We woke up to another beautiful day in the Engadin, packed up our bags and made our way to the club.
Bora and Nathan were tied for first place so the stage for an epic battle was perfectly set. Unfortunately Bora and Anthony had managed to catch some kind of stomach bug, so we were happy to see an initial postponement as the Maloya wind took a while longer to establish itself.
Racing got underway around 2PM and things were looking mighty fine for the US Airforce Team. Even though Bora didn't start well, he worked his way through the pack and won the race. But not without feeding the fish at least once every lap. He came in to shore and was totally exhausted. He was winning the regatta, but his body was failing him....
Anthony was also struggling with dehydration and was taking advantage of the fact that the Silvaplana lake water is fine to drink. I started strong in that race, but had to many boat handling errors to bring home a really good finish.
For the last race Bora made it down to the starting line, but couldn't keep up with the intensity as his stomach was cramping up more and more and so eventually pulled out of the race. This left the door wide open for Nathan to go on and win the race and therefore also the overall ranking. Hat off to Nathan for showing some excellent performance.
I had another o.k. race and in the end was able to squeeze into 9th place, with which I'm very happy with. I feel super lucky to have been part of the US Airforce Team. I learned a ton about sailing the Moth and what this class is really about. The camaraderie is probably second to none.
Anthony and I are off to the airport now to catch our flights back to USA.
US Airforce Team over and out (until the next time)
P.S. check out the videos and pics on the official website. Really nice stuff.
It was great to have you along, I dont think we would have been able to do it without you.
ReplyDeleteSee you at the Melges 20 nationals.