Down the mine!!!!

You know when you have "one of those days" that started the night before, well today was one of them!  Forecast was 11mph from the SW so it was going to be one of those marginal wiring days! After having a week off the booze and then having a couple of glasses of red last night = a bad head this morning.

Race was at 1.30 so thankfully I had a bit of recovery time but I was still out of the zone and it showed. First start I managed to get fairly clear air but further down the line a number of boats were OCS so a general recall was the order of the day. Poor eye sight due to sunglasses encrusted with salt = didn't see the flags so I was late to the start!

For the 1st half hour it was too much to hike but not enough to wire so I needed wiring from the kick bars which is not the most comfortable position!!!
I did start to catch others boats up but it was hard work and my body was still slightly dehydrated thanks to the wine and bacon before racing (bacon that is not wine that would be silly!!).
Grey clouds started looming and I was wondering how long it would be before it went off and just at that moment the wind came in shifted massively and I found myself on the wire and kick bars when the boat was pushed to windward and me no where to go but in the drink!!! Not my finest hour.

That cleared the head and then we started to perform. As soon as I could get flat on the wire and plane I started to eat up the distance between me and the next boat. A good bear away and great down wind leg and we got to the gybe mark. Seeing the rest of the boat ahead struggle and still with a fuzzy head the decision to tack round was going to be the safe option or so you would think. Tack done and now the bear away. As I may of mentioned I was slightly inhibited and not thinking straight so I forgot to let the kicker off and yes when I wanted the boat to go round it had other ideas and the bow went down and it was game over "down the mine we go!!!" I must admit the boat looks very big when its arse is in the air!!! A passing laser 2000 gave me a standing aviation for my effort. Now I was pissed. Two capsizes in a race both silly really and I was loosing all the ground I had made up. I managed to do the quickest righting of the boat in the history of man and was round West point and off towards home.

With the breeze building it was time for "the hunt" the nearest boat an eps! 500m at least ahead and With long reach it was a possibility and one that I wanted to do to save face after my earlier stupidity. Job done as we rounded the leeward mark and rounded to a fetch. The eps went into the mooring and I decided to tack out into the breeze although I was punching the tide. It paid off and I managed to lock down and get the speed going and I was first to the line.

When the results were published I ended up 6th! I think I am still a long was off consistent but at least we are heading the right direction