Athens Training

Another very good day. Big workout in the gym this morning. Big work out in the kitchen after that. We got down to the boat around 12:00 did a few chores and headed out around 13:00. The Meltemi is still blowing nicely.

We had a good session last night reviewing video of the downwind sailing and I picked up a few things that Andy was doing better than me. So we started out downwind for an hour….(the Meltemi blows offshore). The waves are short and it is a lot of work for the helmsman to carve a bit of extra speed out of them. Pumping the main, steering 25 degrees up to power up and then 25 degrees down to go by the lee and milk the wave for all you can. Time in the boat, in this wind, in these waves, is invaluable.

Then we sailed back upwind testing our speed. We had our new mast in today and it is sweet. Just like the rig we had for the trials that went over the bow in Italy in the first race of the worlds. So we felt like we were going pretty well.

Then we joined the other boats for three races. Percy (BGR), Pelekanakis (GRE), Tracy (IRL training partner for Percy), Bruni (ITA), Loof (SWE), and the two of us. So a pretty big group today. We won the first and the third races. In the second race we fouled Percy down near the leward mark and did not round. We felt very good about our speed and about how we sailed.

Then we tested for another hour upwind back to the harbor. We hauled the boats out at 1730 and washed everything up well. It is so hot here the salt builds up on the boat and rigging very quickly so you really have to wash things out.

We have some really nice guys at the local Marine store who help us out with little projects. This morning I went in there with our UHF radios and the chargers which are for US power. We stopped by at 1830 and they had new power converters and inverters for us all for 20 EU. These guys are great.

Now we are home, it is 20:00, Phil and Austin went to the store to buy more meat and I got the grill going. I am writing up the sail log..wwe log the hours on every sail everyday, notes on the weather, email feedback to our meteorologist Chris Bedford, and review video of our technique and still photos of the rig. Someone is going to cook dinner.

Bed by 23:00 and start over again at 0800. These are long days in the sun and heat with a lot of physical out put. Both Phil and I feel good thanks to all the hours in the gym and running on Mt. Tam.