Day 5-Sail Melbourne-Today's forecast calling for 20-25 knots from the East never materialized. Instead, we were greeted with drifting conditions, and a two hour postponement. Finally the racing got under way with a light gradient breeze. Like every other day, the fleet had several general recalls, and finally got away under a black flag start.
With about a minute left in the sequence, I noticed a right hand shift which squared up the line. I immediately headed up to the boat to get away from the majority of the fleet fighting for the pin, and started underneath a small pack at the boat.
I managed to pop out from underneath my pack at the boat, and headed left with the fleet. There were a few boats that popped out from the pin, but most boats down at that end struggled for speed and crossed behind me. Eventually, the lead boats from the left came back, and I tacked to leeward of them, leading them back to the mark to round tenth.
The first run was difficult as the main pack behind sprawled out across the course, making it very difficult to find clear air. We all came back into the bottom mark together, and I managed to sneak around a few guys on the run. The rest of the race a bit of follow the leader with no major passing lanes, ending with an 8th. To my disappointment, that was the only race of the day. I now lie 8th overall heading into tomorrow's medal race. It looks like it will be a very tight race as 6th-10th are only separated by 3 points.
Cheers,
Mike
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