Date: Tuesday, August 9,
Location: Gosport England
The team began the day with boat work. Jobs included sail work, cleaning, and finishing the re-do of the new non-skid over the freshly clear-coated deck. (That’s three hyphens in a sentence folks). It was a beautiful job completed by Matt Noble, Dave Rasmussen, Molly Robinson and Kaity Storck. Thanks guys! It’s like a new boat! Our boat’s cockpit has gone from shab to fab! Boat work quit promptly at 2 p.m. because the team was required to attend the Transatlantic Race awards ceremony. We returned to the house to shower and change. Properly attired, we drove to Southampton and caught a fast ferry straight to Cowes.
The ferry traveled through the middle of the Cowes Race Week fleet. The diverse and enormous fleet was just finishing racing and docking in for the day. I observed privately just how different it is to be surrounded by a giant sailing event, but not participating. We sailors get used to being in the middle of the action. It’s actually pretty interesting to just be on the water and spectate.
The transatlantic awards ceremony took place at the Royal Yacht Squadron. Almost our entire team attended the suit and tie event, enjoying the company of our esteemed competitors, and sipping champagne. In attendance and presenting the awards was her royal highness The Princess Royal. It was my first brush with British royalty. Our courageous team beat out the other two young teams competing to claim the youth trophy. Charlie Enright, representing us on stage, got to shake the hand of Her Royal Highness.
