My First Regatta

 

After years wanting to learn how to sail, but never having a chance to do it back in Brazil, I finally found the perfect place to learn. I have only been part of the UCSD Sailing Team for two weeks but I already love to practice and learn with all the amazing team members. Everyone has an important part on making the team the best I could think of joining!

 

This weekend, October 10th and 11th, I sailed in my first regatta. It was a great experience! All the schools coming together to do what we love and having a great time while doing it in beautiful sunny Mission Bay.

 

Racing was intense! It was awesome to feel the speed and the wind. I, as crew, and Morgan, as skipper, were racing for the first time in our positions. Before we even got in the water we talked for about what we were planning to do, how we would do it, and how we would succeed working together. Morgan taught me some techniques I did not yet know and I ended up learning a lot that day even before we started sailing.

 

Morgan and I managed to deal with difficult wind situations and take advantage of good conditions. At first we were still meeting each other and understanding our responsibilities. We made many mistakes on the first day, and the good thing is that we could recognize them after they happened. Since we had such a good experience working together for the first time on Saturday we raced together again on Sunday. This time analyzing mistakes and figuring out how to improve.

 

One of my favorite moments of this weekend was the last 10 seconds of my last race. We were having difficulties the whole race. From knots that untied, to boats that got in our way. Me and my teammate synced and tacked perfectly. We got speed and we ended up passing 8 boats.

 

In general, the Tritons did great for the first regatta of the season. Open got 4th and 9th place with amazing performances of my teammates, especially Nicolas Delfino. Frosh/soph, considering it was the first competition, did well also.12th place by Morgan and I, and 20th place by Casey and Arturo; also 14th place by Jason and Chase and 22nd place by Natalie and Robyn.

 

Learning a sport I never had contact with before is both exciting and scary. But the teammates make everything a lot easier, always being nice, patient and happy to help. Not only that, but also always being ready to sail and train new sailors. I am now really involved with the club and cannot wait to go back to the water and practice even more with the sailing family.

 

I went from knowing almost nothing about sailing to actually practicing, knowing knots, and competing. The past two weeks just showed how this next quarter will be full of teamwork, personal growth, hard work and fun.

 

I feel really lucky to be able to participate in such a great team, for such a great sport, in such a great city.