Top 10 List for Leg 2 of Great Texas from Steve Piche
Another 100 mile leg from Mustang Island to Matagorda. Here is the top 10 list for the leg:
1) Brutal, long day on the wire: If you liked trapping out, this was a day for you. Both skipper and crew spent nearly the entire day on the wire. To add to the fun, it was constant work on the sails all day. We started out spin reaching, went to jib reaching and finished up with a little spin reaching. I have a damn good trap harness but seven hours will wear anyone out. (Sorry for the quality of the write up tonight, but I am basically wasted from 2 days of hard core sailing!)
2) Tomko, the Master: John Tomko loves this leg. He just takes off every year in these reachy conditions and no one can ever come close. He did it last year, and the year before that and the year before that. He is just the master of the reach and once again pretty much horizon jobbed the entire fleet. Oh, and Ian his crew deserves some credit too!
3) Gumbo on the Beach: When you are really hurting from being on the wire all day, knowing that Gumbo is waiting for you at the finish line just keeps you going. Thanks to Team Quiksilver for the best Gumbo ever!
4) Our first Woman Skipper Kicks Ass: Ingrid Bakker and Aaron McCulley are not in first place but they still are kicking ass! Ingrid started out strong today but got sucked to the beach and had to drop her spin. The other boats rode a bit longer and jump a bit of a lead. She hung in tough and came in with the group of final boats. For a rookie in this race on a different boat, she is kicking Ass.
5) Austin Cats: Monkey Business, Sailboat Shop and Quiksilver battled it out for most of the race within a short distance. All three boats are from Austin, the best city in Texas! In the end Monkey Business got stuck in the weeds 15 miles from the finish and then practice righting their boat after a massive pitchpole. Sailboat Shop nipped Quiksilver for first non-Tomko boat. Right now, Quicksilver is in second overall, followed by Monkey Business and Team Sailboat Shop!
6) Does anyone else go out on the Gulf? We have been sailing for 200 miles and we have not seen a single other boat (non-GT boat that is) out on the Gulf. No one and I mean no one goes out and plays on our massive playground. It is completely ours. Today, we sailed for 70 miles past some of the most remote coast line in the US. These are literally deserted islands. Yes, we love our playground and we love that it is all ours!
7) Three Round Texels in Two Days: Ingrid Bakker is the first Woman Skipper to ever finish the second leg of the Great Texas. She has now done the equivalent distance to three Round Texels in the past two days. We take it easy on her tomorrow with a leg that is only slightly longer than a Round Texel. Jet Ski Finish: When we pulled in today, Stephen Cooley followed us in on a jet ski shooting video with a GoPro helmet cam. Jeremy Leonard told him to get some close ups so he was about 10 feet behind us as we jib reached into the finish. Jeremy should be posting some video from Stephen.
9) Flying Fish: Every year we run into schools of flying fish. They are simply the most cool beasts in the world. Once you see a flying fish, you think, yes, Darwin was right!
10) Andrew Burnard, uber webmaster: Behind the scenes, Andrew Burnard does such a great, great job at keeping the websites, facebook, scoring and everything humming for the Great Texas. We all are in debt to him for his superior work at bring this race to you.
Off to Surfside tomorrow!
Written by a physically wasted man! Flow of conscience with zero editing!
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