A Boat Race is not a Bike Race

We just finished the 'Round Saltspring race, a sailing race of 120 boats... Around Saltspring Island, in a day.  We (Mom, Dad, and myself) started at 10am Saturday morning, in the fourth of seven starts for the day, rated by boat size and speed. Total race is only ~45 nautical miles, and by 6pm we had reached the distance half-way point, in light winds that were continuing to fade. As darkness loomed and wind settled to nothing, I took a little break to sleep and awoke to complete darkness as we made our way down the east side of the island, fighting to maintain 2 'nauts per hour.  I went back for another rest at 1:30 am, waking at  5:00am and with the finish line in sight a mile away. We sat in a group of 15 boats and I took the helm for the next four hours as we fought to catch any hint of breeze in the sails right up until 10:30, advancing  200 meters at a time only to lose wind and drift back again. Finally it was time to admit defeat after 24 hours of fighting from breeze to breeze, as the official finish cut- off was 11 am ( winners included Olympic sailing skippers and purpose-built race boats. They finished around 9:30 Saturday night) Naturally I couldn't help comparing Boat vs. Bike races all night. A few observations: - starts are the same. Chaos, jockeying for position, and close calls in the name of gaining a slim advantage. Tacking back and forth with boats passing as close as 5 feet is thrilling. - it's frustrating when the determinant of speed is totally out of your control - you can't just "pedal harder" when there is no wind! - experience matters. Not what boat/bike you show up on. -luck matters. At one point we passed 16 boats standing still less than 100 feet away in the wrong wind/current conditions. Some of the same boats returned the favor early Sunday monrning on their way to the finish. - a sailing bonk is different. Mine came after 10 hours racing, from the focus of getting everything right in light wind conditions. At least I could go below deck and sleep while the race carried on around me. - carbon fibre on sailboats is just as awesome as carbon fibre on bicycles. Although somehow even more excessive and trivial. This is good. Ps. I ate 11 homemade chocolate chip cookies today. So fit right now.