I'll be sure to post updates. Not sure if we will have internet access during the week. We will be tent camping on remote islands. Wed. night we will be at a 'resort' (whatever that is!) and they may have internet. Also at the beginning and finish I expect internet.

I am in touch with one of the past organizers and a competitor, and he says it is about 60% downwind, 30% reaching, and 10% upwind. That's probably a good thing as I didn't want to get stuck out on the wire for hours at a time. As it is, on the reaches we will probably single-trap and rotate who is out.

The main competition will be Bob Engvida from Australia. He sails with Aaron Worrall and Brad "Worstie" Wilson. The latter 2 finished 13th at the Worlds in Fiji and won the North Americans in easy fashion after sitting out the last race. There will be others to watch as well -- particularly some of the veterans of the race. But because the course changes every year, at least they won't have an advantage knowing the course.

For those who are interested, the race is 7 days long. There is an inshore series, consisting of 5 buoy races, and an offshore series, consisting of the 5 days of long-distance racing. On Sat., Feb. 15th, we take a plane ride from Manila to Legaspi City, then a 2-hour bus ride to Gubat. We will spend the rest of the day getting settled and 'scrutineer" (as they call it) the boats.

On Sunday, Feb. 16th, we race one practice race in the morning, have lunch, then race two buoy races in the afternoon. The next day we are off! The first leg is the longest -- 70 nm. I am attaching the waypoints so if you want to upload into Google Earth, you can see where we are headed.

When we finish in Siargao, we are not finished. The next day we race 3 more buoy races. Then the awards party! It should be quite fun -- camping with 39 other competitors for a week. I imagine we should be pretty good friends by the end!

I am working on some sponsorship and hope to have some positive things to report on that next week. Stay tuned. In the meantime, check out the waypoints.