Hailey's Here and now I have to start blogging again.

One more cup of coffeee for the road

By judging the growth on Pat and Yanir’s chin, it is official, the mighty S/Y Keewaydin is underway once again, Baltic Bound!! It is always hard to get underway but especially so when the port we are leaving is Newport and its the Newport Shipyard. But it makes the homecoming that much greater so one day out is one day closer to home. In addition to our regular cast of characters, we have Kirk Cusic, who arrived with his own coffee mug (I knew I liked this guy) and an arsenal of anecdotes of “Chief Pat”, his pre-captain alias, when he shaved his head and lived in the woods working with troubled teens. The absence of our previous transatlantic crew is painfully evident because the m&m jar is always full. I doubt we will break our record of 13 pounds of m&m consumption but the rate in which the Klondike bars are disapearing, we may have a new personal best. The first couple of days out were what I call Courtney Love conditions, sloppy sloppy sloppy. We had two men down, one to sea sick flu, the other with what my dad would call “the Coors Light flu.” These conditions inspired Pat and Kirk to patent their idea of hockey pants as essential , everyday, delivery wear. I was cooking in 15 minute increments with ginger ale and saltine chasers but now everything has settled and we are in the groove my friends. For all the hard core sailors and racer chasers, here is the meat and potatoes. The wind has been 20’s to 30’s from the Southwest, starboard tack, seas 4-6 building to 6-8ft and for the most part coming at us in a comfortable direction. Day 8 we finally had turn the CAT on bc the wind was dying and the swell was shifting Northwest, making it difficult to keep the sails full. Our average speed is 9.2 and it has been sweet sailing. And for all of my friends, OMG,I cant believe Jenny told Nate about Blair and Chuck on season one of Gossip Girl. I am happy to report that Burger Friday has officially been reinstated. Vanna White herself, flew in for the ribbon cutting ceremony and to lead us in the sacred oath of “two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.” This trip's entertainment also includes “last dinner and a movie” night. There is a shameless website that lists Texas death row inmates last meal requests…so I just added a movie request to that and ran with it. Everyone gets their movie and a meal, plastic utensils of course. And the choices are: Matt: Celebrity - bacon wrapped bacon wrapped beef or pork, twice baked potato with bacon, caprese salad, bread with olive tapenade and hard cheese Leah: Frost/ Nixon - spaghetti putttanesca, garlic bread Yanir: Master and Commander - bbq pork ribs and sweet corn Kirk : Step Brothers - yummy pizza white w mozzerella, feta black olives roasted garlic, ricotta cheese, cesear salad Patrick: Im Not There - Herb roasted chicken stuffing and green salad with Newmans dressing Reagan: Elizabethtown - Black beans and yellow rice We are also happy to report that we have quite ambitious reading material. Pat is tackling Dickens and Wilbur Smith, myself Proust and The Middle East for Dummies, Matt likes to show us that he is reading, and it is a chapter book, Leah is learning Hebrew and Yanir is devouring Digital Photography 301. I have hidden Kirk’s book “The Boat That Wouldn’t Float” but he replaced it with a story about a man adrift at sea for 91 days , which he reads while whistling. Other activites include modified workouts and renaming the cargo ships that pop up on AIS, for example the Strong Patriot is now the "Thong Patrol" and CCR Hamburg is now the "Hamburglar". Alright, enough of this. We miss and love you all. Next stop, Peter Café Sport, I mean Horta, Faial Azores.

Thanks to Winnie Lynch-DeCoster for braving to handle my camera and shoot this of the whole crew departing Newport. It's tough to saw goodbye to that town and all the people there, but yachting is a small community, so I'm sure we'll be surprised by friends in the next port too!

Newport - Azores

We're off again. This time with a few different players; Reagan, Leah, Yanir, Matthew, Kirk cusic and myself. Departing today (May 5) from Rhode Island, the Azores will be the first stop - although this weather pattern looks so nice we could just pass it up and go straight for England! Reagan would kill me. Anyhow, talk to you in 12 days or so. I'll take some pictures!

Miami University Reunion Tour

I was lucky enough to get some of the old boys together for our migration up the East Coast this season. Enter: Nate Wiggers and Bret (Bert) Swasey, whom I haven't been sailing with since we rocked the Tarten Ten fleet at the Sandusky Yacht Club back in 1999? This time Nate showed up in Naples to greet the boss and his guests, While Bert flew into Charleston for the second leg to Newport. Our sail was as fast as colud be hoped for - and the winds cooperated - allow for an average 11-knots from Key West to Charleston and a more natural 9.3-knots onward to Newport. As for Nate and Bert, It was a treat to have them onboard, although some of the memories that were unearthed could have been better left buried...

I couldn't be more proud of this dog.

Park City Skiing

Thanks eric & Hailey for a great week of skiing in Park City. And thanks for some great food too!