Day one in Miami

I'm sorry everyone for being an idiot today and letting myself get pushed over the line early on a black flag start. It is little consolation to know that many others in my fleet were also called over since I made some big mistakes that led to being one of the boats blatantly over the line.

Here the thoughts about starting that are running through my brain this evening:

• Be a bully - on the starting line you are no one's friend. Never be nice and always be selfish, and be vocal boss people around and tell them what to do if they are threatening you
• On a black flag - don't be one of the boats closer to the line than others - stay hidden
• Know your moves to defend your space and if someone comes in to leeward too close to you, head up hard and hit them with your transom corner while you are avoiding them
• If your space to leeward on the line is too big, sail down to the boat next to you to make it smaller and less enticing for someone to go there - this helps you to control your space better

Thats it - I could berate myself all night for starting off the regatta with a black flag, but tomorrow is a new day. I've got the mantra of 'make everything count' for the rest of the regatta. 

Today's events: We were postponed on shore for quite a while waiting for the wind to fill back in from the east. It had started as a light northwesterly breeze in the morning, then died after the boys sailed their first race. We waited on shore and they waited on the water, and by the time they sent us out, it had started to fill from the east, but was still pretty unstable. I watched the start of the boys blue and yellow fleets second race, and the radial blue fleet. There was quite a bit of current going upwind and left. Our starts were pin favored, the first was a general recall on a U flag, and the second was a general recall on a black flag. Almost half our fleet was called over and after sailing by the signal boat and seeing our sail numbers written on the board, everyone who was scored BFD towed home. By this time it was about 5pm. I stayed out to watch the rest of our puny fleet start and sail the first beat. The wind had picked up to maybe 9 or 10 knots, and most of the fleet was hiking. I was very sorry to have missed this race - not getting to compete is the worst!

Pics from today waiting around:

Curry for dinner! - Thanks Michelle