A good day for us; 2, 1. The day got off to a late start as the wind was blowing in excess of 25 knots this morning. At 1300 the postponement flag came down signaling that the first start would be a 1430.

We headed out to the track and were pleasantly surprised to see perfect sailing conditions; 16-22 knots of wind and fairly flat seas.

In race number one we went a long way left off the line and quickly the lead boiled down to a fight between Mark Reynolds/Steve Erickson, Andy Lovell/Magnus Liljedahl and Phil and I. We managed to get around the top mark first. George Szabo/Mark Strube were on fire again down wind and caught up to us but did not pass us at the leeward mark. Up the next windward leg, we covered Szabo and Eric Doyle/Brian Sharp got out to the left and found a nice shift that caught them up to us. We still rounded first but with Doyle right on our heels.

At this point, with Szabo under control, we went into conservative mode. There was still a bit of wind around. Doyle won, we were second, Szabo third, John MacCausland 4th and Lovell 5th.

For the second race, the breeze piped back up to 20 after a bit of a lull. We started near the right end of the line and immediately noticed that we were on a big header

Short one for now at least. I have to go make a speech to the USA Elite Optimist Team that are training here this weekend.

The bottom line is that we beat our man 3 out of 3 times today. He is no longer our man. Someone else is.

Tomorrow we have to get one race in the top 14 to seal the deal if Andy Lovell/Magnus Lijledahl win all three races.

Out

A tough day today, especially for the race committee. We had two weather systems fighting each other and the transition was right over Biscayne Bay. A cold front is expected here about now and should swing the wind into the NNW. As we towed in after todays one and only race, this was starting to happen. Prior to that, we had a sea breeze from 100-115 degrees at about 8 knots. Before that we had wind from 330 about 10 knots. Before that we had a light seabreeze. First thing this morning we had a NNW

The forecast for today was 17-22 knots from 70-90 degrees and it was right on. We changed to our spare mast for today thinking that it would be bad to damage our #1 rig on the first day of an 8-day regatta. After a hour and a half postponement, we headed out. We are sailing 4 miles south of the Sailing Center so it took about 40 minutes even with the strong breeze.

We tuned a bit and then we were right into the first race. We had a good start to leeward of the fleet and worked the middle right. Eric Doyle and Brian Sharp were going real well just to windward of us were first to the first mark. We got up to the first windward mark third right behind Andy Lovell and Magnus Liljedahl and Howie Schiebler and Will Stout were forth. Things progressed pretty similarly around the course until on the last run Lovell/Liljedahl dropped their rig. That was really too bad for them as they did not have time to get their spare in for the second race.

Needless to say, there were some pretty serious puffs and because of the direction, off Key Biscayne, the wind was not steady in direction nor velocity. I think 4 rigs came down today.

For the second race we had the same start and so did Doyle. At the end of the first beat, the wind went right by about 10 degrees and Reynolds/Erickson were the big beneficiaries of that. They got the windward mark first, Doyle second and use third. We got the first windward mark third and Doyle/Sharp second. Shortly after rounding the windward mark we had an epic episode in Star sailing. A puff hit us and we rounded down big time. Phil did a nice job to knock the pole off the mast. The boat rolled so far over to windward that the windward spreader hit the water! The boom was straight up in the air and out keel was out of the water. As Phil slipped overboard, the boom gybed. I got the backstays switched, helped Phil get back on board and fished the pole of out the water. The bottom line is that we were extremely lucky to come out of that with all our equipment in tact. We lost about four boats there.

Up the second windward leg, Doyle and Shiebler passed Reynolds/Erickson. We managed to get by four boats and round right behind Reynolds. Down the last run we were thinking about keeping the rig in the boat and that it was a long series. That probably cost us two boats and we finished 6th.

Doyle is winning with 2 points, Schiebler 2nd with 6, Reynolds third with 7, Cayard/Trinter 4th with 8 points, and Szabo 5th with 9 points.

After racing we switched our mast back and did a few other chores. I came back to the apartment, rode the bike fast for 15 minutes and hit the Jacuzzi and pool for 10 minutes. Sam made dinner, chicken stir fry and now I am going to eat the last brownie Icka made for us. It is 8:20 pm so no too late. We are deeply in debited to Gonzo and Maricel for hosting Phil and I all winter in their guest house but having this apartment and cooking at home is a big time saver and very relaxing. Watching some March Madness

Just a short one tonight. I flew in last night. We go the safety equipment, boat and spars measured today and got out for a short sail around 1600. We were the only one to go out as most everyone has been sailing here all week. It was a very nice 12 knots from the east.

I had gone to the supermarket this morning and stocked up the apartment. We had dinner at home and had a