Elise

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Last photos from the Lightship Race

Does Nat look disappointed?

Serge and Nathan consoled themselves with a nice traditional onion soup at the Club

Serge was Elise's companion on Friday night! Looks comfy huh?

Photo courtesy of Ultimate Yachtshots and Nathan

On the way back from a few miles short of the Lightship

Nat was lying in the cockpit - and Nathan was driving the boat back, trying to surf a little bit, even though we didn't set the spinnaker and were thus a little underpowered.

The camera lens is really wet.

Lightship photo - NorcalSailing.com

Full writeup is at: http://www.norcalsailing.com/entries/2011/03/26/dhl-start.html

Nat's New Fashion Statement after the Double-Handed lightship

Back at the dock after the race - the golf ball had already subsided

That's where the bone broke

At the Yacht Club after the visit to the hospital

This morning right after getting up (you can tell by the hairdo...) - there is still some swelling above the eye too.

Working on the boat on Sunday morning

Sunday afternoon

Double-Handed Lightship - Nat's perspective

Nathan was the skipper on that one so he may post his perspective too...We started well, bang on the line but a little too close to shore - an embarrassing moment is when we realized that our fenders were still down...but I took care of that quickly. I think that Latitude 38 is wondering how much we'd be willing to pay so they don't publish that part of the story :)

We headed up for the South Tower but there was a super heavy ebb in the main channel (the 'river') and we were slow to catch it which allows El Raton and Verve to pass up. It took a while to adjust the backstay and traveler but as soon as we figured that out we were gaining on Verve and El Raton, leaving the other E27s behind us.

Soon after the gate, I moved (I don't quite remember why, although I think that I was trimming the jib a little bit...), I think that I slipped because the next thing I remember, my temple is hitting some protuberant metal part pretty hard, bearing most of my body weight. I wasn't knocked out, just a little groggy. Didn't spend much time thinking about it and went back up to the high side. We tacked and continued to follow the lead boats.

The waves must have been 10 to 12 ft tall (that's my estimate...and I am a metric system person so take someone else's opinion on that one), dolphins were in surfing them and playing with the breaking ones, clearly having a ton of fun. So were we. Elise was in a great groove, we were both tethered to the boat (although sitting on the rail on the high side isn't very risky frankly. Perfect conditions. Nathan was driving admirably in the waves, so they didn't slow us down as much as they could (imagine that we had to climb up hills constantly before going down with a bang) -

Slowly though, I started to develop a headache and a throbbing pain on the left side of my head and my eye started to feel like some big bug stung the corner of it. I was a little dizzy so I asked Nathan to check if there was a lump. His response was 'you have a golf ball, we're turning around'

I don't think that I registered entirely what he said but through my head was going the following battle

'this is a race I have been looking forward to for weeks, we are not turning around, we have an appointment for the lightship'

My Jiminy Cricket would then take the floor: 'you hit your head hard on a metal surface and you are starting to feel dizzy, there is a lot of fluid building up in that area and you may have internal injuries or bleeding which you may not actually find out about until you get to the lightship and then, it would be super expensive or slow to take you to the hospital for some kind of emergency procedure. Play it safe, you can go out and race in the ocean many other times'

Verve just turned around in front of El Raton so we were in 2nd position in our division AND catching up to the Rat. This was NOT a good time to turn around. I was also looking at these awesome waves - as much as waves can be annoying upwind, they are super fun downwind and I was salivating at the idea of a 12 mile surfing playground back to the finish line. Turning around was not part of that plan. My face must have looked quite incredulous as Nathan repeated

'you should go look at yourself in the mirror down below. This looks pretty nasty'

'I don't want to go below' (I was feeling fine but on my first ocean race, I usually do not want to take risks with sea sickness - I think that the real reason is that a) I didn't want to take my weight off the rail and I didn't want to accept this reality. If I could see my face in the mirror, i'd have a hard time staying in denial'

Nathan asked if I was feeling OK. I honestly wasn't sure, starting to feel a little sleepy. I had to replied 'I don't know' which was the truth. He decided to turn around and have this checked. His thought process was 'it may be nothing but if it isn't the case, I don't want to have to find out at the lightship'

So we turned around. I swore (I probably used the 'F' word more often on Saturday than in the last year or so, I never swear normally), I started to cry, I was super upset, I was also feeling sick and I threw up a couple of times. I just wanted to sleep right now. Nathan hadn't seen me like this, ever probably. I am sometimes disappointed when we race and break something and have to give up some great advantage but never quite like this. I looked really shaken.

I went to a dozing off pattern until we reached port again. By then the golf ball had descended upon the eye and was starting to encircle it. Nathan offered to put away the boat, gave me a sandwich and an apple fritter which we had planned for the day and Serge took me to the hospital.

I found there that I had fractured my eye socket bone (on the left and top left of the eye) and that I had suffered a mild concussion - given the latter, the doctor said that there was a risk that I had internal injuries and bleeding in my brain. This could lead to seizure and death if not taken care of soon. She said that I had to choose between doing a CT-Scan and brain MRI - both expensive procedures and the former carrying a non-negligible radiation risk OR have someone with me at all times for the next 24hrs who could drive me to an ER the minute I started to act incoherently, pass out, or do a bunch of other weird things..

Some typical symptoms of a concussion are

big cranial or facial swelling
abnormal behavior (particularly around moods)
vomitting
severe headache (which I had since I hit this thing)
Dizziness and feeling drowsy

There is nothing to do with the bone, it will just take 6 to 8 weeks to mend itself. It doesn't have to be reset, just has to solder itself back on. I chose the baby-sitter. Symptoms may still develop over the next few days after the head injury and I am to watch out for them. Mild concussion symptoms resolve themselves pretty quickly.

All this sounded like good news - and I hadn't been to the hospital to have this checked out, I would have seriously wondered why we weren't on the water at this point. Then the doctor broke the bad news:

'if you go back to do sports where there is a risk that you will sustain another head injury, this could result in blindness and death. The bone could detach itself and pierce the optical nerve or your eye - and this area of your skull, even though, particularly strong, has now suffered a bit and will be weaker for the next few weeks. Another head injury could lead to a much more serious concussion. So no sports for 6 to 8 weeks, and that would include whatever it is that you were doing when that happened'

There is no way I am not sailing for 6 to 8 weeks (although I did not say that to the doc) - Nathan suggested that I ask about wearing a helmet. If it is a hard hat, it would protect my skull, and reinforce it. Double-Handed Farallones is in two weeks - this is one of my favorite local events, there is no way I am missing it.

I am still feeling super super bummed not to have finished the race, so so sorry for Nathan as he had to turn around. I was such an idiot! couldn't I watch where I put my feet? I mean, it didn't even happened in the rough part of the race, this was right after the gate in some really mild and round swell.

Anyway, Nathan was kind enough to baby-sit me and Serge brought some home-made biscotti today. I rested yesterday and just did some minor boat work today. I am on tylenol (the doctor offered to prescribe pain medication but I turned that down) and I used ice to reduce the swelling which was super effective.

Meanwhile, El Raton continued with a great race.

Of course, Nathan was right and knowing that symptoms of a concussion can develop over the next few hours or even days after the event, he didn't want to run unnecessary risks - of course, it was worth checking. Now that it turns out that I probably would have been OK, I so wish we had continued. Easy to say in hindsight and as Nathan puts it, it doesn't make that decision bad at the time, and without the benefit of hindsight. Still, this is the bummer of all bummers of the day...Of course, he did the right and responsible thing to favor safety of everyone on board over race results - he probably did what I would have done in his shoes if roles had been reversed as I would have worried about him.

Sailing as a school of life. I just have to deal with this disappointment. Writing this blog post is probably one way of doing it...

Friday, March 25, 2011

So cool - loads of Express 27 at the Double-Handed lightship race tomorrow

Express 27s - C

Start 0915

DIANNE
El Raton
Elisa
Great White
Light'n Up
Magic Bus
Taz!!
Verve
Wetsu

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Stop the massacre and traffic of dolphins around the world

Dolphins and penguins are the two creatures that I can't help smiling at. There are some atrocities that are committed on dolphins and small whales on a regular basis, in particular in Japan (and yes, they still fish whales too...)

http://www.dolphinspirit.org/drivefishery.html

Please...help stop this...

Monday, March 21, 2011

Sausalito Harbor photos - 2008

An old unposted photo from Pacific Cup 2008

photo courtesy of Nathan (and Nat's camera)

Re-posting 'What Makes You Get Up in the Morning' here by popular demand

I turn off the heating for the night since I am all nicely bundled up under a warm duvet and I have two balls of fur curled up right next to me. This means that it gets a little chilly in my bedroom in the morning. Have you faced this hard decision of having to decide when to pull out of bed? That means deciding when to put your nice and warm foot on the cold and unforgiving hardwood floor, when to extirpate your body from the cozy protection of the duvet and face the fearsome world of traffic jams, meetings and ironing. And that's a pretty tough decision.

Like all tough decisions, it is good to take some time to consider all options - there is no point in rushing into the open jaw of this sharky world. This morning, the decision was particularly hard as the panther and the apprentice tiger curled up on the bed were still sleeping. Usually, they are my alarm clock. So I reviewed all the possible reasons for me to take a leave of absence from heaven.

'Rid the world of sarcoma' - that's a pretty powerful reason and a very rewarding activity, post coffee intake. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of sarcoma-related activities planned today - none that can't wait for a couple more hours.

'Find the man of your life' - now, we're starting to get into serious territory. I then pictured my commute: solitary on a bike. Then, half asleep and sweaty on Caltrain. Then in an office of which I have already met all the inhabitants and with lunch catered in - then back on Caltrain in my bike clothes for a mere 40 minutes and roughing it on the bike in the rain and up the hill. Sounds like my best chances to meet the man of my life and look attractive enough to be noticed would be on the return commute which is a few hours away, So no need to get up now for that.

'Solve web checkins and help people navigate the web through people' (hint: that would be my job) - given that half my office is out sick I actually probably incur a serious risk of catching some kind of awful cold again if I show up at the office, even though I do have some important meetings, and with VPN technology and my laptop, I could totally spend my commute time in bed.

'Win the lottery'. Since I don't buy lottery tickets, this would have such a remote possibility of happening, that is, I would have to step on a ticket that someone has lost in the street that would then have to happen to be a winning ticket. Meanwhile, I would have to do work as I would have to figure out how to check the results of the lottery draw. Risk-reward balance doesn't look good enough to leave my bed.

'The alarm is telling you to get up'. I just turned it off and it is not telling me anything now.

'The cats are now awake and licking your face and want food' - the rasp feeling of their tongue on my face is unpleasant...and wait...this is also their toilet paper. OK, I am up.

Photos from Norcalsailing (of Elise) from Big Daddy Saturday Race

Check out www.norcalsailing.com

Elise and the French Flag

Elise among the first E27s at the windward mark (next to Dianne)

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Bird on a Wire

Serge and I woke up early this morning and in the morning mist took Elise out of the water. We had pastries on the boat which attracted a bunch of birds. These ones stayed on the boat even though I was messing around with lines, making all sorts of noise. Thanks Serge for the picture!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Choice Quotes from Bid Daddy's Ladies Club

As it poured really hard on us while heading back to the Club

Kathy - you know, we're lucky in a way. I mean what other sports would have you come prepared for a total downpour?
Nat - that's right, it could be a lot worse, we could be riding a bike right now I guess

Nat - header
Heather - what?
Nat - Header, not Heather. I just called a header, as in not a lift, but if you prefer, we can call things differently
On the next lift: 'Kathy'

Nat - can I have a bit less outhaul please?
Heather (adjusting the outjaul) - ok
Nat - more
Heather - more or less?
Nat - I meant more of less.

Trying to locate the Finish Line (lost in the fog)

Nat - I can't see shit
Kathy - I can't see shit
Heather, the engineer - I will get my GPS out

Heading back to the Club in heavy rain (and all three of us staying out on deck)

Kathy - I wonder why we are the only one out in the Bay

Right after the start

Heather - why did you start?
Nat - because all the Express 27s were starting? Because it was our start time? Is that a trick question?

Big Daddy 2011 - Saturday. Michiel's Pictures

Amazing shot. View from the bow.

Big Daddy Saturday - Serge's Video

Nathan drove the last race (with a #3) and Nat drove the first two races (with a #1)

At 4;47 you clearly see how we had to tack to avoid the drifting windward mark that was anchore to an E27 (the other boats right behind us were told to ignore the offset and didn't have to go way upwind and cover the extra distance. We asked for a redress as we believe that these boats were given an unfair advantage, did not seem to work - and we got 4th. With a redress we would have gotten 3rd in that race. It doesn't matter for the overall standings for the day, we would still have been 2nd, so not a big deal.

Around 8'11, you can see out the tiller extension broke and Nathan is fixing it up. It happened right by the windward mark, the boat jerked as a result and everyone looked back wondering what I had just smoked probably. I just found myself with the tiller extension in my hand and the tiller detached from it...

Looking at the videos, I think that we can improve as a team on:

getting more weight on the rail faster right after a tack. Small things could be done after we get back on the rail
we can prepare our maneuvres a bit more ahead of time (make sure lines will run clear, that the pole isn't twisted, etc...) have each person responsible for that line, check on them even if they are not in use, so that there is no delay for things having to go up or down, or in or out)
In some cases, get closer to the marks! (I am like half a boat length away from the offset mark toward the end)

Video: courtesy of Ultimate Yachtshots: http://ultimate-yachtshots.smugmug.com/

Big Daddy Sunday - Nathan's Photos

Getting to the start line and right as we dropped the spinnaker

The A-Team!

Crossing the Bay from Alcatraz to Angel Island. We were flying 'France' so we're easy to spot.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Big Daddy 2011 Sunday Writeup. All Womens Team

Crew:

Nat: helm, main trim and during maneuvers except tacks headsail trim
Kathy: trim and pit (Kathy had never sailed on Elise, or an Express 27 for that matter before)
Heather: seconding Kathy during tacks and foredeck

We all kind of did tactics and strategy. So this was a Ladies' Club today :)

Our overall strategy:

First, before the race, we had looked at wind and current conditions for the day and had discussed and made a joint decision about which way we were going to go around the course. At the Big Daddy, you can choose to go round the mark whichever way you want, so long as if you go CW, all the marks are left to starboard and if you go CCW all the marks are left to port.

We decided to go CW (eg. Alcatraz first, then Angel Island down Raccoon Strait) for two reasons:

Current: it was still ebbing really badly round about lunchtime (we made it to the start area just in time because we were fighting the current) so we would be pushed toward Alcatraz, kind of sideways by Angel Island - we know there is a nice little eddy that pushes you right around Alcatraz on the South side and the current would be a little less as we would cross over on our way to Angel Island and it would either be slack or flooding as we knew we would be in the lee of Raccoon Straits and to the finish. If the wind stayed southerly, we would also be on a nice reach with the spinnaker up, able to get a hot angle AND sail the shortest course to the line. That's what we wanted if the wind was to get light.
Wind: with a CW course and a Southerly, we would be upwind in the first leg only, and in highly favored current. As soon as we cleared the Eastern point of Alcatraz, we'd be on a reach, then downwind/reach all the way to the finish, all of which are must faster points of sail.

We reasoned that this course would enable us to sail what we consider the shortest distance. We didn't want to do very many tacks as we knew they would be slow since we were very short-handed and we did three of them total, one at the start line which could have been avoided - and if we can go to the finish in a straight line rather than having to gybe many times, sounds faster :)

The start:

We were on the line when the gun went off but didn't have clean air, so it wasn't a perfect start, we let one boat come to windward of us, sneaking through. So we tacked immediately toward Angel Island to get clean air. We noticed a bunch of boats, well, a lot of boats opted to go CCW as they were clearly heading for Racoon Straits. We couldn't think of anything that had changed since we last discuss this so we sticked to our plan and headed for Alcatraz

Leg 1 - from start to Alcatraz:

As planned, the current was really pushing us toward Alcatraz which was great since we were short-handed and with no weight on the rail, it is a little harder to point like the other boats under the genoa. We had between 9 and 11 knots of wind and I kept trimming the main, playing with traveler and backstay to keep the boat speed around 6.3 or 6.4 knots. I wasn't paying attention to the other boats. Kathy and Heather were though and they called the tacks, as well as current lines - looking at the boats ahead, they saw a couple of nice lifts coming our way which made us decide against tacking at some point. I really focused on driving on the upwind and I could see that when the main was too tightly in the boat speed would drop, I could see the exact amount of backstay to put by just looking at the speedo and I kept looking at the telltales on the genoa (seconded by Heather who could see the top of the sail) to make sure I wasn't pinching. We had really good boat speed the whole time.

We arrived really close to the island, caught the eddy that we knew about and were propelled around the island - we started on a reach. Our spinnaker was on the wrong side, so we hoisted it without the pole, then gybed around the island and then attached the pole.

Leg 2 - from Alcatraz to Angel Island:

If you ask me which boat we passed, or crossed coming the other way or where the other Express 27s were, I couldn't tell. We just sailed our race, regardless of the moves the other boats decided to make. We had a plan and we sticked to it because we didn't see a reason not to. The assumptions we had made got confirmed. Tactically, we looked at boats around us, left right, ahead, to pick up new cues on current and wind, but that's about it.

The wind was still just about 7 to 10 knots, however, by sailing a reach and basically pointing pretty east, we were ranging on the Angel Island point - we rounded close to it. A little too close. We had anticipated a hole because the island would block the wind, however, looking at the few boats ahead of us, they didn't seem stuck in a big hole, so we had decided to keep sailing in a straight line and head up for the other side of the channel. We could see wind (ripple of the water) in the middle of the channel for sure and boats with full sails. This hole came and we didn't react fast enough. Golden Moon (Express 37) was right next to us, saw this coming and gybed to get out of it super quickly.

Fortunately it didn't last very long and we were soon on our way, within probably less than a minute. Golden Moon was way past us by then though of course, about 1 min ahead - they will stay about 1 min ahead the whole time, so that's where we lost big time.

Leg 3 - from Angel Island to the finish:

The wind got really light so Heather and Kathy played the pole and the spinnaker sheet constantly. We kept a very hot angle, heading for the finish line - we knew the current had shifted and we could see the boats ahead behind pushed right to left - so we wanted to come well up current of the finish line, not to have to tack and finish upwind to make it. Conveniently, it also meant sailing on a reach which was the fastest point of sail. Wait, that was actually part of our plan.

The wind died to nothing for a while, past Angel Island, there was a big hole but it crossed the entire race course so there was no way around it. So much so that we dropped the spinnaker for a few minutes as the genoa is faster when the wind is under 1.1 knots...As soon as it picked up again, maybe 2 minutes later, to about 4 knots...we hoisted the spinnaker again. We stayed hot all the way to the finish which we couldn't see because by then, it was raining very heavily and Richmond was in a thick fog. We used our GPS to make sure that we were still up current and up wind of the line.

Kathy and Heather were still very actiely managing the spinnaker. Heather would take the weight of the twing off to help the spinnaker fly, and Kathy, now adjusting both pole and sheets because Heather kept her weight to leeward and moving around would have slowed us down, skillfully played both to keep the sail full. We lowered the pole tip and started flowing the spinnaker like a big jib.

Verve sailed lower and had to drop their spinnaker and sail upwind to the line.

Right on the line, we had a J105 and a Benetteau right by us...unfortunately they were coming from behind and stole our air (that's the problem with behind ahead in the downwind part of the race), we couldn't come up any further. We crossed the line in a drift, as close as possible to the favored end (remember our 'shortest distance' strategy) with two boats stealing our winds, both faster - they beat us to the line with an overlap...that was a close call.

Golden Moon was by then dropping its spinnaker and heading into Richmond, probably still about 1 min ahead of us.

Heather was a rock star foredeck - she tirelessly adjusted things. We gybes a few times, particularly in Racoon Straits as the wind at some point turned 180 and clocked North, before becoming South again. she put the jib up, then down 2 minutes later as the spinnaker was up again. She moved her weight constantly, she helped fly the sail.

Kathy was a super trimmer - she constantly played the sheet and kept the spinnaker flying. She gybed the spinnaker by holding both sheets. Upwind, Kathy would trim in the jib and Heather would tail and skirt. It was clearly slower than the boats that would be fully crewed. Given the circumstances, it was still pretty fast if you ask me!

It was really hard to keep it full during gybes because the wind was so light - both Kathy and Heather worked together to avoid wraps - a great pair.

Overall, it was a fun race - I really liked that we decided about a strategy and we were clear on the reasons why it made sense to us and so long as the situation wasn't challenging our assumptions, we just sticked to it. We did look at other boats, currents and winds to see if we had to fine tune it of course.

Big Daddy 2011 Sunday Results

Sail	Boat	Make/Model	Skipper	Yacht Club	1
3113	ARCADIA	Schock Santana 27 Modernized	Gordie Nash	RYC/CYC	1
8	The Maker	Open Sailing Open 5.70	Tom Baffico	MYC	2
180	Breakaway	USI Ultimate 20	John Wolfe	SSS	3
178	Toon Town	Ultimate Yachts U-20	Michael Eisenberg	Westlake Yacht Club	4
28669	Quiver	McCord N/M36 Mod	Jeff McCord	RYC	5
USA3632	Encore	Sydney Yachts Sydney 36 CR	Wayne Koide	RYC	6
40	Split Water	Beneteau First 10R	David Britt	RYC and VYC	7
18488	Golden Moon	Express Boats Express 37	Kame Richards	RYC	8
28454	Always Friday	USI Antrim 27	John Liebenberg	Richmond YC	9
38423	Tiki Blue	Beneteau Beneteau 423	Gary Troxel	RYC	10
355	Whisper	J Boat 105	Marc Vayn	StFYC	11
101	Elise	Express 27	Nathalie and Nathan Criou and Bossett	Richmond Yacht Club	12

The table is a little too big so I am just posting snapshots of it - it's available at:

http://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/applet_regatta_results.php?regatta_id=3686&show_manufacturer=1&show_crew=1

The other Express 27 were at

Verve - 29 (we passed them right near the finish, we had opted to stay really high a) because at a hot angle in light winds we were faster and b) because of the heavy flood that was pushing us heavily to the left, we weren't sure we'd lay the finish line and didn't want to have to go upwind to get to the line)

Eagle - 49

Light'n'up - 55

Luffing out loud - 62

Expressway - 63

Chile Dog - 74

Dianne - DSQ

There were 83 starters and 80 finishers

Big Daddy Sunday - Nat's Photos

[[posterous-content:pid___0]]On the way to the start line, we crossed paths with a couple of old square riggers. They were beautiful and they appeared to be really sailed - we saw people trimmed the sails - and it takes quite a bit of effort to do that![[posterous-content:pid___7]][[posterous-content:pid___8]]I like the hat[[posterous-content:pid___9]][[posterous-content:pid___10]]Kathy shared trimming duties with Nat during gybes and transitions when she did pit work - other than that, she trimmed the whole time[[posterous-content:pid___11]]Heather, rock star foredeck person[[posterous-content:pid___12]] This was the view heading back to the Club[[posterous-content:pid___13]]Some serious piece of engineering that is[[posterous-content:pid___5]][[posterous-content:pid___6]]Elise...[[posterous-content:pid___4]]
[[posterous-content:pid___1]][[posterous-content:pid___2]]The new and old technology. The new technologies give you a choice of power and sail.[[posterous-content:pid___3]]

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Big Daddy - Nathan's Photos

The crew - on one of the downwind leg of the day.

Serge is flying

Dinner fished in the Bay. Just kidding :) This was a pair of sardines at La Ciccia...I am normally vegetarian unless the fresh sardines from Monterey are on the specials at that restaurant...Thank you Nathan for taking me there - I needed a break!

Big Daddy Results - Saturday Races

Sail	Boat	Make/Model	Skipper	Yacht Club	Pos
0	Dianne	Alsberg express 27	Steve Katzman	LTWYC	1
101	Elise	Express 27	Nathalie and Nathan Criou and Bossett	Richmond Yacht Club	2
3	Light'n Up	Express 27	Karl Gillette	RYC	3
14	Luffing Out Loud	Alsberger Express 27	Craig Wilson	Windjammers Lake Tahoe	4
57	Expressway	Express 27 Express 27	Michael Robinson	wyc	5