Wednesday (march5th2008 21:34) Update:
Just came back from the award dinner at the royal new zealand yacht squadron. We’ve had much nicer weather sunny and gusts of wind reaching up to 30 knots today. The racing was not going much better first 3 races but it picked up and we won the 4th race. yeah. now we can at least say we have beaten the guys who will be representing the amateur sailors in Dubai. It was great event 19 races in 5 days. I could not feel my hands after today but it will be an experiences that I will remember for a long time. Well, back to reality and back to work tomorrow. I am pretty fortunate to spend some time racing and hanging around the squadron. you really can not get into these events unless you are invited. I am beat, shower and bed for me is all I need right now.
Tuesday (march4th2008 21:00) Update:
Ok, so today it was disaster. Well, not disaster as something really bad happened but we just suck really bad. Nothing was going right for us. Issues, issues and issues. 6 races 4 of which we came in last. Ha Ha its funny – it was just not working today. On top of that it was poring rain all day long. I got to the RNZYS (Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron) headquarters at about 7:30 am. We got on the boat, set up the sails and off we went. We started to race about 10ish. Rain, rain, rain and this was boat that none of us had sailed before so all ropes were in different places. Have I mentioned that we really sucked today. Oh, well it was an awesome experience anyways. Everything was just happening so much faster. Great fun. We finished with all the races around 4pm, drenched and with our spirit broken. I got home around 5ish and took shower. Then I went out to my coast-guard meeting. We were supposed to go to NZ maritime simulator to learn rules of the road inside the simulator that is being used for training captains on huge container ships. You can pretty much load any port in the world and try to navigate using charts, plotter and radar. That got cancelled so we had nothing to do. Our seniors decided it is a good time to put 4 of us in survival suits and drop us off the boat so we get the feeling of buoyancy of these suits. I will hopefully have some pictures. Then we were practicing pulling people out of the water onto the boat. If you have never done that you must understand this is really difficult especially wearing heavy suits full of water. I was beat already because of the racing – so this in and out of water business was twice as hard. Then we were pulling ourselves on the boat using the strength in your arms. Just ridiculous I tell you. Especially if you were threading the water for 20-minutes prior that. Then left us there in the ocean alone so we can see how it looks when the boat is coming in from far away. So I am thinking ok I will be sleeping good tonight after all that.
Not done yet! Into the water last time and swim onto shore. Great! The shore is about 500 – 700 meters away its hard to tell when you are trying to keep the water out of your mouth. But all good now – eating my soup and doing my laundry (if you really cared to know). I am looking forward to tomorrow. Another full day of racing with the best amateur sailors in New Zealand? Its either that or working. Hmm…. thats an easy decision. After the race we are having formal dinner. It is kind of cool to be in the squadron where really awesome sailors used to be. Sailors such as Sir Peter Blake and others.

couple of today’s pictures.

Just a quick note. I took a day off to spend long weekend sailing with Stratocaster on BMW Auckland Regatta starting FEB 29th and going till Sunday the 2nd of March. It is big sailing even for all of amateur sailing. The winner in the category will be heading up to national regatta and the winner of national regatta will be representing New Zealand in the world cup regatta. There will be few really great boats out there and competition should be awesome. I think, weather permit it will be an event to remember. This is a nice link that lets you follow the race as it happens. There is weather and live cam. So if you bored at work click and see me waving really hard.

follow this link

OK so Saturday did not happened due to heavy weather. There was live band, dancing, beer and food at the Bucklands Beach Yacht Club today from about 6pm. Good fun – it was like time capsule to 80ties with the music…and to see room full of sailors dancing…well, that’s just priceless. Never in my life I have seen so many uncoordinated moves on the dance floor. Really, just too funny. The weather is suppose to improve tomorrow so we should get in few windward/leeward races. Next weekend I will be getting my VHF license and then there is the Auckland international boat show.
Great day on Sunday. two first places and one 3rd. Overall winner division C (divisions are based on handicaps of the boats, such as weight, length etc.) So that means we are off to tuesday and wednesday final races with the boats used for match racing (same boats, same class etc) and the winner of that will be heading out to Dubay to represent the New Zealand in world cup amateur sailing in april 08. We have crew of 8 and since these match race boats are raced with 5 crew I dont think I will make it since I am still the rookie on the boat. Never the less it is awesome experience and it was lots of fun.
RacePage http://www.rnzys.org.nz/ and some pictures here and here

Update:

OK so I will be sailing. I will be on the boat tomorrow and Wednesday.

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