PSSR 2008

Well, we had another successful year at PSSR (Puget Sound Spring Regatta) held April 12, 13 in Seattle.

Brian took Friday off to take the boat up to Seattle. He was having trouble finding crew to help him head north, but our neighbor Chris ended up springing a kid from Florida named Garrett who was visiting his brother for the week. Garrett had nothing to do on Friday while his brother was at work, so he hopped on the boat and got the 'from the water' tour of Puget Sound. While underway, he and Brian installed a new knot meter for the boat. The old one was subject to some water damage, and despite efforts to dry out each piece in the kitchen 2 weeks ago, it failed to work. So, yes, another purchase for the boat this spring. (big sigh...)

The major purchase this spring was a new set of sails, thanks to Quantum Sails. They proved to be just what we needed on our light air weekend excursion in Seattle, as we took a bullett on Saturday after the wind petered out and we overtook Diversion at the end of the race. Unfortunately, we only were able to race one race on Saturday because the wind just never filled in. The weather was absolutely beautiful, though. I heard some areas hit in the 80's. We had a few sunburns amongst the crew members. Of course, the beers started going down early as we headed back to the docks. Rich had put together a very nice BBQ on the dock, sans hamburger buns thanks to Cheryl leaving them home. Tom and Jim bailed us out with a quick store run, and we enjoyed freshly grilled hamburgers, fruit, chips, potato salad, and a few other items that for the life of me I can't remember (along with a few other events I can't remember real well either...Jack Rabbit, I apologize!) We rubbed elbows with the crew of Showtime, checked out their spinnaker bag, I swore I'd be able to sew one that evening, but was a little overly confident. The evening turned out to be a blast, we were home at a decent hour and got ready for Sunday's repeat.

Sunday was rough until Pat Nelson bailed me out with a 5 hour concoction (is that a word?) Once I rehydrated, I was off to the races. Sunday was another light air day, not as nice of weather, and we only got one race in. There were a few choice words exchanged between our boat and a bossy competitor which I will leave unnamed. It was a clear case of a senior, I mean veteran sailor trying to rattle my husband. Well, it didn't work. Unfortunately, his crew was able to get ahead of us and we finished 3rd in that race, which gave us a 2nd place finish for the regatta. Not too bad!! Last year we placed 3rd overall, so we figure next year is our time. Watch out!

Thank you to the crew who donated their weekend to us:

Brian: Skipper, rudder trimmer, cool as a cucumber
Erryn: Main trim, dealt with a stiff batton all weekend long!
Cheryl: Jib and spin trim, completely thrilled that nothing broke this year!
Jim: Jib and spin trim, finds the wind with the smoke from his pipe
Christy: Pit, ripped a nice fart by accident!
Rich: Pit, BBQ grill master
Tom: Mast, limited himself to one drink on Saturday (one bottle of wine!)
Dave: Foredeck, tactics, dove and scrubbed the bottom Saturday morning (thank you, Dave!)