Leukemia Cup 2010 on Saturday, 06/05/10 was a really fun and great event to be a part of! Erin and Mark Ward joined us, and we brought Marta, our lucky salty dog. Our day started with early lightning and thunderstorms, followed by dense fog on our trip down from Bristol to Newport, and then, just before the race, clearing skies and hazy sun. Winds were out of the south and were erratic, but blowing up to 25 knots. Aquavit did well during the race, but we had a few issues...The first was a very pesky boat called "Top Cat" in our class who really pinched us at our first race mark (Curt was nice and let this go, but in hindsight, this cost us). Also at the first race mark was a strong current as the tide was changing, sending Aquavit into a bit of chaos around the mark - a little scary honestly! Capt. Curt handled it well and we rounded the mark without running into it!
Our downwind run in the middle of the race was were Aquavit really shined - she caught up to many of our competitors and really showed her stuff as a fast downwind boat. The last run was high power and fun, with Aquavit at a 30 degree tilt (uh, in other words - one side of the boat was practically in the water while everyone hung on for dear life!). Curt had a blast doing this and Erin, Mark, and I tried to pretend that this was fun, too. Secretly we were all thinking: YIKES! Fortunately, we didn't lose the salty dog overboard - very important.
We ended the day at a dock down by the Newport Sailing Center provided to us by the event organizers. The BBQ that night was nice - held at Newport Yacht Club and hosted by sailor Gary Jobson, lymphoma survivor and regatta founder. We finished 5th in our class, with the annoying "Top Cat" finishing just a minute behind us in 4th place. Most importantly, in total we raised $890 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society which is incredible and the whole regatta raised over $140k which is mind blowing!
As a final note, we had a terrific and very fast sail back to Bristol on Sunday and outpaced "Top Cat" who left at the same time we did, and who just couldn't beat Aquavit downwind. Looking forward to this regatta in 2011.
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