Land sick...

For you non-nautical types, it's kind of like being seasick...except you don't notice until you get out of the boat...and everything keeps rocking. Trying to sleep=bad. Drinking=good.

I spent the afternoon skippering a Shields in UC Irvine's annual Turkey Day Regatta (which always seems to be the Sunday after Thanksgiving). Somehow, I ended up with the slowest boat in the fleet, Mildred, which actually belongs to Harvey Mudd College. What is Harvey Mudd doing with a Shields? You ask...I can only tell you what they're not doing with a Shields: maintaining it.

Parts that broke (or we noticed were missing) during the race:

1) Backstay (cleat broken)
2) Downhaul/cunningham (missing)
3) Jib fairlead block (not attached)
4) Spinnaker pole mast attachment (missing)
5) Starboard winch (not winching very well)
6) Halyard winch (missing)

I had a good jury rigger on board and ended up finishing in 5th. Boat number 6 had some problems of their own and quit early.