Just one race today and still in first by 6 points now after another win - it’s still close though! With 7 of 16 races completed, we’re still not quite halfway done. It already seems like we’ve been racing forever. Boy, is this a long regatta!

Maureen McKinnon-TuckerThe Gary Jobson Paralympic update is now on NBC’s website and features a brief clip of three featured sailing teams including ours! Often, Paralympic sport get little national coverage so it’s nice to be recognized.

It was sunny, in the mid-60’s, with a N-NNE breeze of around 10 knots, a bit shifty. We started in the middle of the pack, 2 boats to our left and 2 boats to our right. We did a good job staying in phase with the oscillating breeze and rounded the windward mark first, with Karen & J.P. not far behind. We seem to have solved our downwind boatspeed issue from race one, as we doubled our lead on the first run. We covered the fleet for the next two legs as the boats behind swapped positions back and forth in the shifts, and we stretched our lead a bit more.

The race committee could only hold one race for us today. At Potters Cove, the wind began to die and shift 50 degrees back and forth after our first race. The clouds inland were indicating that a very late seabreeze was trying to develop, fighting the opposing gradient (weather system driven) wind. As the flooding opposing current increased, it would have equaled the wind velocity. Hence the boats would have stood still! The “L” flag went up meaning “follow me” taking us a mile or so closer to Goat Island and the seabreeze trying to develop, where the water was a still as glass and races were called off for the day. Paralympic sailing race management guidelines call for a 5 hour time limit between leaving the dock and returning, as some disabilities have issues with personal care or temperature regulation which can become problems with longer times on the water. Of course, as we were being towed into the dock, a nice SW seabreeze turned on at 10 knots! Oh well, too late for the day.

Wednesday is a lay day, no sailing. Dan and I are going to try to stay away from the docks as much as possible, maybe go to a movie or something. Of course Dan, Mike and Clarence have work to do! After our breakdowns in Rochester, they’re going to take the mast down and reinspect everything… lines, blocks and fittings. We’re also allowed to haul the boat to clean the bottom, so they’ll do that as well. The water’s warm this time of year, so stuff grows, no matter what kind of “special sauce” you put on the bottom!