Wednesday, September 18, 2013

America's Cup Fiesta



There was a last-minute invitation last weekend for an America's Cup Party at my golfing buddy Mike Wallach's apartment in the Summit skyscraper above on Russian Hill on Sunday.



On Friday, he figured that Sunday's races might be the finale for the Cup races because the Kiwis were so far ahead of defending Oracle USA. However, the Saturday races were postponed due to too much wind, yet another absurdity of this version of the Cup with its oversized catamarans.



Mike and his wife Sigrid above were perfect hosts, and the view from their 15th floor apartment was a sight to behold.



Everybody but me was rooting for the USA team, partly because many of the partygoers worked for Oracle, partly out of patriotism, and partly because everyone wanted the spectacle to continue with further races. The USA boat jumped to a big lead Sunday afternoon and lengthened it throughout the 40-minute race.



The second contest of the afternoon was actually something of a thriller, but the Kiwis prevailed again, and were left needing only two more wins to take the Cup back to Auckland. After this afternoon's single-race win by the New Zealanders, that finale may well be tomorrow (Thursday).

4 comments:

Hattie said...

That's Russian Hill? Wow! Maybe I had better take a look around my old home town one of these days.

momo said...

What amazing views! My mother has been passionately following the races, taking the bus down to the Bay, chatting with the many tourists who've come for the races. She is vehemently rooting for Oracle, but then she is also a Yankees fan, what can you do.

Civic Center said...

Dear momo: That's a very funny description of your mom.

janinsanfran said...

You can bet I've been rooting for the Kiwis! I had hoped to get up on top of Marin Headlands for some long distance shots of this whoopdeedoo, but my surgically aided toe has prevented this. Maybe if they don't finish on Sunday ...