As predicted, today (Tuesday) in AKL it has been raining cats and dogs, and "blowing dogs off chains."

This one sentence from the TVNZ website pretty well summed it up: "Auckland was hit by two thirds of its average January rainfall on Tuesday and winds reached over 100 kilometres per hour - what you would expect in a category one hurricane."

Needless to say the fleet of MRX's docked in front of the regatta center -- the old Alinghi base in the Viaduct -- remained there today, as the teams opted out of any practice sailing.

Otherwise the teams registered and weighed in. In addition to BMW ORACLE's Team Dicko and Team Bert (see previous post), other teams entered that are considered by the media to be in the hunt are teams led by ETNZ's Dean Barker and Alinghi's Ed Baird.

Round robin racing is scheduled to commence tomorrow at 1000, weather permitting.

Wet and blustery conditions buffered NZL's North Island today, causing
mayhem on the motorways and widespread power outages, to say nothing
of turning more than a few umbrellas inside out in downtown Auckland.