Thanks to everyone who followed along our adventures this past summer. Last weekend was Columbus Day Weekend, marking the end of the sailing season in New England. Brandon, Scruffy, and I woke up early on a foggy Saturday morning to take part in Newport Yacht Club’s annual Mitchell Regatta, a pursuit race to Block Island held every Memorial Day and Columbus Day Weekend as a way to bookend your season.
We were the 8th start among 21 boats making us the fastest of the slow boats. Pau Hana, my dad’s Catalina 36, is by the handicap rules, one minute slower than us over 20 miles so he was granted the opportunity to start just one minute ahead. After a one hour delay to let the fog lift and the wind fill in, we were off like a herd of turtles bound for the island off the coast in about 5 knots of breeze. About 6 hours later, we all arrived. The mighty Persistence held her title as the Champions of Class 1 passing all the other slow boats, but most importantly beating my dad by about 10 minutes.
Sunday in the AM there is a Bloody Mary contest. Brandon makes a mean Bloody which this year we even added a little Pineapple Juice and bacon alongside your celery. However, someone else used Bacon Infused Vodka and Candied Bacon so we did not win…
Sunday was a little rainy so just relaxed on the boat. In the afternoon before Awards, there is an Appetizer contest. I regard this as the most important competition of the regatta. There are awards for both taste and presentation. Last year, I won with Stout, Bacon, Buffalo Chicken Mac N Cheese served in mini solo cups surrounding a mini keg of New Castle. (I have noticed that anything with booze, spice, bacon, and cheese always wins so I combined them all!) This year I made meatloaf cupcakes. Little mini meatloaf, topped with mashed potatoes and a small piece of bacon. While delicious, I didn’t take into account how cold they would get on a plate so quickly. So we didn’t win this year 🙁
Brandon and I looked hard at the forecast all weekend and Monday looked to be pretty gross so we decided to head home around 5pm on Sunday. It took us 3 hours dock to dock which is HUGE for a 34-foot boat. The wind and tide were with us.
It was a little sad as we put we put her back on the mooring at Jamestown Boat Yard that night. We had a great season, we would always liked to have sailed more and had nicer weather but the ol’ Persistence did us well this summer and already looking forward to the next one.
What’s Next? Keep following!
On Tuesday, I boarded a flight bound for Alicante, Spain. My next adventure is working with Vestas 11th Hour Racing, one of the teams for the Volvo Ocean Race and the PR manager which basically means I will be handling all the media side of the team like Press Releases, Interview Requests, and general Media Relations. The race goes around the world starting next week from Spain to Portugal to South Africa to Australia to Hong Kong to New Zealand to Brazil to NEWPORT to England to Sweden to the Netherlands between now and end of June. The team I am working is focused on using thier platform to spread a message of sustainability and ocean health, which is also a passion of mine so I am super excited to help educate the world on steps they can take to help our planet.
While I am super sad to be leaving Scruffy and Brandon at home on this adventure. Brandon will be joining me in Austraila and I will be flying home between the Stopovers. So while racking up miles, and in between my jet-lagged moments. Be sure to follow along here and the team online!