This week, we are vacationing in Greece. Over these two days, we took a ferry from Greece's main port, Piraeus, to Karpathos, where my family is from. The ferry ride was quite long, but we enjoyed it. We had a comfortable cabin and there were several lounges throughout the ship, where we snacked and played cards. The food on board was tasty and reasonably priced. As we departed Piraeus, we got to see a glimpse of the Hellas Liberty, one of three surviving WWII Liberty Ships that are still afloat. We also saw a beautiful sunset over the sea. The ferry stopped in Santorini, Crete, Kasos, and finally Karpathos. Alex wanted to claim that he had been on some other islands, so he stepped onto the harbors in Santorini and Kasos. I'm very happy that my boys were able to experience this kind of trip.
Century Club: Dino Frangos
Today, Alex and I took a powerboat to visit an island along the Lielupe River in Jurmala, Latvia. We were visiting Sea Scouts who were camping on the island. Many of these kids are passionate aboat sailing, so it was a real pleasure to visit them and see their camps.
For the next three weeks, I will be in Europe, vacationing with my sons. This week we are in Latvia. Today, we rented a rowboat and rowed along the main canal in Riga Old Town. We rowed by fountains in the river and under old bridges. It was quite beautiful!
This evening I was racing with my regular team during Thursday Night Racing at the DSC (2nd night of 2nd series). The winds were good. We had 4 races, finishing 6th, 5nd, 5th, and 4th.
Today we did a fun race with the cruisers at the DSC. 4 cruisers competed. I was on Sunrise, with Tark skippering. We did poorly in the race, but at least we had fun. It was a beautiful day with good wind!
This evening I went on a short sail with Alex on Sweet Dreams around Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Wind was very light, but we did get to see the Pride of Baltimore!
This evening I was racing with my regular team during Thursday Night Racing at the DSC (First night of 2nd series). The winds were good. We ran 4 races, finishing 7th, 2nd, 4th, and 3rd.
Today, my crew from yesterday returned to the DSC for the member sail. We mainly needed to pump out the boat and refuel, since we weren't able to do that yesterday. We stopped at Oasis for the pumpout/refuel. The staff at Oasis are wonderful. Afterward, we spent a couple of hours practicing docking in forward/reverse, as well as performing pivot turns. My crew was very thankful for the opportunity to practice these skills!
Today we went on a day trip to Bodkin Creek (though it was originally supposed to be a weekend trip). We motor-sailed Sweet Dreams, from the DSC to Bodkin. We swam and SUPed for a few hours, as we did the previous week. The forecast didn't look good for overnight and Sunday, so we decided to sail back to Baltimore that evening. Desipite the trip being cut short, it was a great day!
Today, I volunteered for a Race Clinic at the Downtown Sailing Center, where more experienced tace skippers and crew were paired up with new or less experienced racers. I had Hank (regular crew on my race team) and Betty (new DSC race skipper) on my boat. Winds were 10-15 mph, so there was great wind. Overall we did relatively well i the practice races, with each of us taking turns at the helm. However, there was an incident in one race where three boats collided. In this case, the port-tack boat (a J/22) collided with a starboard-tack boat (Sonar 23), and somehow another boat got involved in the mix. Unfortunately, the same skipper who had collided with us in June was also involved in this incident. The damage to two of the boats is significant enough that they cannot be sailed and are awaiting repairs. The DSC has also changed its policy so that members can no longer reserve Sonars or use them for racing. This is the first time in my 22 years at the DSC that such a policy has been put in place. This has been a bad year for boat damage at the DSC. :(