We had the most amazing week at the beach with Jess and her parents. Beautiful weather all week and only a few storms that skirted by or hit in the evening when we were already off the beach. We had a lot of fun with Flow the Flamingo in the Pool, walking on the large newly replenished beaches, going for runs, cooking hot dogs, eating outside, golfing, and otherwise relaxing and hanging out.
Day 2 at the Laser District 10 Championship and we had more wind and cloudy skies for 3 more races. The first race was about a mile top to bottom and we did two grueling laps. I had a great start and had good boat speed at times upwind. I played it conservatively so as not to flip. This was especially challenging down by the bottom mark where the seawall was reflecting the waves back upwind making it feel like a washing machine and I buried the bow multiple times sailing upwind with a full cockpit of water. I finished 11th – my fourth 11th place finish in 6 races.
The second race was more of the same with another knot or two of breeze. I started and decided to call it a day as I wasn’t going to change my finish much missing the last two races and would only wear myself out before a long drive home and before rain moved in.
It was nice to see Shore Acres Yacht Club – I can’t wait to see it when the clubhouse is finished. Always great to sail with all the very competitive D10 sailors and I’ll be back in D10 for the Laser Masters Nationals in August.
Friday night after work I made the trip up 95 for the Laser District 10 Championship at Shore Acres Yacht Club in Brick New Jersey. I managed to miss most of the traffic around Washington DC and made good time arriving at the club at 11 to spend the night van camping.
In the morning we were greeted to beautiful sailing conditions and a tad more wind than had been forecasted. The winds started out of the north east and slowly shifted to the south east over the course of the afternoon at 8-12 knots under mostly sunny skies.
21 competitors in what would be a very competitive fleet.
On the water I inconsistently sailed consistently – meaning I’d have some bad legs and some good legs and I always managed to finish mid-fleet in either 11th or 13th place in all 5 races. I had moments where I was in the top 5 and the bottom 5 of the fleet. We sailed a modified windward leeward course that at one point was probably 1 1/4- 1 1/2 miles from top to bottom which made for a very long downwind leg. Despite the long legs and my terrible starting it was a great day of racing and it felt good to be back in the boat again.
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After racing I went for a run, enjoyed drinks and tacos on the beautiful deck facing the water and met some of the other Laser sailors and SAYC members. A band played at the club while the sun set.
We had a beautiful evening for the Anthem Corporate Run 5k. Companies from around the city sponsor teams, there’s a run around Innsbrook and then a couple thousand participants hang out among the company tents for a big party. I had a great time catching up with friends from all the different companies.
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After the Snipe broke yesterday, Jess and I were without a plan for racing FBYC’s Open House Regatta on Saturday. At 9pm Saturday night that plan came together and we would sail on Mad Hatter with the Flecks. This race is a progressive start distance race – meaning the slowest boast start first and the fastest boats start first and whoever finishes first wins. This year featured a wide variety of boats including a 30′ trimaran and a Wasp. The weather was slightly overcast, warm with 12-14 knot winds.
We had a great start, hitting our time perfectly. Only two of the legs were downwind for us, so that kept the spinnaker work for me up on the bow down to a minimum. We sailed the rhumb line and kept the boat going pretty well. In the end the boat to beat was a 29er – who were able to fly a chute on the tight reaches much better than any of the other boats. We finished 4th.
Following the race – we rafted up with a couple dozen other boats in Fishing Bay and got to hang out with everyone for a couple hours. Later we took the boat back around to the dock and joined the dinner and listened to the band.
We started the Memorial Day Weekend by hosting a Young Adult Member cookout at FBYC. We had a great turnout of nearly 40 people and beautiful weather for a party that apparently went well into the night.
Jess and I spent Saturday morning putting the Snipe together for the first time since Labor Day of last year. We fixed a few things along the way including some trouble with the main halyard that kept jumping the sheave at the top of the mast. Eventually we made it onto the water and sailing pretty good in the 10-14 knots of wind. About 20 minutes into our sail we heard a pop, saw the jib come down a little bit and realized that we blew out a block at the bottom of the mast for the jib halyard. We sailed in and ended our hopes to sail the boat again tomorrow.
Graduated last weekend with my Masters in Information Systems from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Business. It’s been a year and a half of studies and weekends in class and nice to have that behind me! It was a beautiful day to celebrate with my classmates and family.
Jess and I got to enjoy a weekend in the Outer Banks spending time with my ECU friends and getting to celebrate the wedding of Courtney and Preston.
Our final day of the trip was set up to be a long one. We checked out of the hotel and headed to a donkey farm and went for rides.
Next we stopped in the town of Lefkara to admire the old architecture, a few old churches and to have lunch.
Our next stop was Fig Tree Bay for some time on the beach to relax.
Some folks swam while others chilled on the beach and some folks from our group went paragliding. The day continued with a stop at a sculpture garden.
We stopped for dinner and then hit a beach club in Larnaca to hang out before our flight that boarded around 3am.
We started today in Cyprus with a visit to the University of Cyprus. We heard about the University’s founding as the first university in Cyprus in 1989 and it’s path to becoming an institution of over 6,000 students today. We got to hear leaders of the computer science department tell us about some interesting and innovative programs and their new innovation center was especially compelling. We also got to eat in a dining hall for what was my first time in over a decade – it was like any other dining hall food.
From there we went to the old town to meet with an Architect entrepreneur and to hear about his experience running a small business in Cyprus and the challenges and opportunities faced.
The rest of the evening was spent hanging around the hotel, working out, running and having dinner and then packing to leave in the morning.