The winds of war
2004-06-22

After M.E. being on call all weekend as us doing absolutely nothing exciting, it was finally Monday and she had the day off. She also had a sore back so no sailing. Great...

I had resumes to send and she had a dentist appointment so we weren't really ready to do anything until after 1:00. It was a beautiful day and we had to do something so I suggested we head to Newp0rt. She agreed and off we went.

I really didn't have a plan and as we got off the Jamest0wn Bridge, I took the local exit and headed for the waterfront. We got to Ft Weatherall just as 0racle and A1ingi the two Americas cup boats went by under full spinnaker about 50 feet from were we were sitting. WAY cool.

M.E wanted to watch them race so we dashed off to Newp0rt and eventually Ft Adams (were the Jazz festival is held) and grabbed seats just in time for race #2. There was a radio station doing play by play and tents and stuff, very professional. The wind was blowing 20 so it looked to be an interesting show. It was.

There was near collission at the start, 0racle got ahead and then slammed A1ingi every time they got close. Then at the windward mark, Oracle blew up a spinnaker, threw a guy in the ocean, caused A1ingi to foul them and then to wrap their chute around the masthead all in full view of the fans. Sweet.

The entire race course was right there and it was all free. I kept thinking there should be thousands of people here to see this instead of the few hundred who made it. Oh well.

After the races we went to the local shipyard where the boats were to see the cup and check out the boats. We watched a bit of the press converence and then watched 0racle get pulled out of the water while drinking a grapes.

We hit Newp0rt YC and had a drink with friends, had dinner across the street and headed home. A nice day that took my mind off of things. Sometimes you just need to get away you know?

Happy Tuesday world. I'll be fine.

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