Ocean Horizon

Pre-Race

The final day of Block Island Race Week 2010 has arrived. Georgetown III and her crew have sailed a magnificent regatta and we intend to bring home the Silver to prove it. Were in a solid 2nd place overall and it looks we will remain there.

Wind today is fore-casted to be the lightest for the week. At 0700 the wind is out of the NorthWest at 9 knots and will clock right by 1300 to the South.

The Race Committee has been flawless in their decisions and will most likely send us out for one race or two tops. Then we’ll make our way back into Great Salt Pond Harbor for one more tent party and the Awards Ceremony.

Georgetown III - Dockside

Post-Race

VICTORY!!! Georgetown 3 placed 2nd in the IRC Division. The weather and race today may not have been perfect or our best but we held on to our position and came back victorious in the 2010 Block Island Race Week.

The wind in the morning was completely non-existent but the Race Committee and competitors held out until a small breeze came in around Noon. The wind shifted halfway thru but we finished the 4 legs in just over an hour to place 4th for the race.

The early finish gave us time to relax back at the house before one last tent party at The Boat Basin for the awards ceremony and one more Dark N’ Stormy…and mudslide at The Oar Restaurant.

Thanks to Nick & Gary’s amazing cooking throughout the week we had a 5-Star pot luck dinner along with some ChocoVine and pastries from Frank and Jodie.

Up early tomorrow for our departure; some will be delivering the boat back to North Shore Yacht Club while the rest, including myself will be taking the Ferry back to Newport.

The weather looks good for tomorrow, I should have a nice drive back to the Hudson Valley where I will pass out immediately and eventually get to actually postin all of these blogs.

One last blog from Block Island Race Week 2010 coming tomorrow. Thank you everyone who has followed along this far. My first time on Block Island will certainly not be my last, I’ll be back for Race Week next year and I would love to spend a weekend or two here just relaxing, any takers?

Georgetown III - 2nd Place

Pre-Race

Today’s forecast called for Thunderstorms all day but that has changed and were not likely to see any foul weather until later this afternoon. The breeze is already cookin around 15 knots and we should have a steady 10-15 all day from the Southwest.

Were one person short today since Jason left after racing yesterday to attend his brother’s middle school graduation. Looks like I’ll be lead grinder on the jib today, haven’t heard who will be backing me up but after grinding for most of yesterday I’m warmed up for the work ahead.

Sandwiches made, breakfast had…time to head down to The Boat Basin.

GO GEORGETOWN!!!

J-124 "Wicked"

Post-Race

My head hurts, my legs hurt, if my left arm hurt anymore I would chop it off to relieve the pain. That just about sums up today…end of blog!

Nah I’ll tell ya the gory details. The wind should have been 10-15 all day, it wasn’t. Just looking out from the balcony this morning we knew were in for a wild ride. At the dock our wind meter was reading a steady 20knots and gusting to 26. Powering out to the starting area, the waves began to knock us about. Both races were pretty brutal, even the NYYC Swan 42s had trouble. Our competition though are an incredible crew and were able to beat us outright. Were now in a solid 2nd place and baring any mishaps or miracles that’s probably where we’ll stay.

We were very happy when the Race Committee announced that the 2nd race would be the last for the day and thus headed for the dock. We knew some damage had been done out on the course amongst the the fleets but it wasn’t until we tied up to the slip that the stories started. Two Beneteaus not only traded paint but did some pretty serious damage to each other on a Port-Starboard situation. The Port boat failed to turn down fast enough and its bow slammed into the Port-Stern of the other boat, doing a lot of damage to both hulls and taking down the radar pole and life lines on the Starboard Beneteau. The owner of the hit boat was also thrown from the boat on collision but was picked up by the crew of a Melges and then taken to the hospital to get checked out(no word on his condition but I don’t believe it was serious).

One of the Swan 42s had an incident where the spinnaker trimmer had the sheets run through his hands and burned him. No idea why he didn’t have his sailing gloves on or if that was the full story.

That fast moving storm that blew through Connecticut and Long Island somehow missed us completely save a couple rolls of thunder and a drizzle. Since there was no tent party tonight we headed back to the house and ate a delicious steak and potatoes dinner. Our tactician for the week, Todd had to leave today but his friend Tom arrived this evening so we won’t be short for the final day of races tomorrow.

After dinner we headed back down to into town for ice cream from Aldo’s Bakery. Everyone went with the normal chocolate / vanilla but I got adventurous and ordered the Biscuit Totorino Gelato. Yes! I did say biscuit and it did have chunks of the fluffy stuff right in the french vanilla like gelato.

Everyone is crashing early tonight, trying to save the rest of our energy for one more day of Block Island Race Week 2010.

The Oar Restaurant - Mudslide

Pre-Race

Yes!!! The rain has passed and its looking like another perfect day on/off Block Island. Today is the Around the Island Race. Instead of running short legs between marks were going for a buoy race around the entire Island.

Forecast is calling for moderate winds anywhere from 5-15 knots with gusts up to 20. I don’t know how the strength or the direction will effect the waves around the length of the Island but if the wind does lean towards 20 then more waves would greatly help push our biggest threat, Cabady farther back as our boat is more capable of handling the chop.

The fog is really soupy and from the house we can see no more than a couple hundred feet in front of us. Gonna head down to the Boat Basin to get a better idea and most likely sit in postponement until the fog lifts.

Post-Race

Well the fog really decided to take its time burning off this morning. The Race Committee decided to send us out to the starting area anyway because they  believed that the fog was less out on the water. Um? Since when does the fog lift offshore first? Yea never, it was 10x worse out there and as the fleet made its way out of the harbor we all got split up and couldn’t see more than 100 feet in any direction. The postponement finally came so we drifted around until finally we had clear skies around Noon. The breeze was perfect, around 10-15 knots out of the Southwest so we had a nice beat to the first mark.

The second leg was not the best angle for our Jumbo spinnaker but we decided it was better to not waste time at the 2nd mark peeling our chute and just hold on until we could make the jibe. The breeze got real light near the south end of the island near the lighthouse and the division in front of us were right in heading towards shore to take advantage of the thermals close to the bluffs. The lead boat in our division also took that route and made out like fat rats, putting tons of distance between him and the rest of us. Others who were late to figuring out that secret were left floundering in patchy breezes, some even took an angle that was back to the start. We stuck it out though and it paid off. Our real competition was directly behind us and once the breeze filled in we too took off like a bat out of hell leaving them in our wake.

The two upwind beats were perfect, the wind was up a few knots and we were consistently sailing above boat speed. One more tack around the BI-1 and it was a cracked off beat to the finish. If it wasnt for that one boat getting the early lead we would have had a 1st, but we’ll settle for 2nd. Overall in the standings through 6 races were tied for first with 14 points and the next boat is 7 points behind with 21. Technically if the races were done after today and we all finished them the same then we would have 1st since we can drop our lowest race. Were not banking on that though, the crew is ready to continue fighting. Only two more days of racing remain.

Pre-Race

Good morning everyone, well good-evening would probably be more appropriate since that’s when you will most likely be reading this. Our painfully slow DSL connection is out again so it could be a while until I can post. Twitter updates will continue although for common sense reasons I’m not bringing my phone on the boat.

The clouds have moved in this morning but it made for another beautiful sunrise over Block Island nonetheless. Weather report is still calling for breeze from 5-10 knots, starting out of the Northeast and moving to the right by the time the rain comes in sometime later this evening. It’ll be another day of Windward-Leeward racing so I think we’ll end up going with the same sail configuration as yesterday.

Sea-ya back on land…GO GEORGETOWN!!!

Post-Race

If I was typing this blog in real time then today’s racing would prove to be really boring and the result really awesome. And even though its not in real time you WILL have to suffer for a bit because I said so.

The forecast called for 5-10 knots out of the Northeast then turning right for 5-10 knots from the southeast. While the wind did shift it was patchy the whole day and the two races held today were barely finished. We really can’t complain though, the Non-Spinnaker division got sent out on a distance race and almost never made it back when the wind died around 1300 hours. The day was mostly drifting in low winds and cloud bursting(see Men Who Stare At Goats) during the postponements but Georgetown III and her crew came through again finishing with a 1st aka A Bullet and 2nd.

After some great food and mudslides from The Oar Restaurant down at The Boat Basin, the results were posted and boy oh boy were we excited. What was a 5 point deficit is now down to 2. Yup! That’s right, were only 2 points out of 1st place.

Gonna go relax out on the balcony, I think were having burgers tonight. Were all really excited and are totally focused on tomorrows “Around The Island Race”.

Cloud Bursting - Men Who Stare At Goats

Pre-Race

The first day of racing is starting off really perfect, blue skies and seventy-degrees at 0720. The crew is slowly waking up and getting the gear ready to head down to The Boat Basin for an 0830 harbor start. We’re expected to run Windward-Leewards today and tomorrow, most likely 4 legs and no more than 2-3 races depending on the breeze.

Wind is in at around 6-knots from the Northwest and is not expected to do much else for the day. Everyone is making their way into the kitchen only to find out which supplies we forgot so I’m adding to the shopping list at each groan; ugh the milk(no soy thank you), ugh the orange juice, really people? were gonna use napkins to wrap the sandwiches?! You get the point :-\

Time for a healthy layer of sunblock. Looking forward to racing, I’ll be updating the Post-Race below once were back on land, but more likely after the tent party.

Block Island - View From The House

Post-Race

What an incredible day of racing, you really can’t ask for a better result. The weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky the entire day. The wind was steady the whole day out of the Northwest at about 12-16 knots.

The division we were in was fairly intimidating. A J-122 versus four Swan-42s is no easy task even with an IRC rating that handicaps them at 4 minutes per hour. Throughout the three races though, Georgetown III was right there in the thick of it, battling for every inch we could get. The first race was great, we got a nice feel for the weather and current and finished with a corrected place of 2nd, missing 1st place by only 1 second. The race committee then extended each leg from 1.25miles to 1.5 for the second in which we continued to point the boat well and came in a respectible 4th. We figured they would give a 3rd and final race for the day but we were pretty shocked to see that the course had again been lengthened to 2.0 miles per leg. No worries though, we again beat the Swans and gained a 3rd place finish.

Of course not knowing how the handicaps would effect our corrected times we were absolutely in shock after checking the results board back on land and found ourselves in 2nd place overall and only 5 points out of first(sailing uses the low-point system).

We hung around for the tent party where small prizes are awarded each day to the top 3 boats in each division. Being in second, our Captain was awarded a Goslings hat. We have every intention of kicking it up a notch to work our way into 1st place.

A HUGE thanks to Nick and Gary who cooked us an amazing dinner of chicken, sausage, rice and salad. Oh! And plenty of wine and Dark N’ Stormys.

One day of racing down and Georgetown has now signs of ssssllooowwiiinnggg down. Oh the yawn heard around the table just came over me. Its definitely time to crash, well ok maybe one more glass of wine.

Weather tomorrow is looking so-so. Wind out of the East-South-East at 5-10knots and mostly cloudy will make for an interesting discussion on the dock for which sails we should bring with us.

Hope everyone has enjoyed the posts so far. I’ll include one picture per post/update and then upload all of them at the conclusion of BLOCK ISLAND RACE WEEK 2010!!!

Georgetown III in 2nd Place after Day 1

It’s always hard to tell what the best kind of weather is for a sailor. Clear skies and a bright sun are not always a friend, especially the fair skinned.

I left Hopewell Junction this morning around 1100 hours to a blue sky and temperatures that quickly climbed towards Ninety-Degrees, right along with the humidity. The drive to Point Judith was fairly quiet except for that one idiot who decided to slam on his brakes on I-691 in Conneticut. A big thanks to the guy in the pick-up truck for being heads up as I had to make a quick lane change to avoid creaming the two cars in front of me. The rest of the drive was easy though and I arrived at the Block Island Ferry pier with 3 hours to spare before scheduled departure. I could have caught the earlier ferry but decided to hang out for a while and tour the waterfront. The Point Judith waterfront is peppered with fish markets and taverns, oh that reminds me I need to stop for some salt-water taffy on the return trip.

Not much to see on the ferry ride, the moment I got to Point Judith the fog which had been there all morning got real soupy but at least the rain held off. I did run into a sailor friend who will be crewing on a J-29 and since we couldn’t see more than 50ft in front of us we spent the ride to Block Island talking about work and of course…sailing!

Our Captain and Tactician were kind enough to pick me up when the ferry arrived in Old Harbor, Block Island before making our way to The Boat Basin for the Skipper’s Meeting. One Stella Artois, a Dark N’ Stormy, some goldfish and an opening ceremony later we were then traveling down a half-paved road to our quarters for the week.

And here I am, sitting in a beautiful summer home we rented for the week and Sophia just pointed out that the huge barrel sitting on the kitchen counter are not just any pretzels bits but peanut-butter pretzel bits. Oh and were having a bit of fun trying to get the best Internet connection. From what we can tell there isn’t any Internet available for the house so between searching for open wireless networks and setting up my phone to tether it you may or may not be reading this post until I get home next Saturday.

Time to find some real food, next post will be after the first day of racing on Monday. Windward-Leewards are scheduled thru Tuesday with the Around the Island race tentatively set for Wednesday.

~Sail Hard, Sail Fast

Before I express my opinion about Abby Sunderland, a 16-year old girl who endeavored to sail solo around the world, I believe we should all remember that the most important aspect of this story is how it ended. Abby is safe and will soon be home with her family.

Quite the Adventure

On Thursday morning last week, Abby Sunderland’s support team lost contact with the young sailor during a rough storm in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Almost 24 hours later a reconnaissance plane spotted Abby’s 40-foot sailboat, Wild Eyes, adrift and with its rigging down(the mast fell down). The plane confirmed that Abby was still on-board and in good shape. Another 24 hours passed before a French fishing vessel reached Abby and brought her aboard. She is currently en route to Madagascar where she will make her way home to California.

Of Course It’s Dangerous

No sailor between and including heaven and hell will deny that sailing around the world, let alone doing it solo, is dangerous. Even the most experienced salts have never even considered it. Regardless of age, if you sail out in the open ocean you are putting yourself at the mercy of nature’s most furious elements, wind and water. Abby agrees and doesn’t believe her age played a factor, “since when does age create gigantic waves and storms?”

Everyone from seasoned sailors to people who have never seen the ocean has had some kind of input, both positive and negative. The negative is a no brain-er, its ocean sailing and is dangerous, you can’t get around that. The “experts” though are hounding on the timing the team choose to sail through the Indian Ocean, because it’s winter right now and some of the worst storms of the year frequently occur at this time.

While its true the timing was off I don’t believe its something we should dwell on for long. Storms can appear out of nowhere regardless of the time of year and the one that knocked Wild Eyes about was nothing out of the ordinary. Abby knew this well, “The truth is, I was in a storm and you don’t sail through the Indian Ocean without getting in at least one storm. It wasn’t the time of year it was just a Southern Ocean storm. Storms are part of the deal when you set out to sail around the world.”

The Passion

The world would be a better place if we all had the desire, the drive and the passion Abby has for sailing. As a sailor I know the feeling of rigging up a boat, cruising around the bay and racing with other sailors who are just as passionate about the ancient sport of sailing.

Abby knew she wanted to do circumnavigate the globe when she was 13 and so prepared herself with the help of a support team and her family. Although its a parents duty to protect their children its also their job to teach them and encourage them to take risks so that they can grow and learn the things they love. We shouldn’t fault Abby’s parents for letting her go or her father who said after the incident, “if she wants to try it again, I’ll support her”.

Abby has expressed her interest in trying it again and I couldn’t be happier for her. I wish her the very best and look forward to following her adventures on the high seas in the future.

The Port Washington Yacht Club hosted its 63rd Annual Day Race Regatta on June 13th, 2010. Twenty-Four boats were on the starting line spread out over 4 divisions including a Non-Spinnaker Division. The wind was steady at 10knots for the start and the cloud cover made for an overall perfect day of sailing without the blistering sun.

I sailed on the J122 Georgetown III, working on the foredeck to call the start and prepare, hoist and jibe the spinnaker. We were in the 4th Division, last to start but the fastest boats on the course. We started off strong and quickly pulled away from the slower rated boats, keeping in pace with our true competitor, an S-Boat named “Leverage”. The wind wavered between 12-18 knots for the rest of the race and we finished 2nd over the line despite being shorthanded on crew.

The big let down though was when the results were presented at the post-race BBQ back at PWYC. Because we were sailing in the PHRF or Handicapped division, boats are given ratings and either gain or owe time to faster or slower boats, respectively.

Leverage was rated much lower than us and so they owed us 56 seconds for every mile of the race(20 miles). We finished right behind them and so we easily passed them in the standings. The big question though was how the slower boats who finished behind us would do since we owed all of them large amounts of time.

Confident that we had covered the handicap, we were sorely disappointed to see that we had placed 5th out of 6 in our division once the corrected time was applied. Not to be upset about it we remained proud at the work we had done. We sailed strong the entire race and made zero mistakes, a great accomplishment when sailing short-handed.

The Day Race is Georgetown III’s final race before leaving for Block Island Race Week on the 20th. Daily updates for BIRW 2010 will appear daily by following @TROndrey on Twitter.com