“Intimidated” is the word that best describes how I felt the few weeks before I left. Here I was going half way around the earth… ok, I exaggerate, it was only one quarter of the way, but it seemed a lot farther. It’s FRANCE!!! after all! There were so many things that could go wrong. I kept telling myself, “just go with the flow”. If it falls apart, no big deal, it’s not the end of the world. But lets be serious, who was ever calmed by such platonic blither! My gear could be destroyed in transit, my shoulder could rip off at any moment, and my plane could crash in the ocean and I would be eaten by sharks. (I hate sharks…) PLENTY COULD GO WRONG!!!
First things first, there is this whole thing about actually registering for the race. Half the battle is actually finding the registration site. Mind you this is not a small task. First, it doesn’t come up on a Google search very well. Second, you have to find it in French. (Et, je ne parle pas francais! – ok, so I had it in Second Grade…but that doesn’t count when you are ..er… over 29.) Third, you have to be patient. The race announcements don’t actually start showing up on the web site until early in the year (January-ish). The only way I actually found the race dates last fall was by poking around in previous year’s race newsletter and they had a “We’ll see you next year on May 8th!” sort of announcement. Which I was lucky to find.
Not wanting to dally my boss was duly notified and a leave request was submitted in October for the dates. (oh, and then I slipped in the BABA Spring trip leave request a few weeks later when he had forgotten about already having approved the Defi leave.) Risky! Considering, they were back to back, but I learned a thing or two in Air War College about “Strategic Planning”. At least I finally got to put some of that mind numbing reading to use!
The first of a couple, or perhaps a few, but definitely not more than a some.
Everyone seems to want to hear about this little adventure I’m on. So while I don’t “blog” or “facebook” (yes, little Johnny, that is right I don’t have a facebook account…nor do I want one) I figured I would do this the story the “old fashioned way”… gasp! EMAIL… well ok, so maybe in real live print would be even better, but I’m having problems finding groceries so post offices are right out for the moment. Besides I don’t think I have enough euros to post a potential demi-tome to all of BABA’s members…(“Did she say demi-tome, Alice?!” yup break out the wine and reading glasses, I’m sure this will be excellent evening pre-bed read.)
It takes a village to put on a regatta, along with a dedicated Commodore, and BABA has all that and more! We had 2 days of beautiful weather and WIND for the 2012 East Coast Championships Regatta, part of US Windsurfing’s National Race Tour. The first race started around noon on Saturday, September 22 but there were many hours of planning and organization ahead of the horn’s blare.
Big thanks to Commodore Tomaso for bringing all the pieces together and running a great regatta. We’d also like to acknowledge Anne Arundel Recreation and Parks for co-sponsoring the regatta, and park manager Dary Lofgren.
Jeff and Darlene Forte spent Friday night on their sailboat Something Special, a 1973 41 Tartan sloop at the marina on the West River where it is moored. It took them about an hour to motor over to Mayo on Saturday morning where they anchored in position to serve as committee boat for the regatta – a much more luxurious committee boat than BABA usually experiences! Thank you Jeff and Darlene.
Albert Pritchard and Tom Caswell brought out their motor boats for the regatta – Tomaso and the committee would not have been able to put together such a great course if they didn’t have a boat. The smaller boats also served as safety boats to rescue befallen sailors, including Amber who broke a mast far from shore and appreciated the ride. I hope her string of bad luck has ended. Thank you Albert and Tom C.
Jeff and Darlene, and Dave Iseri and his daughter Jasmine ran the racing from Something Special under the tutelage of Commodore Tomaso. They ran a tight series over 2 days with excellent starts and undisputable finishes – some camera ready.
ECC Skipper’s Meeting