The day has finally arrived! We have been training for about two years and we are finally heading to the start line. What an incredible feeling.

There was a lot of waiting inside the harbour for clearance. And then the waiting began. Our start was really delayed and a general recall kicked off events for Race 1. This is an anxious fleet on a long start line.

The racing quickly got going and we found our way into 8th position at the top mark, but while we were trying to sneak in on port the door closed. We got stuck on the mark anchor in some strong current. The handbrake was solidly up, we waited for a gap, reversed off the mark, did our penalty and rounded the mark last. We shook it off and engaged “Catch up mode”. We caught right up to about 13th and then spent the rest of an epically long race (+20km) bouncing through the fleet like a yoyo. We finished 18th. Small tactics means big gains or losses. The race was sailed in 10 – 12knot breeze. 

The wind started dropping into race 2 right down to 5knots. The current was a sly cat in all of this. 

Race 2 saw the fleet split into two halves on the start line. We stuck port side and took a lekker free air start. We dropped back a little off the start but keep good speed up the beat to round 12th. We had an epic downwind where we gybed out onto port and took clean air, catching 3 places. This was a big win for us as our downwind strategy usually leaves something to be desired. We only slipped a little and mostly in very testing light air up the last beat to finish 15th.

The ride home took as long as the first beat coming into harbour after sunset. 

Our DAC teams results so far:

• 8th – Baby J – Richard Tanner (10, 7)
• 17th – Jalapeño (18, 15)
• 24th – Mr Bojangles – Dave Scorey (22, 24)