Team practice and more tuning

Another day of warm weather and sunshine greeted us as we rode our bikes to the club today. Clouds gathered as the U.S. team rigged and met briefly with Leandro about the plan for practicing together. It was lighter as we headed out but gradually built to 20 knots as we practiced where the race course will be next week (about 20 minute sail southwest of Punta del Este, beyond the island in the bay). Christin and I worked on jibes on the way down and made some adjustments that improved our boat handling--we're still figuring out the ideal sequence of movements and where to put our weight through the jibe with the whisker pole. During the upwind practice beats, we had difficulty pointing as well as others and keeping our boat flat. We are practicing with a full cut main, but Leandro had us shorten our spreaders and move our jib leads back two holes for tomorrow which will make our jib flatter and open the slot between the main and jib more. The video and photo review with Leandro was very helpful, and we got some good advice from teammates about improvements to make.

More teams are arriving and getting out on the water. A photographer's boat was out this morning, too, so maybe the yacht club will start posting photos on the regatta site. I've met the S. American women's representatives, Juliana and Vivian, and they seem very nice. They just returned from Women's worlds in Spain as did Kathleen who crews for our U.S. national champion, Augie Diaz. I've also met two women sailing together from Japan and two from Argentina, but I haven't sailed against any of the other all female boats yet.

My left elbow is a bit sore from something I did a month ago, but it is getting worse sailing. I think it's time to get out the ice and ibuprofen!

My mom arrived several hours late after flights were delayed and missed on the way from her trip to Iguazu Falls. I've enjoyed sharing the condo with my crew, her husband, and the Commettes, but it will be very nice to have my family here with me in the second condo I move into tonight.