Olympic PreTrials

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I have rubbed off my finger prints, my face is stinging from the wind and the feeling in my feet is slowly returning. With swells rolling in from the ocean at an average of 5 feet, wind blowing in from all directions at 15-18 knots with gusts up to 22 and air and water temperatures battling each other for who can be colder, I am sailing in the Olympic Pre Trials in the Laser Radial. Everyone I talk to is pretty impressed. My parents are prouder than ever and I'm pretty proud of myself. After the third day, I'm not in last. I'm not even in second to last! If you don't count the registrant who has never left shore, I'm in 19th place (scratch that I'm in 17th!) The girls who are probably, not only going to the Olympics, but who are going to win the blasted thing are tacking and starting right around me. It's wicked intense.

I've been told that some day I'm gonna look back on this regatta and be glad I did it. Right now, I'm feeling prrrrreeeeettty exhuasted. My back is holding up, surprisingly. Maybe it's becuase of the work I've been doing on it, trying to strengthen it. It's no thanks to the bed I've been sleeping in though. I surprised to find out there's actually an egg crate already on it and it's still as stiff as a board. Go futons!

I made some friends. Rebecca from California and Craig the guy who came with Vanguard to charter the boats and all the parts and gear. Rebecca sails vanguard 15s and wants to get into 29ers soon, but hopped into the Radial just for this. She's only 110 pounds and about 5'4" feet high. Couldn't believe it. I was having so much trouble holding the boat down, I couldn't imagine what she must have been going through. She did sit out about 3 races, whereas I only sat out one though, so. Also I think she had a shoulder problem. Anyways, long story short, I finish ahead of her. I finished ahead of all of the people who sailed in for more races than I did, but three of them I would have beaten if they had sailed all the races. One of them might have gotten me. So Wahoo! 17th place!!!

The Ewesons have been outrageously wonderful to me. Housing me, feeding me, being just as crazy about Grey's Anatomy as me, Mrs. Ewenson did my laundry for me before the last day so I was getting into clean dry clothes for the last horaa. She also brought me out to dinner with her sister who works for a rehabilitation center in Providence, RI (a bit of a commute). This woman was wearing gold lion earings, in her mid 60's, white slick back hair, sweater around the shoulders and she starts telling me how to smoke up without the exhaled smoke get in the air. AND how to transport LSD. Shocked. Awesome. And my dinner was scrumptous.

It was hard to leave, but after a night of Desperate Housewives and calling some peeps, I slept woke up and hit the road for Marion, Mass where Heather Burns is working in the Student Activities office at Tabor Academy!

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Photos

My Boat
My boat rigged and ready for measurment!

Boats coming in
Full rigs coming into shore after a looooooooooooooooong day of races

Kite Surfer!
You know there's a lot of wind when the kite surfers are hesitant to go out.

Kite Surfer!
His kite

Second Beach
There was First Beach which was nice and big with lots of people and fisherman. Second beach was much more vacant and only the locals were there. Third beach was down a dirt road through the dunes with a tent and some trailors for protest rooms at the end. We were at Third Beach, haha.