a long time

Amazing how many years have gone by. So many changes have been going in. I thought I'd try to update life a bit. Signed grandpa Dave

Winter, love it and hate it

Sailing is going to take a while to get going this year. Snow yet again tomorrow? Ugh. I have to admit I enjoy the season, but winter fatigue has set in. So Nancy and I are going to start a garden this year. We have started the planning for what and wear. It turns out there is too much information on upper midwest gardening.....but lots of good ideas to sort out. AS far as work it is hard to believe we are coming up to 20 years, so much has changed, so many new people working there, but the mission is remarkably the same.

March madness

It send like people are getting worn down by winter. I'm ready for spring but it is early march yet. Blue boat is ready to have the dust blown of of her. I'm pretty much ready to hit the water.
Life is good otherwise.

Cabin fever

I seem to hear it everyday. "This is the worst winter ever". I have to chuckle a bit as there has been a bunch of snow,but the temps have been pretty nice. I guess I consider this a normal winter.
Visiting Mom this weekend and getting things done on the Sonnydo list. Will have plenty to do to get Blue Boat ready for the season.

Last summer there was not much sailing at all, I'm hoping to make it a bit better this year. The new main is ready to try out. I'm still not sure how to assess the fact the Vivace is 60 lbs over weight. She is not going to like the diet, but it will ned to be done.

Moving closer to the lake should help a lot. It is only a twenty minute drive so hopefully that will make things easier also.

It's amazing that time has flown by since I've posted. The summer has been great, and busy. I got married, and just returned from a fantastic vacation to Gun Lake, MI, and Cedar Point Park on Lake Erie. Amazing time. There has not been a lot of sailing this year. Waiting on a new main, but the blue boat is set to go. I think I'm going to take some time to just sail, the updates have been fun, but it takes a lot of time. This has been the hottest summer I can remember in many years. Kinda funny to listen to the warming folks gettin hot under the collar. It's like the summers I remember as a kid. Hopefully the patterns of the 1930's don't repeat. Well, time to finish putting up a garden shed. TTYL.

Fall again?

I guess the fact that I've not blogged in over a year, means that Facebook took up alot of my time. It was a great year for sailing, taking 4th for the upper MidWest buccaneer series.

Yesterday I picked up a very tough looking 76 Bucc as a winter project.....we shall see how that goes. Life on a 1-10 bout an 8.5

Summer Poof

It is hard to believe that summer has come and gone.

It was quite a year. This Spring we delt with the floods in Iowa, Mom was lucky to only have minor damage.

Summer sailing was fantastic. We had the butterfly Nationals on Lake DuBay in June. A good turn out, and lots of fun. It was interesting to learn the boat. Jim Young held a sailing clinic that Michael and I attended. http://www.jimyoungsailing.com/
Jim is a great coach, and I learned alot about racing, and working the upwind legs. Ed M from Kenosha, one of our bucc sailors, took 2nd in the Butterfly Nationals. http://www.butterflyer.org/images/08shnResults.jpg I didn't do so well, but had a lot of fun, as it was very windy with no rain for the event.

Fond du Lac's Lighthouse Regatta ended p being a bit of a wash with Crazy winds on Saturday, and a drifter on Sunday. Although there was not a lot of sailing, we had a blast. The people involved in these groups are wonderful. I enjoy that you have people from every walk of life that share a common passion. http://home.centurytel.net/elmo/lighthouse/lighthouse.htm

Probably the high point of the summer was the 2008 Gov Cup on Lake Dubay. We had 9 Buccaneer's show up, and a total of 16 boats compete in the event. This is the 2nd year that the buccaneers had a fleet for the regatta. Weather was good, with a very windy Saturday. http://www.saildubay.org/

Last big sailing event was a hull cleaner. Val and I competed in the Leukemia Cup Regatta on White Bear Lake in Minnesota. Our boat raised over $3,200 with a total event rasing of $100,000+ for Blood Cancer research and care. Saturday ended up being a dark and damp drifter. Sunday was cold and windy which finished up with lots of rain. We were the only buccaneer competing in the Portsmith Class, taking 4th. It was very coll to see the big A-scows out on the course with us. Great group of sailors, who made the event fun.

Well now J.A.M. is packed up for the winter. There was one more event this month in Waukegan on October 11th, and unfortunately I'm working and can't make it down.

I'm hoping that we can get a fleet put together for the 2009 season.