"One thing I can say for sure is that when it's over everyone thinks 'never again', 'this is the last one', but they keep coming back. There must be something in that..."
Fernando Echavarri, Skipper Telefonica Black
My stomach was slowly twisting into knots as the morning approached. I had always wanted to do something like this, but the true gravity of my commitment was starting to weigh on me. I could expect to be gone for around 20 hours, in close quarters with no privacy, who knows what type of weather conditions, and I didn't really know what to expect.
I grew up sailing. And when I say I grew up sailing, I mean my family spent nearly every weekend on our boat. But one thing my family didn't do was race their boat. I remember seeing the other kids come in after racing dinghies. They walked around like they owned the club house. Oh how I wanted to be one of them (except... I just didn't want to be the one who got a splinter in his foot from walking around barefoot outside).
I eventually got my chance in college when I stumbled on the BYU Sailing Club, met my husband-to-be, and started racing. Fast forward to today ... I race 1-3 days a week, and this is the tale of my first "offshore" race--at lest the closest to an offshore race that you'll find in the deserts of Utah.
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