Measurement Day Report by Bruce and Dave

Hola, today was our official lay day between the Pre-Worlds and Worlds. We worked on the boat for a bit in the early AM and then put on our "race sails" and went out for a short 1 hour sail with our friend Mike Holt from the UK. We tuned downwind and then back upwind to the harbor. We had excellent downwind speed and equivalent speed upwind. Today was light for here only about 10 knots of breeze and large UGLY leftover swell and chot. Tomorrow the wind will clock 180 degrees and start blowing hard from the North. The locals says "Well mate, you blow all that water from the south and then she fills up and has to all go back the other way" Which we translate to mean its not uncommon as the fronts go through for the wind to change direction 180 degrees every 3 or 4 days. Actually, the same thing happens in Santa Cruz when a winter storm comes through, the wind comes out of the south (opposite from teh WNW wind as the low passes). It just happens here ALL THE TIME, cause they get so many weather systems off the southern ocean. Nuff weather!!

This afternoon, 6 of us rented a VW van and drove about 75 klicks (kilometers) north on the coast, just to get out of regatta central for a while. The towns and country side are absolutely beautiful, very lush and green much like the big island of Hawaii. As a matter of fact, the main crop being grown in sugar cane!! We had a late lunch at a restaurant overlooking the ocean and had a great time. Its pretty cool, that you can sit around with 2 Americans, 2 Brits, 1 Canadian, and a Kenyan and talk about boats, politics, etc. Thats probably the best part of international competition is seeing old friends and meeting new ones from all over the world!!

Tomorrow is race #1. We are as ready as we can be....hopefully we can do as well and the preworlds!!
More updates as they are available!!

Bruce & Dave!!