This is a test (but then what isn't?). What a world we live in. I'm writing this on my phone from the legendary Sloppy Joe's bar in Key West, Fla. It's 75 degrees, the emerald green water is 72, the wind is 15 knots, and I get to go racing every day on a very cool boat, the Melges 24. I'm a lucky guy.

It's already been a pretty long winter in Seattle.

When the 10 second gun sounds, it’s already too late. You’re too far from the line; and the boats around you are too far advanced and too close. Whose idea was it to start amongst this crowd? You pull the trigger, a high build, coaxing the maximum VMG out of your boat as you strive to attain target speed before the gun. It’s all in vain. A half-minute after the start, the boat below you is advanced by a full length. Occasionally one of the crew glances your way. Is that pity on his face? Meanwhile, the boat to windward is pressing down on your lane, squeezing the vice.

Last Sunday was, as someone else put it, a day of “true frostbiting” for Newport’s Laser Fleet 413. The temperature hovered around the freezing point, the westerly wind gusted up to 20 knots, and the newly fallen snow blanketed the harborside.