Category: Life

The racing at the Crab Claw Regatta at Severn Sailing Association was marred only by a lack of wind this weekend.  On Saturday we had just enough wind to get out to the course and sail 1 shortened race.  On Sunday we ‘sailed’ out to the course in almost no wind and after waiting around for 2 hours we abandoned having not sailed a race.

In the one race we did sail, I got a good start on the favored port end and headed out to the left with the leaders.  I came right a little too early and was 9th around the top mark.  Downwind I picked up a couple boats and then the wind went right for the shortened course upwind to the finish and I was able to pick off one more boat to finish in 6th.

Even thought the sailing wasn’t so great, the weekend was still a fun time hanging out with the Laser sailors and catching up Saturday night with Lud and Blake who were delivering Impulse from Newport to Deltaville.

Still Annapolis Harbor Sunday morning
Still Annapolis Harbor Sunday morning

 RESULTS

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Fall Regatta StartThe weather for Sunday at Fishing Bay Yacht Club started out a little questionable.  The wind was blowing 20-25 out of the North at the buoy at the point.  There were 5 of us there to sail and we all decided to take radials out.  We raced inside Fishing Bay in winds in the teens and the Radial sails made for good close racing without any of us being over powered and having to fight the boat.

Ron Thompson and I traded for the lead throughout the races today.  Richard Biggs was not far behind pouncing on any mistakes we made.  With shifty winds in Fishing Bay there were plenty of passing lanes by picking the right shifts both upwind and down.

After 5 races in about 2 hours with off-and-on rain we called it day and retired to the clubhouse for chilli.  All-in-all it was a fun day of sailing and I had to work hard to finish 1-1-2-1-1.  I’m glad this weekend went how it did and I’m even more ready to head up to SSA next weekend for the Crab Claw regatta.

Results | Pictures

*Photo by Lud Kimbrough

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Southern Maryland Sailing AssociationSouthern Maryland Sailing Association on Solomon’s Island in Maryland had a Laser regatta this weekend.  Despite leaving a little late, I managed to make the first start on time time.  I haven’t been in the Laser for 4 weeks now, so it was good to be sailing again.  I didn’t quite have my mojo back in the first race and ended up 3rd.  Julio Vargas had some great downwind speed and pulled right away from us.

By the second race the wind was blowing 15ish with occasional sprinkles and overcast skies.  I had a good start and had my boat speed working.  I got to the layline out on the right and just stayed out in front of everyone.  For the 3rd race of the day I was in a close heat with Steve Barrett all the way around the course.  I followed him until I was able to pass him upwind on the final beat and led to the finish.

The RC tried to start a 4th race, but the Navy was out testing an RC submersible in the area and told us we had to vacate the area.  By then the breeze was nearing 20 which made for a fun ride in.  With a 3-1-1 it was a fun day on the water and nice to have some close, competitive racing with the Laser sailors at SMSA in preparation for the Crab Claw regatta at SSA next weekend.  I’ll miss the second day of the regatta while I sail in FBYC’s Laser Fall series tomorrow.

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Saturday was ECU’s home opener against Virginia Tech.  It was also our opening home tailgate and we even welcomed a number of VT fans to join us.  Our team didn’t get the result on the field we wanted, but we had a fun time anyway.

group photo

More photos start here.

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It’s hard to find good lists of tailgate playlists on the web so here’s mine.  It’s been a work in progress over the past few years and it’s been used at many East Carolina University football games.

EDIT: 2017 Football Tailgate Playlist Published

Song Artist Album
A Pirate Looks at Forty Jimmy Buffett Songs You Know By Heart [1990]
All I Do Is Win (feat. T-Pain, Ludacris, Snoop Dogg & Rick Ross) DJ Khaled All I Do Is Win (feat. T-Pain, Ludacris, Snoop Dogg & Rick Ross) – Single
All Right Now Free 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of Free
All Star Smash Mouth Astro Lounge
All Summer Long (Vocal Version) Hit Masters All Summer Long – Single
American Woman Lenny Kravitz OST Austin Power
Any Way You Want It Journey Journey: Greatest Hits
Back In Black AC/dB AC/DC Tribute: Best of Back In Black – EP
Born to Be Wild Steppenwolf Steppenwolf Live
Closing Time Semisonic Feeling Strangely Fine
Comin’ to Your City Big & Rich Comin’ to Your City – Single
Don’t Stop Believin’ Journey Journey: Greatest Hits
East Carolina University Victory 1999 ECU Marching Pirates
ECU Alma Mater
Eye of the Tiger Survivor Survivor: Greatest Hits
Free Fallin’ Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers Greatest Hits
Hells Bells AC/dB AC/DC Tribute: Best of Back In Black – EP
He’s a Pirate Klaus Badelt Pirates of the Caribbean (Original Soundtrack)
I get knocked down Smash Mouth
I Gotta Feeling Black Eyed Peas The E.N.D. (The Energy Never Dies)
I Love Rock ‘N Roll Joan Jett & The Blackhearts I Love Rock ‘N Roll (Remastered)
It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere Alan Jackson/Jimmy Buffett Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
It’s My Life Bon Jovi Now, Vol. 6
Jock Jams – Ya’ll Ready For Th Jock Jams –
Jump Van Halen The Best of Van Halen, Vol. 1
Let It Rock Kevin Rudolf & Lil Wayne In the City (Bonus Track Version)
Let’s Go Trick Daddy Let’s Go – Single
Let’s Groove Earth, Wind & Fire Earth, Wind & Fire: Greatest Hits
Margaritaville Jimmy Buffett Songs You Know By Heart [1990]
Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye Steam 45’s On CD – Volume III (’66-‘
Party In the U.S.A. Miley Cyrus Party In the U.S.A. – Single
Pour Some Sugar on Me Def Leppard Hysteria
Purple & Gold (East Carolina University) Udon Cheek
Purple Haze Jimi Hendrix Experience The Ultimate Experience
Right Now Van Halen The Best of Both Worlds
Rock and Roll All Nite KISS Dressed to Kill (Remastered)
Sweet Child o’ Mine Guns N’ Roses Greatest Hits (U.S. Version)
Sweet Home Alabama Lynyrd Skynyrd 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of Lynyrd Skynyrd
Take Me Home Tonight Eddie Money The Best of Eddie Money
Two Tickets to Paradise Eddie Money The Best of Eddie Money
We Are The Champions Queen Greatest Hits
Welcome to the Jungle Guns N’ Roses Greatest Hits (U.S. Version)
You Really Got Me Van Halen The Best of Both Worlds
You Shook Me All Night Long AC/dB Greatest Hits of AC/DC Tribute – EP
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East carolina vs South Carolina

Labor Day weekend was the opening game of the 2011 college football season and East Carolina took on South Carolina in Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte North Carolina.

tailgate group photo: Jon, Tom, Steve, Erin, Brittany, Kevin, Laura Ashley, Chris, Heather, Warren, Lauren, Staci, Preston, Jen, JG, Stephanie
Jon, Tom, Steve, Erin, Brittany, Kevin, Laura Ashley, Chris, Heather, Warren, Lauren, Staci, Preston, Jen, JG, Stephanie

The weekend began with drinks out at Epicenter with ECU and Richmond friends.  Saturday we tailgated, went to the game and then went out after the game.  Didn’t get the game result that we wanted, but it was still a ton of fun.  Thanks Tom and Laura Ashley for hosting us and showing us around Charlotte!

More pictures from the weekend can be seen here.

JG, Jon, Preston, Tom, Laura Ashley, Jen, Stephanie at the gameJG, Jon, Preston, Tom, Laura Ashley, Jen, Stephanie

 

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Hurricane Irene hit this weekend and other than loosing power I’ve escaped with relatively little damage.  The storm came through Saturday afternoon and evening and I spent the afternoon getting a couple of projects done (#1 & #2).  I lost power at 4 pm and the rest of the evening was spent reading by camp light while watching the trees swaying in the wind. I’d point a flashlight out the window whenever I heard the thump of a branch hit the ground.

reading by camp light

In the morning I surveyed the damage and found mostly just sticks and a few good sized limbs down.  One limb caught the unused cable line and it’s hanging about 6 ft off the ground.  Another branch hit the car and left a little dent on the sill above the driver door handle.

Front yard debris

Considering the number of large trees I have I was pretty lucky not to have anything bigger come down.  My next-door neighbors weren’t so lucky having a large tree fall into their yard and took down all of the lines to their house and their neighbors to the other side.  It even damaged the gas line causing the Fire Department to come out at the height of the storm at 9pm to turn the gas off.

The photo below shows the backyard before and after the hurricane.

backyard before and after

As of Sunday night I still don’t have power and Dominion Power has not yet even provided an estimate of when it would be back.  So far I’ve gotten the entire front yard cleaned up, but it will probably take a few more days to clean up the much larger back yard.

 

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Saturday I sailed in Fishing Bay Yacht Club’s Smith Point Race aboard the Farr 37 Excitation.  It was a 57 mile race out of the Piankatank River, east across the bay and then north near the mouth of the Potomac River and then back to the entrance to Jackson Creek.

It took about 13 hours to sail.  The first 2 1/2 hours were in little to no wind.  From the start most of the fleet continue on starboard towards the mouth of the Rappahannock before tacking towards our mark.  We spent our time in the light wind sailing on port along shore and out of the current.  We picked the layline pretty well from over 10 miles out and were first around the mark.  Being the furthest south and the first to catch the sea breeze certainly helped.

Aboard Excitation
Aboard Excitation

We led for a little while longer, but soon the faster J109, Afterthought, passed us heading downwind as we sailed North up the bay to Smith Point.  It was this leg where the sun set and the wind increased into the mid-teens.  After rounding  Smith Point around 11pm we slogged upwind for another 3 1/2 hours to the finish.

Afterthought
Afterthought passing us downwind as the sun set.

That was the longest offshore race I’ve ever sailed and doing most of the driving upwind was a good experience.  In the end we finished 2nd – only a minute and 43 seconds out of 1st place. We had a good crew, ate well, and we all enjoyed the trip.  Thanks Mayo Tabb for taking me along!

RESULTS

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Fishing Bay Yacht Club hosted another great Annual Regatta with some good Laser sailing and plenty of wind which is pretty uncharacteristic for FBYC’s annual regatta in the middle of August.  17 of the 114 boats at the regatta were Lasers and 8 were sailing standard rigs.  The Lasers were on a course set in the Piankatank River just outside of Fishing Bay along with the Albacores and Windmills.

All of our races were W2s with .7 mile legs on a slightly pin favored line.  In the first race I failed to port tack the fleet and ended up fouling Steve Wirt just moments after the start. I had to do a few penalty turns putting me just behind the entire fleet.  By the windward mark I caught up to 3rd with boats all around me.  I caught a boat on each of the next two legs and held on for the final downwind leg to the finish.

By the second race the wind had built to the upper teens with gusts into the low twenties.  The first leg of this race was a drag race upwind between Frank Murphy and I.  At the first mark I rounded just ahead of him and shortly after the rounding he death rolled downwind.  That was a wake up call for me to sail a little more conservatively and I stayed out front to get a bullet in this race.

By the time we were starting the 3rd race, the outer course with Flying Scots, Front Runners, Hamptons, Typhoons, and San Juans and already been adjourned for the day having only sailed one race.  I think the conditions on the outside sailing area were really putting a beating on the sailors and the race committee.

Broken GoosneckI botched the start of the 3rd race and basically had to park my boat at the pin while I let Brad Squires, who timed the start perfectly, sail by on starboard.  Once I got going again I had good speed to get back out front and lead the way around the course.  As I was rounding the final windward mark to the finish, I eased the boom out, but my mast didn’t rotate, poping the 3 rivets holding the gooseneck to the mast.  I held on to get me through the finish line and the minute I turned to reach into the club, the goosneck popped off.  With no more races for the day, I was thankful that if was going to break that it broke when it did.

Back on shore we packed everything, cleaned up and enjoyed some drinks in the pavilion before dinner and later drinks.

On Sunday the first start was a at 10.  Lasers were the 3rd start so I left the dock at 9:40 and arrived at the course just before 10.  Turns out I was the only Laser that left the dock.  When I got to the course the RC told us to go in and that racing was abandoned onshore.  All of the other Lasers had been held before launching.  They postponed us due to some approaching storms in the area.  The storms never did come and the wind was beautiful all morning and late afternoon and we never did get sent back out to race.

With 3 bullets in 3 races I won the FBYC Annual Regatta for the second year in a row.  All in all it was a fun regatta and I’m sorry my summer sailing has come to an end for the year.

Laser Awards
1st Jon Deutsch (FBYC), 2nd Jeff Moore (SMSA), 3rd Mike Toms (FBYC)

RESULTS

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