Friday, June 26, 2009

Thursday 6/25

Finally, a sunny day! But the wind pretty much was dead again. We did get a start and rounded W, but after the wind died because of shift from SE to N, we decided to quit and motor in so we could get to the party at Milford Boat Works early. Great party this year!

Bruce, Janel, and Mike Kivell (L to R) were on the boat, along with Derek (not pictured, sleeping on the foredeck).

Part of the large (28 or so boat) fleet pre-start.

Of course, what would a bunch of photos be without your humble narrator?

Joyce and Mike. Obviously the party started early tonight!

Schock Therapy and Paikea during the pre-start.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Just me & the gals...again!


We did the Commodore's Cup races on Saturday, and the weather was iffy. Light breeze out of the SE and a constant threat of rain, which held off mostly until AFTER the two races. Same crew as last week.

Our fleet only consisted of us and Paikea, but it was fun anyway. The series is two races, and in the event of a tie, the winner of the second race is deemed champion. The same thing happened last year, except with a different result.

Of course, this year we won the first race and lost the second (by 54 seconds), so we took second place by default. If we had to lose to someone, we're happy it was Paikea. But it was a fun pair of races (even though I can think of plenty of areas we could have made up the time difference in the second one if I'd been concentrating more) and everyone did a great job.

Self-portrait below. I probably should have spared you folks the horror of that photo, but what fun would that be?

Friday, June 12, 2009

Woman at the Helm, Race I

(L to R) Joyce, Liz, and Janel were the helm and crew with me last night, in drizzly and breezy conditions.

The course was WS3 with the wind at about 15kts out of the east, so it was kind of lumpy out there. Results are located HERE. We finished 8th out of 9 boats, but my poor tactics on the start cost us about 2 minutes and that was pretty much the difference that kept us out of the top 3 or 4.

Oh well, Joyce did a great job (as usual) and Janel made sure to tell me where she was gonna ram that whisker pole if I didn't shut up! (she just had a bit of trouble with it again, and I simply walked forward and fixed it in two seconds for the 2nd time in two races)

And I broke the LCD screen on my new Fuji camera, which cost me about $70 a month or two ago. The dummy that I am, I had left it in my pocket during the race, and I must have smashed it into a winch while we were getting bounced around out there. Bummer!

At least I got one picture (above) with it. And I just (five minutes ago) bought a used one on eBay for $38, so at least it wasn't THAT expensive of a boneheaded move! This, if you're keeping count, is camera number THREE so far this year! I'm gonna glue a square of plexiglass over the LCD on this one, because I'm obviously too clumsy to maintain a working camera for very long.

Saturday, June 06, 2009

Joyce's new kayak

She wanted one of these for years. So I bought her one for her birthday next month. Today she got a chance to take it out.

Janel and her friend Jackie wanted to take Joyce out the first time, and their friend Karen kindly allowed me to use another kayak she owns. So I got to try out kayaking, too.

Guess what? I'm kind of pissed off, because now I have to buy myself a kayak! It was a lot of fun and easier than I expected. I tried Joyce's kayak (a Pelican Precision 100) and found it a little "tippier" than the one I borrowed, but perfectly acceptable and easy to maneuver.

So I guess I'll see if they're on sale and pick one up for me! I knew this whole kayak business was a bad idea!

Friday, June 05, 2009

No wind, no race, no problem!

Last night we got the usual August weather (except for the temperature!) at the beginning of June!

There was NO wind last night. None. Zilch. Nada.

I even opined that there was LESS than no wind; that we had in fact entered into a vacuum not unlike the total airlessness of deep space!

However, the lack of total suffocation and immediate death of all hands quickly put that rumor to rest.

That's not to say we didn't move...the current carried us from the vicinity of the committee boat Spirit toward the rocks on the south end of Charles I. at a rate of .3 to .4 kts. After nearly an hour of the drifting, the RC called it a night. We had already packed it up by then and were motoring in (photo above).

Joining us this week was Janel, Derek, Lee, Bruce from the boat in the slip next to us, and Elisabeth.

Next week is the Woman at the Helm race! We hope to have a large crew turnout in support of Joyce.

...and I really can't believe that I sound as much like a dick as Janel makes me sound when she imitates me barking at the crew!