Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Practice Day - getting ready to rock and roll
Today was scheduled to be a practice day after the long ride to Cheese country and the home of Buckey Badger. We started the day with the iPhone marimba wake up call at 6:00am and made our way to Sisters Bay a few miles north in pursuit of good coffee and breakfast. After 1000 miles and lots of prep work we are actually considering taking Rocket Pig out for a practice run. We checked out the Al Terhune (2008 NAC Champion) trim/rig seminar and did a mast ring replacement and then ran into a couple friends who had just arrived from the Carolina's and headed to lunch. At this point we have been in town 27 hours and still have not got the Pig wet. Yet.
Finally Joe and I did some last minute preps, filled the cooler, grabbed the foulies and headed for the boat for some practice. Conditions were 10-20, almost 75 degrees.....can you say perfect?
We got underway and Joe was in the mode of trying to figure out the sails, conditions and this new skipper dude who has a goatee. With a change in the rig tension and the crisp Gus Dacron we were powered...fully powered....like overpowered. I was rusty and Joe quickly helped get me thru some pinching moments and we had a great 3 hour practice. Since we had never sailed together before it was good to figure out the moves and communication before Monday.
We hit the dock, put the Pig away and headed to the Commodores party. Tomorrow it gets serious. Qualification races start at 11:00 am with 75 boats competing to get into the Championship series that starts on Wednesday. Forecast is for 15-25 out of the Southwest and with the Carolina boyz tipping the scales at 420 pounds, it's what we are looking for.
Race 1&2 recap and details coming your way tomorrow.
Finally Joe and I did some last minute preps, filled the cooler, grabbed the foulies and headed for the boat for some practice. Conditions were 10-20, almost 75 degrees.....can you say perfect?
We got underway and Joe was in the mode of trying to figure out the sails, conditions and this new skipper dude who has a goatee. With a change in the rig tension and the crisp Gus Dacron we were powered...fully powered....like overpowered. I was rusty and Joe quickly helped get me thru some pinching moments and we had a great 3 hour practice. Since we had never sailed together before it was good to figure out the moves and communication before Monday.
We hit the dock, put the Pig away and headed to the Commodores party. Tomorrow it gets serious. Qualification races start at 11:00 am with 75 boats competing to get into the Championship series that starts on Wednesday. Forecast is for 15-25 out of the Southwest and with the Carolina boyz tipping the scales at 420 pounds, it's what we are looking for.
Race 1&2 recap and details coming your way tomorrow.
Arrive in Ephraim, registration, measuring, and taking it all in!
Saturday Morning...John and I are up feeling good after a good nights rest and we are stoked to know that today is an easy day on the road. We say goodbye to Racine, WI and we continue our journey on the road with only 3 and a 1/2 hours to the Ephraim Yacht Club. It is refreshing to see a different part of our amazing country and we take note as we pass cherry groves, beautiful dairy farmland (right up to the lake's edge), and say a quick hello and goodbye to each lakeside village as we make our way up into the peninsula of Door County. Each little lakeside village has so much character with beautiful flowers everywhere soaking up the sun, promenades at the lake's edge peppered with locals and tourists admiring the ocean-like Lake Michigan, and quaint little Scandinavian inspired cottages that just exude warmth and happiness... With big grins and anticipation John decides to pump us up with some good music... and discovery was made... "Rocket Pig" has a new theme song..."Blues that Heal" by Johny Lee Hooker...Baby! Seeing that Rocket Pig is a blue boat...it was too perfect! We are happy to see that we are greeted as we arrive at the local High School to check in and register and go through the measurement process. This process takes us a couple of hours, but lots of catching up with sailing buds and admiring the "Pig" sidetracks us from a speedy getaway. Measurment for us meant that we were chosen to measure our main sail and had to a check in our standard safety equipment. ALL IS GOOD! WE PASS! During the registration process we discover that we get to keep our boat at the Yacht Club right across the street from our lake side lodge! WOO HOO...we can litterly walk out of our room (which has a view of the lake) across the street to the Club in less than 2 minutes! Nice work John! We spend the afternoon checking all of our rigging, set up the boat and genuinely admire our beautiful surroundings. Rocket Pig is in her berth for the week...wind is in the forecast....time to drink a beer and find some grub! Tomorrow the Woman's and Junior's championships begin and we look to doing some on the water tuning and get dialed in to the local conditions. Stay tuned...John is posting tonight!
P.S. We love and miss our Wives!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
