I am Sailing...

...I am Sailing
Home again 'cross the sea
I am sailing, stormy waters
To be near you, to be free

Well, those are the opening lyrics to the famous 'Sailing' song by Rod Stewart. Part of it were true as the waters off Pulau Duyong was quite rough and the wind was challenging as mad redo1 and his band of brothers in the newly formed Team OMEGA took to the waters for the 2011 Heritage Bay Cup - Ides of March Edition.

With the recent high magnitude earthquake and tsunami in Japan, mad redo1 feared that the event might be cancelled but in the end it received a 'go ahead' from the relevant authorities.

With many of the Team AG:eing members were not available, thus the name was changed to Team OMEGA, mostly influenced by the hastily procured team attire which borne the name of the health drinks, Nesvita Omega Plus.

This time there was no Ai-Li in sight but we drew the name Sean who turned out to be a friend of the sea loving city girl. Sean told us Ai-Li would be starting a new job on Monday, thus could not make it to Pulau Duyong this time around.

Thus, mad redo1, Mat Ming and Abu of the original Team AG:eing boarded the F36 boat with a new set of crew of Vam, Jim, Robert and Airy. After an hour and a half practice session the team was ready for action which was scheduled to start at 1500hrs.

Once again, it was a good start and Team OMEGA finished the first race on a winward-leeward course in third place. The choppy waters and strong winds certainly tested the crew and with heavy rain coming down it was a whole new experience for mad redo1.

To mad redo1's amazement the exact same thing happened as it was during the Monsoon Cup Edition as Team OMEGA found themselves finishing last in the second race which was done in a trapezoid course.

Of course there was some moments when another team bumped into us which should have been penalised (but was not) and another hit the buoy (again, no penalty) that could see us finishing at least fourth.

The third race was back on a windward-leeward course and we rallied together and managed to finish fourth. with a 3-5-4 score, Team OMEGA occupied the the number four spot of the five teams event.

At least the initial objective of not finishing last was achieved.

Will Team AG:eing make a return in the scheduled June edition? It looks likely as Mrs Birch had already stated her intention to return and helms the F36 again.

To everybody in Team OMEGA, congratulations!



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