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.

The first thing that happened today was that the organizers decided at 10:00 ( today ) that all classes could not race at the same time. There are four racecourses and 11 classes so some courses have three classes on them. So they told the Star, 49er and Tornado classes to stay in and their races would follow the finish of the others on their course. So we had to sit at the venue for four hours in sweltering heat waiting to go out. Now don’t you think they could have figured that out yesterday, if not two years ago?

We finally left the dock at 2:30 and started out first race at 4:00 . We raced in the northerly breeze called the Meltemi here in Athens . This wind comes off the land and is very hot but more importantly to sailors, very shifty. That is to say that it is neither steady in velocity nor direction. This makes race sailboats very tricky. The general strength of the wind was about 12-14 knots so that was good. The temperature here is about 100 degrees every day so you sail in a T-shirt and shorts, which is pleasant.

The races were about 8 miles in length and took about 90 minutes each to complete. In the first race we finished 10 th . This was frustrating, as halfway through, we were fourth. What happened to us is that we go out of phase with these wind shifts and when that happens, you end up sailing a much longer course to the buoys. How does one get out of phase well, partly being stupid and not reading the wind well and partly getting into traffic with other boats and having them dictate which way you go. We got tangled up with the Swiss boat on the second windward leg and missed a few shifts and next thing we knew 6 boats had passed us. OK. That was the first race.

The second race we finished third, which was much more enjoyable. We battled the whole race with Bermuda , Brazil and Great Britain , which are the strong competitors in this class. At the world championship last year the British team won, Brazil was second, we were fourth and Bermuda was 6th, so we are used to battling it out with these guys.

After two races, Great Britain is first, Bermuda is second, Germany is third, Netherlands 4 th and USA 5 th .

It will be a long regatta

I arrived in Athens at 3:00 pm Thursday the 14th, after the standard 20 hour trip, to a pleasant 95 degree temperature. My crew, Phil, had gone to Italy on Monday to get our new Star boat and drive it to Ancona where they boarded a Ferry to Patras in Greece . From there it was a four hour drive to Athens and the Olympic Venue. We hooked up around 5:00 pm at the Olympic Village.

The first order of business was to get into the Village. To do this everyone must be credentialed. This is a registration process that involves showing your passport and getting a photo ID made that you use to enter the venue each day. Without the credential you don’t do anything. Entering the venue is like getting on a flight. A line to go through the X-Ray machine, the guards go through your bags, shoes off, etc. The whole nine yards. The amount of security is impressive.

Once we got that done, around 6:00 pm , we went to work on rigging our brand new boat. With the heat, late in the day is the best time to work on the land. So we spent three hours checking everything and rigging the mast. We left the Venue feeling like we had put a good days work in and we went back to our hotel, called the Palace (I am not sure what “Palace” means in Greece but it isn’t what you’d expect) ate dinner, took a shower and hit the sack by 11:30.

Slept reasonably last night even though there is a 10 hour time difference between Pacific Daylight Time and Greek time. Today we got down to the Venue around 0900 and went to work our list of thing to fine tune on the boat. Then we got the boat in the water at 11:00 , went to the Athletes Village for lunch and headed out for our maiden voyage at 12:30 . We sailed against the Spanish team for a couple of hours, made a few adjustments and got back to the dock by 5:00pm and hauled the boat out. The Star is a 2 man keel boat, about 22 feet long and weight 1400 pounds, so it gets craned in and out of the water. We did a few more projects and left the venue around 7:00pm for a US Sailing Team meeting at 7:30 pm .

The US Sailing team consists of about 20 athletes and 4 coaches. At the Olympic games, there are several different disciplines (classes of boats), such as Catamaran, sailboard, 1 man dinghy, 2 man dinghy and men’s and women’s classes in each. Each class has different ideal weight of its crew members. Most people who have Olympic campaigns are younger than 28. I am a bit of an exception and was pleasantly surprised to win the US ranking system in the Star class this year and therefore qualify to attend this “Pre-Olympic” event. If we when the US Olympic Trials next March, this experience will be very valuable. As in the Olympics, there is just one boat per country in each class.

Tomorrow I am going to the gym and then we will sail again. Sunday our boat and sails will be measured, weighed and completely scrutinized by the measurement authority. Phil and I will be weighed also as there is a maximum weight that we can be. Crew weight is fast in sail boats as the crew project their weight outboard to counter balance the wind blowing against the sails. The more you weigh, the more wind you can hold in your sails, and the faster you go. That is as long as you are fit enough to hold your weight out over the side for two hours, twice a day in 90 degree heat. So, off to the gym.

Too much wind! We had the “Levante” wind today blowing 25-30 knots so no racing for Stars. The girls in the Yngling class raced though, so the big macho guys from the Star class did not look to flash.

The “Levante” is akin to the Meltemi of Athens. It is a gradient wind created by a high pressure to the north and a low over Morocco . This creates an easterly gradient that can be as strong as 50 knots or light enough to get over powered by the “sea breeze” which is what happened yesterday.

Yesterday, after waiting for the land to heat up so the sea breeze could overpower the Levante, we had the practice race mat 15:30 in a sea breeze of 7-9 knots. The format here is to divided the fleet into 2 groups. Each day the division is redone according to the scores of the previous days. It is a complicated system but the idea is to race in smaller fleets..45-50 boats per fleet. After 6 races, the top half will race in the gold fleet for the championship. The bottom half will race in the Silver fleet. All your races count for the total score except one throw out which starts factoring into the scores after 6 races are completed.

In yesterdays race we finished fourth which wasn’t bad considering we were 25 th at the first mark. The wind shifted 90 left on the first beat and we went right early.

This morning we changed masts to put our heavy air rig in. That would have been good for today and should still be good for tomorrow. The forecast for tomorrow is 16-22 knots. 3 races are scheduled for tomorrow so you have to be careful not to have any major issue, like breaking the rig, in the first or second race. You would be out of the regatta if that happened.

So for tonight it is the gym, early dinner and big sleep. 3 races in 22 knots will be a work out!