How did I get here

And so … that’s a wrap! Wow, what an incredible week of sailing (and not sailing), tourist-ing, great meals, friends, and experiences. And to have one race day with three races and end up 28th in the World, well, that’s just special…

Here’s a beautiful shot of the fleet out racing, with Monaco in the foreground…

And finally, the Yacht Club de Monaco created this video summary of the last and only day of racing…

How did I get here? – stay tuned for more!

So this you will not believe. At all. The ultimate “how did I get here” moment…

Today we did race – three solid races – and we did great, finishing 28th overall! Out of 90 boats … the best in the world. Wow. We also finished 3rd in the so-called “one pro” division! (Matti is a pro; three quarters of the fleet had at least one pro, and over half had more than one professional aboard.)

This far surpassed anything we had hoped for, amazing. I have to say the crew worked together unbelievably well; we came together only for this regatta, had one day of practice, and today was our first racing day. Yay, us.

Sadly I have to report … my iPhone died! Yes it did. I think maybe I had a crack in the back, and water got in, and … yeah. So no pictures except for what I could get from others. Not too many anyway because, you know, racing 🙂 Stay tuned more may dribble in.

The highlight among all on this great day was our last race; we rounded the first weather mark in the top ten (!) and held on for a top fifteen finish. Matti made great calls to navigate through traffic, make it out to the left side, and then take advantage of more pressure and a nice overall shift to the left. It was amazing rounding ahead of 80+ boats and seeing all those chutes … behind us!

Well *that* was a pretty incredible ending to a pretty incredible week.

And so now onward – I am heading back home via Barcelona, by way of Carcassone, Marepoix, and Andorra. Whew.

And so in the “have lemons so make lemonade” category, after another day of not enough wind to race, I took off for Cannes!

Unfortunately I didn’t have too much time – the Race Committee’s decision to give it a try brought us back in around 4:30 – but I tried to make the most of it.

I guess it’s not a breakthrough observation that Cannes is nice (see what I did there) but it is. Great for walking around, having a drink, and then having a nice dinner. Which I did do.

I chose a place called l’Affable for dinner and while the name may indeed be, the food was amazing and the service and staff very friendly. One might almost say … affable. Highly recommended.

And so I may ask myself, etc. And now onward to Sat, the last day of the regatta and the last chance for actual racing!

So today dawned bright and hopeful. Surely there would be some wind today?

But … no!

We ended up spending the whole day waiting … also wondering if it was going to rain, which yes it did a bit …

A fun part of this day was a visit from the Prince of Monaco! He dropped by to say hello to everyone while we were waiting for wind.

Toward the end of the day, just as everyone was about to give up, the Race Committee decided “hey let’s give it a try”. So everyone got dressed and sailed out to the race course. But … still no wind. We bobbed around for a while, and finally the committee admitted “yes, we have no wind”, and we came in.

A lost day. Another one.

Well not totally lost. Because … then I went to Cannes!

Okay, so no racing, boo, and onward to Italy, yay. All the Italians here said “don’t waste your time with Ventemigila (first city on Italian side of border), continue on to Sanremo”. So … I taxied to Sanremo.

And found … nothing! I knew about Sanremo from the annual Milan-Sanremo cycling race – it looks nice from TV helicopter shots – but to be there, meh. Okay, I stopped at a little bar next to the harbor, but it was nothing special, and the environment did not look promising. So…

Headed back along the coast – beautiful! – and stopped at the Grand Hotel del Mare in Bordighera for a drink. Dated and kitschy, but in a neat way. Time to kill before dinner, and a nice drink with a nice view is always … nice 🙂

And then back to Ventemiglia! And it was cute. And nice. And interesting. Cooler than Sanremo, by far. Moral: people don’t realize how nice they have it 🙂

After a bit of tooling around, I ended up at a restaurant called Balzi Rossi, which is just – just! – the Italian side of the border. (I mean, you can literally see the French border from the windows.). Nice view of the water – nice view of Menton, where I was yesterday – and a beautiful seafood dinner.

I think this makes (counts on fingers) five great dinners in a row? Wow.

So not a lost day, at all, but let’s hope for enough wind to go sailing tomorrow!

Could you schedule a major sailing championship and have three consecutive days of no wind? Well yes, apparently. Today dawned with some meteorological optimism, but in the end again no wind, certainly not enough to race. Rats!

Today we didn’t even get to go out and pretend, the Race Committee went out for us, and gave periodic reports. I got pretty bored – have already bought everything I wanted to buy, taken pictures of everything I wanted to shoot, and visited everything there is to visit. Did not think I’d be bored sailing in Monaco, but there you are. As this is being typed I’m awaiting final word before heading out to Italy!

Well stay tuned, there will be a bit more tourist-ing ahead, and keep your fingers crossed for tomorrow!

So … off to visit Cap Martin! (What does it say about this sailing trip that it’s been much more about the trip than the sailing, at least so far?)

We tend to think of Monaco as being on the border between France and Italy, but actually there is some France to the East of Monaco: Cap Martin and Menton. See the map!

I did the old “hey taxi driver, show me your town” thing, asked my driver to take me to Cap Martin, and in fact we went all the way to the Italian border. And then I had the dinner of the world at Ceto, high high up on a hill overlooking Monaco to the West, and Cap Martin to the East.

Immediately upon leaving Monaco you enter a much prettier and less developed area, typical Cote d’Azure, hotels and beaches, but not urban sprawl.

We drove back past Menton Old Town – no cars allowed – and I stopped and (after a bit of puzzlement – where is an entrance?) walked in. So cool!

My comment about the Maybourne Hotel – okay, it’s ugly, and bold, and shouldn’t be there. But at least the inside is beautiful, and when you’re inside you don’t have to look at the outside.

And the Ceto restaurant on the top floor is out-of-this-world!

Well that was fun! At least the tourist part of this trip is holding up… let’s hope the sailing does too, tomorrow …!

After three hours of delays waiting for wind, there was a breath of air – the flags started moving – wisps of cloud blowing overhead – and the Race Committee decided to give it a try. The whole fleet slowly made their way out on the water and motored out to the race course.

Well that was good and all very exciting but in the end, after drifting around for an hour in light winds, the Committee called it for the day. So frustrating for them; all that planning and then the weather doesn’t come through.

Okay, well that was fun … looks like it is time to be a tourist again … maybe now I head over to Cap Martin?

Rats! It’s midday of Day Two of the Worlds, and still no wind.

The competitor briefing was somber as the Race Committee and fleet contemplated another day of sitting around. They will make hour by hour delays until 1500, then call it for the day.

I feel for the organizers you spend months indeed years preparing and the one thing you cannot control is the weather.

Had a chance to chat with my friend and sometime coach Willem Van Waay; he is J/70 royalty having been a part of the last three World Champion crews. We talked about sailing in Florida next year 🙂

Well that’s the news for now … stay tuned (and please root for wind!)

On my way to Monaco I stopped by the delightful medieval mountaintop town of Eze, and tonight I had dinner there, at Chateau Esa. The meal was only just okay, good but overpriced, but the views where unbelieveable.

I hiked up and into the restaurant at the perfect time for the sunset. Wow.

In the distance on the left, Cap Ferrat, with Nice around the corner to the right. Further off in the distance, Cap d’Antibe, and then Cannes…

How did I get here? 🙂