Monday was another long day of sailing for Team Maclaren, but we came off the water with a good scoreline. We finished the day 3-1 to take our overall score to 6-1.

We were one of the first teams to race on Monday, and again were the last boats off the water. Our first two races of the day were held in the gradient wind, before it died and gave way to the sea breeze. Then we had five flights off before hitting the water for our last race at 5:30pm.

We had some very tight racing, which pushed us hard all day. Our first race was against Ferris, CAN. We were able to give her a penalty in the pre-start as she tried to gybe too close to us, and we continued to control her up until about 15 seconds to the start gun. At that point, I got too greedy and the plan back fired, so we trailed off the start line. The conditions were such that it was very easy for a boat to get quite a lead if the other boat sailed a shift wrong, so we had to be paitient and keep it as close as we could upwind. At the top mark, we were right behind her, but the leg turned into a very long port gybe, and we were unable get around her. Up the second leg, again we had to sail the shifts correctly but she caught a little more pressure than us and extended out over layline enough to spin her penalty. We tacked on layline, and were able to just squeeze inside her at the top mark. From there, we were able to keep her behind on the downwind leg to take the win.

Our next race was the most fun and closest race of the regatta so far. Throughout the whole race, the boats were no more than one and a half lengths apart. We were racing Goncalves, POR and even though we took the first cross in the race and controlled it from there, Rita and team did a fantastic job of keeping on the pressure. However, Molly and Debbie made some excellent calls to keep us ahead around the track.

After a very long and hot delay for the wind to sort itself out, we finally got the third race of the day going. This race was against Wang, CHN. We did exactly what we wanted off the startline, but the wind quickly changed and it put them in a controlling position after the first tack. We kept the race close and were able to pass them up the second beat; they got a little too close to the spectating wall and found a hole (in the wind). On the downwind leg, the race got interesting, not necessarily from a match racing standpoint, but rather from a wind standpoint. Throughout the race, the wind had been swinging left, which ultimately led to the wind being blocked by the maritime museum. This resulted in a huge void in the wind in the middle of the downwind leg. The wind would come and go so it was a game of patience (and nerves of steel) to wait for our shift.  When our shift came through, we called it correctly and were able to reach out of that 'black hole' and head to the finish line and take the win.

We then had a long break where we headed into the air conditioning to try and cool our bodies down a little. Eventually we got back on the water for our final race of the day. We were up against Halbrock, GER. We had an awesome pre-start as they didn't realize it was their turn to go. We were able to draw a port-starboard penalty on them and held them out of the starting box for 2 minutes which is also a penalty. We led them off the line by about 5 seconds and were able to build up a huge lead. Unfortunately, we picked up some weeds on the second (of three) downwind legs which slowed us so much that they were able to catch up to us and beat us by half a length at the finishline. It was very upsetting, and we had a good chat about it with our coach. We learned some things from it and are looking forward to our next day of sailing.

We were supposed to sail on Wednesday, but Tuesday's weather of thunderstorms and heavy rain caused racing to be cancelled for group B after just one race, so they were rescheduled for Wednesday, and we will hit the water again on Thursday.

You can check on the regatta website for results and a live blog: Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships(http://www.perth2011.com/) (FYI: Perth/Freemantle is 13hr ahead of EST in the States or UTC+8hr)

We would very much like to thank our Title Sponsor, Maclaren, our Gold Level Sponsors 11th Hour Racing and Laser Performance, and our Bronze Level Sponsors Carmeuse, Trinity Yachts, Chicago Match Race Center and Sperry Top-Sider for their continued support of our campaign for the 2012 Olympic Games. We would also like to thank US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics (USSTAG) and its sponsors for their continued support. Also, thank you to our private donors. Please remember that any and all donations/contributions to our campaign should be made payable directly to either The Sailing Foundation of New York (tax deductible) memo'd Anna Tunnicliffe, or to Anna Tunnicliffe.

Sail Hard,

And as usual, don't forget, email us your questions and comments. We love getting them and sharing our love of sailing and women's match racing.