Sorry for not updating sooner, we didn't have any Internet access until yesterday evening and we had a busy busy day so we are just getting around to a post this morning!
Things have been amazing so far. We arrived in Paris on Friday morning and headed over to our gracious host's house--a family friend of Emelia's put us up on their houseboat on the Seine for the night! Thank you SO much to Pierre Denis and his family for taking us in for the night, we ate some incredible meals and were completely taken care of while in Paris and we are eternally grateful! It was a great way to see the city.
Recent UCLA grad and friend Manue Lataste and some other friends met up with us in Paris and were amazing enough to drive us down to Lorient. It was a beautiful 5 hour drive through the French countryside, with a quick stop at McDonald's on the way (it's delicious here, and we were starving, give us a break). We finally made it to the EDHEC village around 5pm and met up with our world-traveler teammates Victor Weisberg (he is taking a break from his internship in Switzerland to join us for the race) and Eric Newton (who is volunteering for the Peace Corps in Benin and was unable to make the race last year due to the volcano issues!) so we are super stoked to have a little mini reunion in Lorient :) The boys had gotten started on our boat check and registration but unfortunately the main registration closed right as we got here so we had to postpone a lot of our set up and logistical issues until the next morning.
We got up at 6am before the sun was even out to get to the village early and get our stickers on our boat, replace some parts, go through the line where we receive all our free food and items from our sponosors, etc etc. We finally got out on the water around 1pm in time to participate in the big practice race at 2pm. We did well considering it was the first time all of us had been on the boat altogether (with Victor and Newton) but we definitely had some issues to work out. However by the end of the first race we were all falling into our designated positions and were feeling confident we could do well the next day for the first races.
Monday (yesterday) was the first day of racing!!!
Yesterday's races were by far the best we have done at this event over the past 4 years. We did SO WELL and it was only the first day, which means we only get better from here!!
We had some AWESOME starts off the line thanks to Jake, which put us in a great position for the rest of each of the races. Our first race we were top 10 in our fleet all the way through the second upwind leg, which is when we ran into some big issues with our spinnaker rounding the windward mark and we had to sail off into oblivion for awhile while we untangled everything...we had our spin and jib both down for a good 5 minutes while we scrambled to figure out what lines were fouled up, so we lost a lot of boats. Despite that whole debacle, however, we finished 17th (out of 54 boats) which we were all surprised to see on the results when we came in...
The second race was okay but not our best, we went the wrong way on the last beat and ended up 26th, but the THIRD race was by far our best-- we placed 15th and had a really great, solid race. Everyone really knows their position now and are working together so things are moving much more smoothly.
We are really, really happy with how yesterday went and are excited to improve today and stay competitive throughout the week.
Unfortunately, with the internet issues, I'm having trouble getting photos up!! SORRY I know I promised! But I will do my best to get some up soon. In the meantime check out the updates of each day on the EDHEC website and maybe you will see us in a few photos of the village!
It's 8:30am here and we are about to head out for a long coastal race to another port 30 miles away. This only happens one day out of the week--we sail there all day today, spend the night camping/sleeping on the boat, and then sail back the next day. Should be quite a long day but we're excited to see some French coastline!
What else??? Weather has been incredible, between 65 and 70 degrees for the first couple days, and today is the first day it's been cold (of course it's the day we have to sleep outside). But for this time of year, this is incredible weather, and it's supposed to stay sunny and nice so we're happy with that!
Ok we need to get organized and get going, but just wanted to update you all and say we are doing well! We will update again probably in a couple days when we get back from the other port.
~Morgan
Things have been amazing so far. We arrived in Paris on Friday morning and headed over to our gracious host's house--a family friend of Emelia's put us up on their houseboat on the Seine for the night! Thank you SO much to Pierre Denis and his family for taking us in for the night, we ate some incredible meals and were completely taken care of while in Paris and we are eternally grateful! It was a great way to see the city.
Recent UCLA grad and friend Manue Lataste and some other friends met up with us in Paris and were amazing enough to drive us down to Lorient. It was a beautiful 5 hour drive through the French countryside, with a quick stop at McDonald's on the way (it's delicious here, and we were starving, give us a break). We finally made it to the EDHEC village around 5pm and met up with our world-traveler teammates Victor Weisberg (he is taking a break from his internship in Switzerland to join us for the race) and Eric Newton (who is volunteering for the Peace Corps in Benin and was unable to make the race last year due to the volcano issues!) so we are super stoked to have a little mini reunion in Lorient :) The boys had gotten started on our boat check and registration but unfortunately the main registration closed right as we got here so we had to postpone a lot of our set up and logistical issues until the next morning.
We got up at 6am before the sun was even out to get to the village early and get our stickers on our boat, replace some parts, go through the line where we receive all our free food and items from our sponosors, etc etc. We finally got out on the water around 1pm in time to participate in the big practice race at 2pm. We did well considering it was the first time all of us had been on the boat altogether (with Victor and Newton) but we definitely had some issues to work out. However by the end of the first race we were all falling into our designated positions and were feeling confident we could do well the next day for the first races.
Monday (yesterday) was the first day of racing!!!
Yesterday's races were by far the best we have done at this event over the past 4 years. We did SO WELL and it was only the first day, which means we only get better from here!!
We had some AWESOME starts off the line thanks to Jake, which put us in a great position for the rest of each of the races. Our first race we were top 10 in our fleet all the way through the second upwind leg, which is when we ran into some big issues with our spinnaker rounding the windward mark and we had to sail off into oblivion for awhile while we untangled everything...we had our spin and jib both down for a good 5 minutes while we scrambled to figure out what lines were fouled up, so we lost a lot of boats. Despite that whole debacle, however, we finished 17th (out of 54 boats) which we were all surprised to see on the results when we came in...
The second race was okay but not our best, we went the wrong way on the last beat and ended up 26th, but the THIRD race was by far our best-- we placed 15th and had a really great, solid race. Everyone really knows their position now and are working together so things are moving much more smoothly.
We are really, really happy with how yesterday went and are excited to improve today and stay competitive throughout the week.
Unfortunately, with the internet issues, I'm having trouble getting photos up!! SORRY I know I promised! But I will do my best to get some up soon. In the meantime check out the updates of each day on the EDHEC website and maybe you will see us in a few photos of the village!
It's 8:30am here and we are about to head out for a long coastal race to another port 30 miles away. This only happens one day out of the week--we sail there all day today, spend the night camping/sleeping on the boat, and then sail back the next day. Should be quite a long day but we're excited to see some French coastline!
What else??? Weather has been incredible, between 65 and 70 degrees for the first couple days, and today is the first day it's been cold (of course it's the day we have to sleep outside). But for this time of year, this is incredible weather, and it's supposed to stay sunny and nice so we're happy with that!
Ok we need to get organized and get going, but just wanted to update you all and say we are doing well! We will update again probably in a couple days when we get back from the other port.
~Morgan
