Day 5

Where do I begin??? The race committee announced course 32 and we knew it was going to be a long one... The tricky bit was going to be why sails to take and what the forecast was going to be, it looked light but the forecast said very differently...
We started with breeze just under 10k and we were i'n clear air and at speed when we hit the line, we rolled both Container and Ran and headed up toward the first windward mark of our 43 mile course... Shockwave, Bella, and Titan all had great starts and were off just ahead as we covered Ran, our closest competition... After the mark we set our code 0 and carried that down through "bomb ally" where we just nicked the bottom of a very large rock... Others were not so luck, Container hit the same rock but got stuck and unfortunately that ended her day...
We carried on catching up to the leaders with Ran still trailing... We gybed around a mark and had a long almost 2 hour beet up and around all the islands... By the time it was time to go back down wind it was a close battle i'n little pressure between ourselves and Ran who ha just gotten in front... Being bigger has it's advantages... But not always... Shockwave was close by and Titan had gone offshore and found pressure which pulled them away...
The rest of the race was a shooting match, snakes and ladders the whole way, we would pass someone and someone would pass us... The big battle turned to Ran and Us as there were sail change after change to fight for half a knot of speed that could win or loose the whole thing...
Some superb calls from our afterguard and unmatched driving from the boss took us by Ran and around some close rocks, which we did not hit this time, but Ran was not so lucky, ending their day after 3 hours... We hope that both boats are ok and that we will see them on the track tomorrow...
The battle turned to Shockwave and us who were just a few boat lengths in front...
In the next hour over a dozen sail changes occurred and although they crossed the line in front of us, it was not enough to get us on time...
We thought we had another bullet, but we must take our hats off to the cruiser racer mini maxis who stuck i'n and one did just enough to sneak by us...
Quiet night tonight big day tomorrow, special thank you to Spy Optics for my HayMaker sunnies which have kept my eyes protected all week, and to all those back home in Manila following us, without your tutelage I would not be where I am now... Thank you all,
Shifty


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Location:World Championships