Trying Times for Anna Tunnicliffe. Image copyright Walter Cooper, January 2010.
by Anna Tunnicliffe
Tuesday was a bit of tough day for us at the 2010 US Sailing Rolex Miami OCR. We ended the day with an overall score of 4-2. We have one more race tomorrow morning to determine into which group we will advance.
Because of Monday's delay due to weather, group C didn't get to race, so they had seven races to complete first thing this morning. Then group B went out to do their final three races, which left us in a race against the sun to finish our round. We had four races scheduled, but as we sailed across the finish line of our third race, the sun was setting.
Our first race today was against Jen Provan from Canada. We controlled her in the pre-start and led her around the course from there. The next race was against Lotte Meldgaard, from Denmark. We had a great pre-start, but were caught slightly slower at the gun. We tried to keep the race close upwind, but ended up rounding just behind her at the top mark. She managed to hold on to the lead downwind, although we closed the distance downwind to round just behind her at the bottom mark. We tried to engage her again upwind, but she sailed a very tactically smart race and gained her lead back. From there despite our efforts, she held onto the lead and won the race. We were a bit bummed at this point, but knew we had to refocus for our next race.
Our next race was against ISAF World #1 ranked, Claire Leroy. As we entered the race, my head wasn't cleared from the previous race. Claire did a great job of capitalizing on this, and we ended up more down speed than her. We also received a penalty for tacking too close. We ended up being led off the line, and in the dying breeze, we couldn't quite get anything back on her.
We were a bit disappointed about our losses, but learned from them, and are now looking forward to our race tomorrow morning.
Anna Tunnicliffe
Rolex Miami OCR
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