Windy first day of LMW..

Today was the start of the Laser Master Worlds and it came in with a roar. Our first race was manageable with winds up to 18knots and relatively mild currents running. We sailed in the tail end of the ebb tide (water leaving the bay) for the first race of the afternoon. I had a good start near the committee boat which got better and better as we got lifted 10 or 15 degrees. I was happy.. at one point halfway up the beat I thought I was maybe even leading the race. I sailed up the middle of the course playing the wind shifts as they came down off the bridge. The last quarter before the weather mark is where the wheels fell off. Both side had much better angle into the mark in what now looked like a shifting tide to a flood. Tide and current is everything in these races. Most of the time the deciding factor of the race. I didn't play it well and I rounded in 17th which was disappointing after a good start. The rest of the race went pretty well as I caught a few but lost a few here and there. San Francisco is tough to figure out! The second race was quite different.. The wind had piped up to 20+ and the flood tide was now quite strong. This makes sailing the upwind legs of the course very difficult. I lined up for the start near the pin end but with 45 seconds to go it became clear that I wasn't going to be able to cross the line on that tack because of the 3-4 knot current. I decided to tack to port and find a hole. Not too easy in 20-25 knots to duck and take transoms of oncoming starboard tack boats in our 50+ fleet. I ended up ducking almost every boat but even worse I was going the wrong way and heading into the stronger deeper current. I continued on for at least 10 minutes before tacking back to starboard and then realizing that I was going to be very far back the the first mark. I sailed on hope to catch as many boats as I could and maybe get lucky with a big shift or someone else going the wrong way like I did. It was slow going to pick off boats in what turn into a 25 knot grind upwind to the mile and a half weather mark. The race was shorten to first at the second weather mark and I managed to get back to 21 at the finish. A long day on the water with a difficult launching and land ramp in the shore break of Chrissy Field State Park. My boat flipped over while I was trying to come into the beach but I finally made it in. New day tomorrow.. Peter