
Post by
YourMomSA | 2019-01-04 | 05:24:13
This event had an interesting finish, full of surprises that weren't all that surprising.
Speedo is incredibly good at this... but part of that is because he pushes the limits. He runs aground more than anyone else among top competitors, but does well anyway. He simply insists on cutting every corner as close as possible, and sometimes too closely. In The Odyssey, I think he ran aground in all four legs, but won a couple of them and finished top 10 in all four regardless. Anyway... With the way VR updates standings, it wasn't clear who was leading... But it was clear that the top 4 included me, Speedo, Tipap, and a fourth boat. I believe Buddha was in a solid 5th (but could be wrong).
Speedo ran aground on the West side of Guadeloupe.
I ran into a VR glitch that was new to me... I ran waypoints until we were VMG beating, and then killed my final waypoint and switched to VMG beating, about 3 minutes after passing my second-to-last waypoint. Somehow, a few minutes later, it reverted my already-sailed course to extend on my course from before that past waypoint along that previous course for an additional mile before continuing the TWA 40 course I had set. I then sailed as best I could to the finish, with Tipap and the fourth contender long gone and Buddha ahead.
The fourth contender ran aground on the final point of land before the finish, so I was able to sneak back into 3rd. I apologize for not being able to remember who he was... he was having a great race, but I think he wound up outside the top 200 because of the grounding. I can't find him in the final results, which is why I can't recall his name. Anyway... Speedo recovered about 20 minutes after his grounding and finished 66th.
I've learned that to enjoy this game, you can't get angry when BS bugs kill days or even weeks of effort. If you want to win, you also need to be willing to push limits and risk groundings. It's all tradeoffs, and the inconsistency in the rankings makes it all confusing. My guess is that Speedo was leading approaching Guadeloupe, and Tipap, the fourth boat, and I were closely contending for second... so for me to finish 3rd felt rationalizeably acceptable. I got shafted by a glitch that cost me Buddha and maybe Tipap, but I also benefited from two groundings.
I'm not sure what my next race will be. Probably C600. It's fun.