Hello all,
Just want to send a quick update on what an eventful month it has been! Since leaving the Olympic World Cup event in Kiel last month I had a one day turnaround at home in San Francisco to drop off my match racing gear, pick up my ocean racing stuff (and fancy clothes) and fly down to LA for a friend's wedding and then the start of the Transpac. The leadup week to the Transpac was spent getting Ragtime ready, catching up with friends and Morning Light teammates, and taking a visit to the children at the Miller Children's Hospital. The Transpac Race started for us on Ragtime and the rest of the big/fast boats on Sunday the 5th, and thankfully our start was blessed with the best weather (and most wind). Unfortunately for us on Rags, we weren't equally blessed with in sail setup, and our mainsail gave us enough repetitive problems to be deemed "Frankenmain" and finally was banished altogether and replaced with a jib for the last three days of the race! Definitely not the ideal nor the fastest way for us to have sailed to Hawaii... but at least we got there safely, and still somehow managed to pull out an 8th overall! The most beautiful part of the race was a truly surreal (and HUGE) shooting star literally crossing our bow aimed straight at Diamond Head as all crew were on deck ten minutes to the finish line. Pretty incredible experience and great reminder of some of the reasons to race offshore.
I then had a great couple days in Honolulu, recounting with others our race horror stories (ours were the best--who can top Frankenmain?), getting Ragtime cleaned up, and attending the trophy ceremony, then finally went to Maui for two days of vacation. Flew home on Tuesday night, had two days of match racing practice with Dave Perry on Wednesday and Thursday, and am now skippering the St. Francis team in the Interyacht Club Challenge, a match race event between California clubs hosted by Golden Gate Yacht Club. I'm sure I'll get a real vacation once winter rolls around...
Please check out my website, getsailing.org, for more details, there is plenty of description of all that went on in the Transpac Race!
Cheers,
Genny
