Friday morning I packed up my car with all the essentials…tent, sleeping bags, pillow, blankets, warm clothes, extra sailing gear, my skateboard and my bike and headed over to the Horne’s house. Upon arriving, Katherine informed me the kids were at school because they wanted to get the 2 hours of school in (such studious kids..) so we packed the car (chock full) and went to pick up Alex and Tamsin at school before hitting the road for our 8-hour drive to Park City, Utah for 
the Sail Park City’s Annual Fall Regatta.
Being from Rhode Island long road trips are not in my blood, growing up a long car ride for my family was about 1-2 hours. So, let’s just say I was a little nervous about 8 hours in the car snuggled in the back with Alex and Tamsin. The first thing I learned is that Wyoming is very close to us…. guess I need to study up on my geography. For the first 5 hours it was Wyoming flatlands and fog….And of course, the 100 signs for little America, we stopped for the .75 cent ice cream cones we saw 50 miles back, but I just don’t think Little America lived up to the hype of all the billboards, but I guess what else is there on I80 in Wyoming.
Time went by surprisingly fast, talking with Katherine and Justin, playing with Tamsin’s stuffed animals, a little nap (and Tamsin sleeping on me) and suddenly, we have new Utah scenery.
The kids were very eager to see the reservoir we would be sailing at, I know Alex was dreaming of sailing his Laser the entire time. Once we finally pulled into the state park and got to our site, we set up camp…. well they set up their camper and I made Alex and Tamsin set up my tent. 
It was a perfect location, beautiful view of the mountains and the reservoir and only a short walk to Sail Park City’s sailing center which of course we had to go check out once our campsite was all set up and ate dinner. Alex wanted to go scope out the deal with the lasers he would be sailing. Breeze was light but we knew there was breeze forecasted for Saturday and the kids were excited about that because we all know that’s not always the case for Boulder and Cherry Creek.
After an amazing night in my tent, perfect temperature, great night of sleep…. I slipped out of my tent in the morning and saw a nice breeze building. We had breakfast and then walked down to the sailing center, everyone eager for a fun day of racing. We met up with the rest of the CSC crew; Richard, Johnny and Bennett, Evan, Emma and Karina and of course all the awesome parents…oh and CSC Director Melissa and her husband Maki in their cool Sprinter Van! We checked in, had the skippers meeting and then headed out to get boats rigged and get racing. The breeze was slowly increasing into the high teens and I was feeling a little concerned about the Optis considering the 3 Opti sailors all looked under 50 pounds, but they were ready and eager to go sailing…of course, fearless kids.
Once everyone was rigged we sent everyone out, I ended up hopping on with Karina and Emma to help them get off the beach, the wind was really starting to pick up. I was then having way too much fun flying around with them on the 420. On the other hand, Melissa was not having as much fun… (but always a smile on her face) her small 13’ Boston Whaler was….well a little swamped…. see for yourself, who wants to bail that out???
Meanwhile, we were able to get a start off for the Optis and then the 420s, everyone struggling to even pull their sails in and going FAST. As the wind kept getting stronger and gusts blowing through, safety became a priority as boats were capsizing left and right and Johnny and Bennett were turtled by the windward mark (even with the masthead float) ….after bailing out her boat…Melissa to the rescue! The wind was just getting too much for most of the kids, but smiles were still there on the boats cruising around at full speed. The (3) 
420s that were not capsized quickly approached the finish line. The first-place boat finished, 2 awesome sailors from Aspen who joined our crew for the weekend and then 2 boats were approaching the finish and we knew it was going to be a tight finish. One on starboard tack and one on port, so of course the port tack boat had to tack and the starboard tack boat was able to finish ahead to clinch second place. And guess who it was, Tamsin and Richard! I was so proud of them for utilizing the rules of the road and going off on port tack so they would be able to approach the finish line on starboard and force the boat they were fighting against to tack. At this point and the Optis were all in and the race committee made the smart decision to send everyone else in. Rescue missions by Melissa continued. I hopped on Richard and Tamsin’s boat to help them get to the dock and once again was having too much fun, Richard wanted to trapeze so I was happy to be able to drive the boat and let him hang off! (enjoy some highlight photos from the day).
Finally everyone was in and rescued …. once big shout out to Melissa for being the rescue boat and getting everyone to safety, as well as all the other safety boats that helped our CSC sailors and all other sailors. We all know how tough it is helping capsized boats and cold kids that have been trying to right their boat for far too long. Overall, we were happy everyone was safe, smiling and no serious damage to any boats. We all went back to our hotels and campsites, got warmed up, cleaned up, relaxed and then it was time for the Commodore’s ball.
About a 15-minute drive, the Horne’s and I drove up to the host’s beautiful home up on the hillside. Seeing everyone all cleaned up is always fun, Alex took 20 minutes making sure his hair looked good….Most of the CSC crew made it for the party, and I will say I think Richard won best dressed in his Pearl Harbor Yacht Club polo and fedora, even though Evan is always looking sharp. We ate good food, had some fun and overall it was a nice night so thank you to Sail Park City crew for welcoming us.
After another great night in my tent…. well other than the hurricane like winds blowing like crazy, I slipped out of my tent around 8 to see the wind howling around 20mph. The afternoon had forecasted breeze double that so the RC had us come down on the early side in hopes of getting some racing before it was too much.
Once the whole crew was down at the sailing center, the wind was building and it was obvious it was going to be too much wind for any and every one, so the RC made the good call of calling off racing for the day.
We stuck around the help get all the boats off the beach and they did awards…. for the Optis since they didn’t end of finishing the race, they decided to use the last man standing technique so shout out to Evan for getting first place, he was killing it out there before it just got too much for anyone under 80 pounds. For the 420s they used the race we got off so shout out to Tamsin and Richard for getting second place! Also, a huge shout out to Johnny and Bennett and Emma and Karina for dealing with turtling and still having smiles on their faces.
Although we didn’t get as much racing in as we would have liked, it was an awesome weekend and I’m glad I was able to go. Thank you so much to the parents who came down, you guys are always so awesome and supportive…. that’s you Chris, Kitty, Heather, John, Lauren, Kristin, Christopher and Katherine….and thank you to Sail Park City for welcoming us with open arms for the weekend and I must say I love the skateboard crew they have.
Another big big thank you from me goes to the Horne’s. Thank you, Katherine and Justin, for taking me in for the weekend and treating me like family. I had so much fun with you guys and feel lucky that community sailing fosters such a great community that I can be a part of. Alex and Tammy, I also had a little bit of fun with you both and felt like I was 15 again…. I have to say 8 hours in the car with you guys wasn’t terrible. See you next season Park City!
