Fish Trap Mythology

Dog fight under the moonlight

What an amazing birthday! My last post was anticipating the event but the experience was way better than I anticipated! The wind was better, the race was better, & ultimately my birthday was better! Lucky me.

The race itself was challenging--we were in a dog fight with another boat pretty much the entire way down to Solomons--covering tacks at least a dozen times if not more--sometimes they were ahead, & sometimes we were. And the fish traps! Xing Fu warned that the boat could be swallowed whole & we all laughed...no way!  But even under that full moon, we had our work cut out for us trying to steer clear. Sometimes you could hear a bunch of birds as they sat on top of the poles, but often, nuffin'! And at one point, crash tacking away so that the other boat could be clear ahead was critical. 

Also, as we crept up on another one, we realized that it spread out across the river like this one above--we were so close at one point we could've reached out & grabbed it! Hopefully no boats got caught up in it--didn't hear of any so maybe everyone was able to avoid these hazards this year.

At midnight, the crew sang Happy Birthday & we toasted with a little wine--just before tacking to avoid the fish trap--no rest for the weary! At 3:30 AM, we were getting punchy--the glow from the huge gas dock could be seen for hours & we kept saying--"Oh, there's the gas dock!" for about 4 hours straight. And singing traditional sailing songs....while tacking to keep in the fight. It was a lot of fun, but I was glad to finish at about 7:45 the next morning--beating out 3 boats--including the one we battled with all the way down, that managed to pass us when we were under the wrong spinnaker earlier. We crossed the line 3rd but were corrected over by 2 boats which gave us 5th place...ah, PHRF racing--so close & yet so far. When we got into the marina, there were Bloody Marys & other birthday drinks made by my skipper & another friend: Painkillers for my birthday! Xing Fu drove down & brought birthday cake so another round of Happy Birthday. Needless to say, the morning was a bit hazy--by 1 PM or so, I needed to sleep so I found my way to the motel & crashed for about 3 hours until it was time to go to dinner.

I think I heard Happy Birthday sung to me about 4 times that day--the last was a rousingly loud one by the entire bar at dinner--so fun! And it truly was a birthday for the record books--thanks to all of my sailing friends for such a super celebration!

Looking forward is Governor's Cup--I'm going to do this crazy overnight thing again--adding about 20 more miles....

Overnight Racing

I feel that my standard opening lines are always, "Been a while..." Like my very own "Once upon a time." Okay, so, it's been a while. NYC was awesome--Hedwig even awesomer! My son is in Spain for 3 weeks studying Spanish & Global Business & so it has been quieter at home, but I've been keeping very busy with sailing, of course.

Solomons Island

And I'm going to write about sailing--now that's been a while! I think this may have been the first year where I haven't waxed poetic about racing & sailing. I guess it is a "goes without saying" by now, but I'm happy to inform everyone that I'm still out there at least 2-3 days a week racing or sailing, or practicing. This weekend is an overnight race to Solomons Island. It used to be the feeder race for Screwpile which I won't be doing for the 2nd year in a row--sad but as it is now out of sync with the Solomons race, no one wants to keep their boats down there for a week until Screwpile. Plus, racing overnight is more interesting for a lot of people who don't want to do windward-leewards in usually very light air for two days. It is certainly a new experience for me. I was going to do the Gov Cup in 2009 but instead went to Amsterdam--that would have been my first overnight racing experience & ever since, I've been unable to participate in either Solomons or the Governor's Cup because of scheduling reasons. So now it looks like at least I'll be doing Solomons & quite possibly Gov Cup this year--so new racing experiences for me after so many years.  I've sailed at night quite a bit, but no racing. There will be a full "super" moon for this race--how cool--at least we'll have some good ambient light--there can be many hazards: long tows--barges attached to tugs with a very long towing cable, fishing traps that according to Xing Fu can swallow your boat right up, unlit buoys, etc., always need someone on watch for these things but I'm thankful for the full moon & moonset isn't until 5:00 AM~lucky us.  Wind is predicted to be light & we should be beating(close hauled) most of the way, but looking at the stars, the moon, the water--the quiet, nice. And, it is my birthday on the 12th as well! How auspicious--Cancers are ruled by the moon & on my birthday there will be the super moon. Now I can get all horoscope-y & talk about how Cancer is a water sign-I'll be sailing, the super moon, & Fun!
See you in Solomons!

Screwpile-Year Dos

We've been anticipating this regatta since summer began--it officially marks the halfway point of the sailing season (that's a bummer) & is a 3 day regatta down on Solomon's Island.  This year my skipper was away so we had a guest skipper with most of the regular crew plus 3 others (Xing Fu) was one.  Our skipper was from Puerto Rico & occasionally there was a little language barrier--it was actually rather cute & she was so optimistic despite never cracking the top 10 (there were 16 in our PHRF B fleet) that it was just nice to sail with her.  We had three days of pretty flukey wind too.  Only the last day did we have the expected "no wind on the Chesapeake" so abandon race problem & for the most part there was pretty decent air for a change.  And on our first race we were about a minute and a half late for the start--unlike last year the Race Committee did not have a gun, only a horn, nor did they really announce starts very loudly over the radio.  That was actually our best race--we came in 11th--crazy! But we had a great time!

Xing Fu & I did something a bit nutso--we drove back to Baltimore after the first day's races (3 total)--about a 2 hour drive from Solomon's Island & went to a concert at Pier Six--Peter Frampton.  Definitely music that Xing Fu chose-but it was fun listening to music that brought me back to my very early teens & the boy who introduced me to Frampton & the Who.  For me though, by the second set, I was sitting in my seat & nodding off.  One minute I'm listening to very good guitars & the next thing I know I'm on Bump...hearing one of my crew members telling me to trim the kite...  And then the 2 hour trip back down to Screwpile--arriving at 1AM.  Dock time 8:30 AM...you get the picture.  But it was fun, fun, fun!  (And I have a great BF--he gave me his red hat--there were only 4 in the skipper's bag & we had 8 crew.  The skipper got one & we drew for the rest.  He can be so sweet!)


And now, we are leaving for the beach on Saturday for a week.  Nonstop summer--it has been another great one so far except now my A/C is out during the hottest heat wave to hit B-more! But amazingly once the A/C guy got here, looked at the unit he saw the most amazing thing & apparently pretty rare--my A/C has been attacked by ants!  Yup, they'd crawled into the connector & prevented one part from touching another which communicated with the thermostat--thankfully a VERY easy & relatively inexpensive fix.  A/C up & running as the temps her in B-more continue to climb, climb, climb!

 

Screwpile Regatta--Strike Papa

(Solomons Island)

 (Screwpile Lighthouse)

 Nope, not some off-beat sexual position but a sailing regatta that lasts three days on Solomons Island in typical July Chesapeake heat & no wind (or very light air).  Of course, most sailing terms could be considered sexual....but I digress.  I spent 4 days down on Solomons sweating buckets & baking myself in the sun.  But unlike another blog post that I saw (whine, whine, whine) about the regatta, I had an amazing time.  Yeah, it was blistering hot most days & I got pretty dehydrated, & yeah, we had serious equipment failure on day two, but my team rocked!  Especially on day 3 when our crew was down to only four people (6-7 is favored for the J-30). I was just so damn happy to be down there--last year I got bumped off the boat I was to race on less than a week before the race, and on my birthday no less, which majorly sucked--so this year I was greatly anticipating...including the fact that Xing Fu would also be racing.  Altogether a great few days.  

So a recap of sorts:  On Saturday Xing Fu & I drove down to Solomons & pitched a tent (more on this in an upcoming post).  There had been an overnight race from Annapolis to Solomons & a lot of folk were already in, but my boat had just taken Saturday to motor down from the West River.  Sunday was the first day of Screwpile and we knew it was going to be a scorcher--light winds, etc.  But, luckily it was not too bad--we had a good crew on board--6 of us, including a guest appearance from an old buddy of mine--Seamus.  As I've mentioned previously, he is a great sailor & tactician & his joining our team led us to a second place.  It was great fun to catch up with him.  

The entire fleet was divided into 3 courses: North (our fleet), South (Xing Fu's fleet) & West.  Our Race Committee was phenomenal--they really were an excellent team.  I loved hearing them over the radio, "Strike papa, raise delta" just before start for the one minute warning.  My understanding was that not all of the courses had as good an RC.  Our courses were windward-leeward (four legs).  As for my boat--we executed beautifully on day one & ended our day very hot but happy--hopped in the pool at the marina to cool off & then joined the party under the tent at the Holiday Inn.  Big Party--lotsa rum drinks, Spinsheet Birthday--15 years.  I purchased a t-shirt & a long sleeve tech shirt with our boat's name listed along with the other competitor's names on the back.  

Day 2 was not such a good one--we had sustained 18-20 knot winds which is actually really good but as we were reduced to only 5 crew it became very difficult--in addition, we had some problems with equipment namely that our spin halyard broke, the traveller lines broke as well as the boom vang...time to go back & visit Marine West for some needed repairs--we cut our loses after the second race & returned to port--swimming & party--a girl can get used to this.  We also visited a few restaurants on Solomons--I had a great crabcake the second night at Stoney's Kingfishers.

Day Three brought even more challenges--further crew reduction to 4, had to repair the damages, blistering heat--but I gotta say that we kicked ass--not only did we get the boat around the course very well but we put some serious pressure on the leaders--they covered us & watched us quite closely--a tip of the Mount Gay Rum red hat to the underdogs!  Speaking of red hats--as the core 4--we received the red hats for this regatta...nicely earned.  After the last race, we pulled up to another boat in our class & I hopped aboard as we were sailing...had to slow power as much as possible to bring the two boats together but we did & I scrambled on for my ride back to shore as my boat pulled off for the long trek home. 

I must say that I truly enjoyed the entire experience at Screwpile this year & am looking forward already to next year's--Xing Fu says that Screwpile is the height of his sailing summer--he looks forward to it all year--I agree--we had a blast & got a ton of sailing in too.

Believe it or not, I came back for more yesterday--it was the Wednesday Night Series after all.