Measured and Settled In

This morning started early, checking out of the hotel and off to the St. Margaret's Bay Sailing Club. What a beautiful setting, I will make sure to take some pics tomorrow, today was just a little too hectic.

Got to the Yacht Club and proceeded to unload the boats, and fortunately got very quickly in the measurement line. They were very quick and efficient with the measurement process. The only thing I had to remove was the little piece of sticky back velcro I had on the front of the daggerboard case. One of the new rules that is soon to be adopted will allow this, but until then, we have to use electrical tape and replace every day. Everything else measured in just fine, and everything got a stamp, from the boat, to the sail, to the foils, to the battens. Got into my assigned boat parking spot (furthest from the water), and put the boat away. The weather was beautiful today, but I could not check into my condo until 4 p.m. and I had Samson with me. We did find a beautiful park in Halifax (five minutes from the condo) that allows dogs to walk off leash on all the side roads and paths. Sam really enjoyed that.

Got checked into the condo, great place, and quickly had to head back to the Yacht Club for the ILCA-NA welcome party where Team USA and Team Canada were given our team shirts, and we enjoyed some good talk and Canadian beer.

Then back to the condo, get some groceries on the way, and cook a late dinner. All unpacked now, and have food available as well, so everything is good that way.

Now for the fun part......yeah, that tropical storm that is taking aim right at us....ummm Danny???? Well, since I could not sail today, I am hoping that tomorrow will allow me at least a short practice. However, Mother Nature has something else in mind I am afraid. Looks like very little breeze all day, with rain starting in the afternoon, and then after midnight.....Danny comes ashore. Looks like we will be getting 40-50 knot winds at some point on Sunday. All competitors were given strict orders today to be off the water no later than 4 p.m. tomorrow (Saturday), then we were all to place our boats upside down on the grass, with the dollies strapped to the bottoms. So it looks very unlikely that we will be able to race on Sunday, which is our first scheduled race day.

The Masters Standard fleet will be split for the first three days of racing. Tomorrow evening I will be given my fleet color for the first day of racing, and each subsequent day, the fleets will be shuffled and I will have to go get a new assignment each day. It appears that there will be two race circles. I will be racing on the race circle with the Apprentice Masters Standard fleet, the other Masters Standard fleet, and the Grand Masters Standard fleet. On the second race circle will be the Apprentice Masters Radial, Masters Radial, Grand Masters Radial, and Great Grand Masters Radials.

Alright, I am off to bed now, I am going to wake up at 7 a.m. to watch the Australia South Africa Rugby Test from Perth. Go Bokke!