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!