Race Day 1 - Wet and Wild

Had 2 races today, winds were good, the team was raring to go, but ALAS. today was not our day.

our little platu decided to drink in lots of sea water during race one.  we were actually doing quite well, shings and youjin trimming like porn stars up and down the waves.  the boat hummed with delight everytime it surfed down a monstrous big badangdang of a wave.  but i guess the little innocent platu could not take such intense intercourse as its toilet bowl cover ripped asunder, and sea water came gushing into the engine hold.  which in it self it not too bad if not for the fact that the engine hold itself ripped apart and water started gushing into the cabin!  from the corner of my ear i heard susu scream "i tell you ah.. the cabin is flooded!".  i thought that maybe there was some water in it, but when i poked my head around the corner... it was like a scene from my nightmares (that one where i dreamt the j24 i was on was sinking).  the entire cabin was filled with water! up to chest height! i never saw so many floating dry bags in my life.

but... it was still ok. or so i thought. at least we were floating!  the girls kindly "volunteered" to go below and pump out all the water. it was like a scene from a cartoon where... i'm not sure what cartoon it was.  anyway.  so we hung on, rounded the bottom mark in 2nd place and headed for the final leg.  as the boat slammed into merciless wave after wave upwind, the guys on the rail started saying "hm, is the bow supposed to go so low".  right there and then, a wave swept across the bow and we heard a scream from below decks, "argh!! there's more water coming in from the front hatch!! it's coming in faster than i can bail!"...   we didn't want to be known as the team that sank a platu in langkawi, so we had to make the hardest decision any sailing team had to make: we decided to retire.

which came out to be a good decision cos we then went full steam ahead to bail out all the water... just IN time for the start of the second race.

today's racing was eventful, to say the least.  we're going to make some modifications to the engine hole cover, and hopefully this won't happen again.  things like this always happens.. this is what sailboat racing is all about after all.  it's how we bounce back tomorrow that is important.

wish us luck.  tomorrow's a new day.

Royal Langkawi International Regatta

Day 1
10.43pm

Greetings from Langkawi!

After a good training day at sea, we had a satisfying steamboat dinner, and are now in our room tucking each other into bed ☺

Ok now, the truth. Ben is having his 5th beer, Shinglei is laughing at her own lewd jokes, Youjin is playing his PSP, Susu is smiling sweetly at her msn window on the laptop, Tim is adding fuel to Shinglei’s lewd jokes, and Sheryl is making sure everyone’s happy ☺

An update of events that happened today –
Excitement started early in the day. At the airport, Sheryl almost didn’t make it on the flight to Langkawi! Who would have thought they wouldn’t let you check in without presenting the credit card you bought your ticket with? Nevertheless, after making a few calls, the matter was settled and all 6 of us got on the flight with bright smiles and high spirits.

Arriving at Royal Langkawi Yacht Club, we were pleasantly surprised at the beautiful landscapes. The mountain cliffs by the Marina were like Bukit Batok Nature Reserve, but bigger, and more beautiful!

Upon registration, the other teams were streaming in, and atmosphere was filled with anticipation. We met the Australian Team (defending champions) and the Malaysian Yachting Association Team. Both of which are staying at the same motel as us.

After a quick lunch, we were off to make our platu race-worthy. Since we needed a place to store the winch handles, we fixed pouches we bought from the mama stall on both sides of the cockpit. (So resourceful right..) We also did more work on the boat before going out on our first practice sail.

The winds today were pretty gusty, and we’re still trying to get a feel of the wind conditions. But overall, practice went pretty smoothly today, and the team’s sprit is high.

Stay tuned for more updates on race day!