Two Rivers and Point Beach

Its amazing how beautiful Lake Michigan and Wisconsin can be!

Road Trip to Florida and 470 Nationals

Every trip you take, you learn from. This trip was no exception with terrible luck driving through some of the worst weather imaginable, the best luck sailing in the tropical Gulf Keys of Florida, and staying with some very interesting people with a lot of life experience.The trip began with sweaty palms and white knuckles anticipating the unseasonal blizzard raging through the south central United States right in the path of our loaded down suburban carrying one boat and towing another. Although we decided to take a longer route to avoid the brunt of the storm we ended up with a blinding 4 inches of snow in northern Tennessee where we were forced to stop for the night. After a light dinner at the Waffle House… we headed to bed. The next morning did not prove to be much better, but we inched our way passed the over turned semis and abandoned cars until we were far enough south to finally reach air temperature in the 40s and clear roads.Finally arriving in Sarasota, after loosing 2 hours in time zones and day light savings we found the house we were staying with minor difficulty. Over the next couple of days we found out that driving through the snow was the least of our worries as we dragged our boats over the beach and out to train with gold medalist Alison Jolly. Being a college sailing coach, she really knew how to work you, although we were completely out of shape, but she was always friendly making sure everyone had a good time.The regatta followed three days of on the water training, practice, and on land tuning. With 11 boats on the starting line we made a meager nationals fleet, but the competition was high with young athletic college sailors against some the most experienced 470 sailors around. The first day was perfect with a beautiful ten knot breeze allowing for a solid 3 race first day out in the open water of the Gulf. The next two days were a little more challenging with fluky winds on day 2 and gusts to 24 on the 3rd day. Although Doug and I personally met our goals for the regatta we were not without mishap capsizing in the last race forcing us to concede our solid 4th place for 5th to the strong husband and wife team from Houston.The drive back is hardly worth mentioning except that we managed to drive straight allowing the rest of the crew to get to work on Monday morning. Overall I learned a lot more than sailing on this trip. I was constantly reminded that I am still young and a lot can happen in a short amount of time. It’s amazing what traveling can do for you.