We need to thank our friend Malcolm for allowing us to store our boat in his basement for the harshest winter months and thanks to our friend Ernie for doing some amazing boat work at an amazing rate.
We had a 2 hour shake-down sail this past Thursday which was highlighted by me going for a swim when I went out the trap without being hooked in! Floating the 38 degree water while Brendon circled around to get me was not very enjoyable.
Today we met Tyler Burd & Garth Fasano, another F18 team for us to train with. Winds were a gusty 15-20, perfect sailing except that the thought of flipping when the air and water are only at 40 degrees is not a happy thought. We agreed on a plan to head upwind out the East passage into the ocean and around the R2 Buoy off Brenton Reef. Blasting through 3-4 foot waves we settled into a nice groove, working hard to keep the hull and our butt's out of the water. Brendon was working hard at the mainsheet while I steered around the waves despite that neither of us could feel much of our fingers. We got to R2 and luffed up to discuss the beat with Tyler & Garth. We then headed downwind into Narragansett Bay through Newport up to the south end of Prudence Island. At the south end of Prudence we turned around and battled it out upwind. During this beat Brendon and I started to get REALLY cold so we put the throttle down to get in as fast as possible. As we neared the Newport Bridge I told Brendon to be prepared for a wind shadow from the support column. I've never been able to figure out exactly how the wind shadows come off these things and as soon as we neared the column, powering up in a puff the breeze immediately shut off sending us into the water and off the back of the boat. The boat nearly flipped over on top of us and as I fell I pulled the tiller to turn the boat onto a beam reach and headed right at the next bridge column. I did all I could to steer the boat to keep it from flipping but as Brendon had dropped the mainsheet we needed to get back to the boat asap. Luckily we found the strength to get back on the boat and get it straightened out. Garth later told us they were very worried for us as the witnessed this. As if the cold hadn't gotten to us enough this put us over the edge, luckily it was a quick upwind sprint through the harbor to Sail Newport. Overall we sailed for about 3.5 hours and covered 29 nautical miles, a pretty amazing training day.
The boat is now packed up and ready to head to Georgia for the Southern Area F18 Championships / Spring Fever Regatta. Expect updates from this over the weekend or early next week.
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