The Guilford Fair

Monday, September 24, 2007

On Saturday Ike and I met up with the Steffens, Raymonds, Mulligans and Matt & Molly to hit the Guilford Town Fair. This was my first experience at the fair and it was certainly a hit with all the kids! It was small (very small) scale to the Charleston Fair that I always used to go to as a kid with Hunter and all our friends. The highlight for me was the cotton candy and fried dough (aka elephant ear) with LOTS of powdered sugar! More pics here.

Ike liked the baby cow in the Barnyard Tent - actually the cow was 4 mos older than him but was HUGE and super sweet. He is standing better but still has to be holding onto something.

The real deal complete with an old fashioned horse pull.

Walker and Anna were so proud of their school's (Ike's school too) blue ribbon project that was displayed in the local art tent- Ike was excited to look forward to what he can do when he is 4!

Anna was busy smiling for the camera while Quinn, Wes and Walker were getting their tickets ready for the ferris wheel ride.

Worlds wrap up

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Finally on the last day we saw the breeze we had been hoping for all week. 10-12 knots and sunny skies. We finished the regatta strong with a 10 in race 6 (that was later abandoned) and 11th in race 7. All top ten scores would put you in around 5th overall. We learned that our weakness was in the light air and we were one of the top boats in breeze over 10. Thanks to Rob, Whitney and Peter for a fun event.

This was the scene on the water for two days of the event. Pretty Glassy Taxi service to and from the regatta ( Whitney's first time in a small plane..)

Headed out of Marblehead Harbor

Foggy finish to race 6

Hanging out "solving problems" under postponement

Helper

Can't quite get there from here

Saturday, September 22, 2007

That is the phrase that I heard Peter and Whitney discussing in the bar last night. It pretty much sums up the past two days of racing. We have endured impossibly light conditions which makes for extremely frustrating sailing especially when you get towards the back of a 51 boat fleet. Hence the phrase. You cant quite get the lanes you want. Things finally clicked in the third race yesterday when we posted a 10th in race 6 that was later abondened on shore. This abondonment has caused quite a contoversy as some of the players did well in the race, and the regatta leader did not and picked up a 20% penalty for being over early. There were alot of heated discussions involving the race committee in the bar last night. I am dissappointed we are not sailing as well as we hoped, but I am very happy to not be involved in the shoreside antics that is taking place around race 6. We have one race to go today which will give us a drop race, and if we can pull a good score we should move up the board a bit. Out the window conditions look tough as the harbor is still glassy. www.kattack.com has been supplying GPS receivers to each boat so they can post actual race data on their website. Anyone interested in replaying the race can download it off their site. We are sail # 728.
Signing off -

Day 3- There and Here

The report from Harcourt is that there is quite a bit of turmoil from all the sailors about this regatta and the race committee. Yesterday after the race committee decided not to count the 6th race due to poor conditions and there were protests abound! The Cinghiale team had a recorded 20th and 28th finishes yesterday so they are 28th overall but he says they did well in the race that was dropped. The ulralight conditions have led to some very frustrated sailing but they are still having a good time. They are heading home tonight so I am sure Harcourt will give full detail when he returns.

Meanwhile, back in town Ike and I have been keeping very busy. Yesterday we met up with the Steffen girls after work at the playground and Ike LOVES the slide. He just wants to go down and amazingly seems to get the whole concept. Since they are coming home tonight Ike and I are not going to Marblehead but instead we will be hitting the Guilford Town Fair this afternoon!!

Day 2

Thursday, September 20, 2007

The team did not have a good day today. Light wind and some bad luck including being badly fouled led to 2 not so great finishes. They are currently 31st but hopefully they will get some wind and a chance to show their stuff tomorrow. I found a pic of them from today, bow #45.

Day 1 Photos

The regatta website put up a few photos from yesterday and I didn't see any of Cinghaile specifically but the one that captured my attention the most was the picture of the sonar crew getting a few beverages from the Sam Adams boat! I have never heard or seen such a thing... only in sailing do you see something like that :-)

This accurately illustrates Harcourt's report from yesterday of the glassy calm, no wind.
Starting line of Race 1.

Also, there is also a neat site, kattack, that has placed gps devices on all the boats so you can "watch" the races via their race tracking. Very cool.

Sonar Worlds Day 1 report

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

The first day of the regatta got off to a slow start as we had glassy conditions in Marblehead harbor This morning. The harbor start was at 11:00 am and we drifted out the the race course. Finally after a 2 hour postponement and 2 general recalls we got race 1 going under black flag start. Conditions were a light 6mph from the south east. Sea state was 3-4ft ocean swell which made for tough driving. We got off the line well and rounded the top mark in 10th after being on the right side of a 15 degree left shift. Not bad. A local boat rounded first and held their lead to the finish. After 5 legs we finished 10th with several of the top teams ( Bill Lynn winner of the NOOD regatta) just behind us. Not a super finish, but certainly good considering we are right in touch with the "players". Tomorrow is forecasted to be a little more breeze than today, but the conditions getting better as the week goes.

Peter, Whit , Rob, and myself signing off...

Sonar Worlds

Today is race day 1 at the Sonar Worlds Regatta at Eastern Yacht Club in Marblehead, MA. The forecast looks amazing all week! Harcourt is driving Rob Wilber's Cinghiale with Whitney, Peter Ginz and Rob as the mighty crew. There are 51 boats racing and certainly the best of the best in the Sonar class worldwide. They are all super excited and they had a great day of practice races yesterday. Ike and I are heading up there this weekend to cheer them on. Harcourt will be doing daily postings (or so he says) so check in to see how the team is doing. Good Luck!!

The beautiful Eastern Yacht Club (photo from their website)
A collage from practice races yesterday.

Happy Anniversary

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Today marked our 3 year anniversary! What incredible memories we have from an amazing weekend and it was fun to reminisce. It has been a great three years and now we are a family of three! We are so excited to see what more great things the future has to hold for us. Maggie came over and we went out for a date night to celebrate and to our surprise Mom & Dad and my Grandparents had made arrangements to treat us to dinner! Thanks!!!!



We also had fun reminiscing about our honeymoon and how Hurricane Jeanne put a damper on our plans but we still managed to pull off an amazing trip. Yes, the rub of traveling to the BVI's in September is Hurricane season but those in wedded bliss don't think of these things until they are reality! A quick synopsis- we get to St. Thomas beautiful weather day 1 then we see the "Weather Update" in the lobby of the hotel and that night they came in to put down the hurricane shutters and we rode the storm out inside the hotel for 2+ days. We were a day delayed starting our charter out of Tortola but as you can see the waters calmed and the sun shined once again. Oh what fun!

A moment out in the storm from the hotel pool deck. The water behind me the day before was crystal clear!
Frenchman's Reef all buttoned down for the storm,
Marina Cay
Fishing on the flats

9 Month Stats

Thursday, September 06, 2007

We took Ike in this morning for his 9 month check-up and he is a picture of health and happiness. The dr thinks he will be walking in a month and a half! Yikes!

• 20lbs 5 ozs (50th %ile)
• 29.5 inches (75th %ile)

Mom & Dad Come to Town

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

We were so lucky to have Ike's Jimmie & Pepe come to visit us from Charleston for 10 days over Labor Day. They picked up Dean in Brooklyn on the way for a weekend visit as well. We kept very busy enjoying the new patio, playing with Ike, cooking yummy meals and cruising on the boat. They were such a great help with Ike and he enjoyed spending time with them while I was at work. He was very spoiled by them but that is what grandparents are all about and Ike is oh so lucky to be blessed with a great family (on both sides).

For me it was very special to see my parents with Ike. It had been quite a while since they were united and he is such a great age and so interactive that you could just see the love between them. Thanks Mom & Dad!! We love you! For more pics of the visit click here.

They just couldn't get enough of little Ike
Enjoying cocktail cruise on the Shelter
Dad enjoys a summer sunset in the harbor
Dinner on the patio with Dean
Mom & Dad took us out to dinner and this was Ike's first dinner out at a restaurant and he did super! He just loved watching all the people go by!
BIG lobster dinner- so big we had to serve them on platters!
Ike and his Jimmie

So have you ever heard the term "piddling"? Piddling is what my Dad does best and he loves it! He likes to come to our house and help out with projects and this time it was to build an organizing shelf in our garage for storage. Thanks Dad for all of your hard work!

9 Months

9 months is a great age! Ike is full of fun, laughs, babbling and new skills. He is really crawling well and seems to have a crab-style crawl where he likes to have one leg down on his knee while the other leg is straight with his foot on the ground. We think it is an attempt to prefer standing up and walking but obviously we aren't there yet. He is pulling up to stand on everything and is just amazed by his abilities. He holds his own bottle, loves to cuddle and watch a Baby Einstein before bed and sleeps like a super star. This month was also busy for him in the dental department as he cut the 4 top teeth in about 2 weeks, he did very well considering. He is a very happy little guy and we just love to be with him!

Ike likes his Daddy's John Deere
Capt Ike

Showing off his pulling up skills
Jolly man

Overnight Tuna fishing trip

Last week I got the chance to do an overnight tuna trip out to the canyons 70 miles south of Montauk , NY with Cutter and some of his friends from Noank. We left the dock at 5pm and were out to the tuna grounds by 9pm. The overnight bite never really got going, but we caught a Mahi and a 3' Mako shark. At 6am we started trolling and it was not long before we caught several albacore tuna. The fish of the day came late in the am and it took Cutter an hour and a half to get it to the boat. The end result was a 150lb big eye tuna. Needless to say the Sashimi was wonderful. We did see a huge bluefish boil on the way out which is always an impressive site.

The Big EYE
Weigh in at the dock
This was my first fish of the day
The bluefish boil