yesterday continued today despite a sea breeze being forecasted.

The start of race one got off at 1400 in 8-12 knots of wind. We got into a bad situation at the first windward mark and fouled the Greek boat and had to do a 720 penalty turn. That put us in last. From there it was all uphill but we only managed to get back to 10 th .

In the second race, again 8-12 knots, we were 5 th at the first mark and managed to grab the lead by the first leeward mark. From there we controlled the lead and logged out first win!

That put us in 4 th place for the regatta and in good company with the race winners being USA , Bermuda , UK and Brazil .

Leading a race that is very shifty is not that easy. Very steady conditions make holding the lead easier because there are fewer opportunities for the boats behind to pass. So when you are leading a shifty race, you have to continue to play the shifts and that means taking some risk. But again, that is the only way to stay ahead. So the most satisfying part of our win was holding the lead for four legs.

Not sure what the forecast has in store for us tomorrow but so far, we have never seen anything straight forward out there.