This past weekend, nine of our fearless sun goddesses made the trek up to San Francisco to sail the Bryson Women’s Regatta at the Stanford Sailing Center. Beginning the day Saturday morning at 9:30, our sailors headed to the PCCSC Women’s Team Race Championship. Emotions were running high and sleep was at a minimum, but even with a solid mix of apprehension and excitement these lasses bravely arrived, ready to prove that team racing is really nothing more than fancy fleet racing (our specialty!). Liza got everyone hyped to team race with a very fine speech and the team mascot for the weekend, Bean, Jess’s very good dog, lifted our spirits. The first start was delayed for a bit due to shifty winds, but finally, a semi-steady breeze rolled in and the first round robin commenced. With seven teams competing, a total of 6 races were sailed by each team — the sun goddesses put up strong wins against UCSB and UCLA, with McKenna absolutely nailing the team racing tactics in both races. We placed 5/7 in the regatta, while still managing to fight it out with Washington and Hawaii, and learning valuable lessons from Berkeley and Stanford, such as keeping your cool when other teams show poor sportsmanship. Sadly, the wind died halfway through the allotted race time; however, this meant we enjoyed some party barges with other schools while waiting to be sent in for the day. Saturday evening was spent celebrating our fine racing efforts by writing essays, running data science code, shopping for formal dresses, and eating many, many tacos.

On Sunday morning, Amanda was excited because the wind is high; Svenja was a bit grumpy because she doesn’t want to put her spray gear on, although with a dry suit burping performance art by Audra she became more receptive. Nonetheless, we said our goodbyes to the Roonan household and departed, once again, for the sailing center, this time ready to show our fleet racing chops with a couple extra hours of sleep under our belts. Our amazing A rotation sailors (Svenja, Liza, Audra, and AC) were given the amazing opportunity of sailing Z420s for the day, while the B rotation (Amanda, Nina, McKenna, Jess, and Rylee) stayed true to what we knew in FJ’s. While it was once again shifty and therefore the first start was delayed, we were prepared with a plethora of lifejacket snacks, ranging from entire potato tacos to rancid, sweaty cheese sticks. Rylee even managed to put a spray jacket on and ended up being extremely grateful for the wisdom of our older, slightly traumatized crew. Finally, the wind filled in, and oh boy was it some good wind. Even after some heavy wind Mission Bay sailing the week prior, the sun goddesses were hiking for their lives throughout Sunday’s 8 races. It was glorious and spectacular and many heads were knocked on the low booms. By the end of the day, cores were sore, hands were raw, and some sailors in particular were quite soggy (Ms. Roggy). It was very ~fun and fresh~, let me tell you. Once again, our ladies sailed fast and, most importantly, did not capsize (unlike SLO and Cal Maritime, to whom we offer the utmost respect for braving those chilly waters and swimming their boat across a downwind finish). Of the 13 boats in the fleet, we placed 8th and 11th, boosting our CSR ranking from 38th to 35th. After washing our feet of boot juice in the Stanford sinks and changing into dry clothes, our intrepid sailors headed home to San Diego, a little more bruised than a few days before, but having left it all out on the water.