Today started off as normal. Wake up at 0700, gym for a 15 minute warm up, upstairs to stretch, shower, down to the center to weigh in at 0800. We got the forecast and saw that it was going to be breezy, so we changed to our spare rig and were back to our apartment by 0900 for breakfast.

When we got back down to the center around 0945, the postponnment flag went up. The committee had some reading of 15 knots on the race track. I went back to the apartment, a 5 minute bike ride, and did a few emails and relaxed on my balcony looking at the race track.

Then the call came from coach John Craig that the postponement flag was down. So back to the Sailing Center, dress and go. We were one of the first ones sailing out. All of a sudden a big gust hit us and I heard a loud pop, and looked up to see the mast falling forward over the bow. I jammed the helm down immediately...this is instinctive for any Star helmsmanﾅ.and tacked the boat around and we were able to save the rig. But it was tweaked so we had to change it out.

So we bee lined it back to the dock, against the trafficﾅall the other competitors were heading out, and changed rigs afloat. We pulled along side John Danes big yacht ﾓShowdownﾔ as they were in a harbor that was closer than going all the way back to the sailing center. The change took 17 minutes, plus the 10 minutes back to the dock. We had half an hour to get to the starting line for race number 1. We were towing down to the start line behind our 25ﾒ Protector at 20 knots in 20 knots of wind.

We got to the starting line with about 10 minutes to spare, checked our headings, clamed down a bit, drank some fluids and the five minute gun went off.

I wont go through all the details of both races today because the story is more simple than that. It was windy in the first oneﾅ22 knots and lighter in the secondﾅ16 knots. We battled in the first with Reynolds and Vince and won in the end. In the second, we led the whole way and won.

The biggest victory of the day was being able to stay focused and composed after a morning like that. 20 years ago I could not do that. I was very pleased with how things went today.

I am not going to go through the scores either. You can look them up at www.ussailing.org/olympics/OlympicTrials/2004/Star/Results.asp

Tomorrow is a lay day then 3 races are scheduled for Thursday. At this point, the forecast for Thursday is pretty good breeze I believe.

Tonight all the competitors have been invited to the Coral Reef Yacht Club for dinner so we are on our way over there. Tomorrow I am getting up slowly, eating, going to the gym, eating, napping, eating and going to sleep.