Race Day Five (Excuses, Excuses, Excuses)

Today's forecast was 8-10 knots. DQ were sitting just 6 points out of third place. They had reviewed their achilles heel, dealing with 23 other competitors that can all start exceptionally well, and made some dockside adjustments they felt would make the difference. They were ready to make a play for third overall. Then, the clouds rolled in and with them a very convincing 17 knots of breeze. Being the smallest team in the fleet, this was not ideal timing. The quest for third became a defense of 4th quicker than you can say "Erin go Bragh," which means "Ireland forever."

But it has inspired us to spend some time analyzing what went wrong, leading us post racing today to the always entertaining topic of excuses. The winners never need them and everyone else seems to revel in them. Seeing it is our duty, we decided to make a list:

• It was too windy
• Dane is sick
• Brothers
• The breakfast menu didn't have oatmeal
• Jet lag is still lingering (12 days later)
• There's no good psych up music in Ireland
• The Argentinians are too tall
• The Australians are too big
• Spain has too much experience
• The French are too smart
• Can't understand German
• It's cold
• It's raining
• It's windy...oops, used that one already
• The sun never goes down
• The sun comes up too early
• The hotel room is stinky
• Skype only works in the hallway
• Parking spaces are too small
• Brought too much sunscreen
• Miss Moki

Ah, the list could go on and on. The truth is there are a lot of great sailors here, the race committee has been superb, the host yacht clubs have been gracious and organized, the hotel accommodations perfect, and the sailing conditions challenging and awesome. Ultimately, there are no excuses.