We were told Day 3 would be one for the men… Initial inspections left everyone perplexed. Where is the wind after we tensioned the side stays?

We went out for Race 6 in light air with a stellar swell running. We got off to a decent start but found ourselves being sucked through the fleet. We came round the bottom mark and hooked off to the port side hunting the new air coming down the course. At one point we found ourselves alone on port with big smiles. We worked our way up to 5th. We couldn’t hold on and ended in 12th place.

Race 7 was significantly stronger, we were told it was 15knots but we are pretty sure it was nearer to 20knots seeing that there were times our full main was flogging. This was a long and hard race of grin and bear it. We had some great downwind runs with beaut surfing conditions. The waves are a bit funny in that you can’t really surf every wave. So we cruise and hunt a good one, soak into it and pick up a surf. When done right, the sound is music to any sailor’s ears. We finished a credible 13th with a big sigh of relief crossing the finish line. Bodies are sore and everything, absolutely everything hurts.

Race 8 started in strong breeze but it quickly softened a bit. It was a lot of hard work keeping up with this fleet. We held a mid-fleet position throughout the race and dropped a little in the last beat to finish 14th. The race had been shortened to keep us in a decent race time. The ride home was a long one and we came into the harbour with the sun setting in the distance. Fortunately a little earlier than the day before.