Hi All,

It seems like its been forever since I wrote one of these! I hope everyone had a happy holidays, I always come back from vacation and find that my life jacket is just a little tighter then the last time I put it on, I must have lent it to one of the kids before I left  The unusual Portland winter has caused us to have to delay returning to practice. Luckily we have been able to make up for it by adding practices on Sundays to get back on Schedule.

Yesterday was the first day we were able to get back on the water and there was still ice that needed to be chipped out of the boats before we could sail. The day started off nicely with a mild 8-11 knots from the east but soon the skies opened up and it started to rain for the next three hours. We were able to get a few solid hours of sailing in though before the kids got too soaked and cold.

Today was a much nicer day, originally winds were forecast for upwards of 20 knots out of the east so I asked Haines to come out and help Riley and I so we would have an extra set of hands on the water. Practice started off with light winds around 6 knots but then slowly died right after the boats were rigged up. I ended up towing the boats up to marker 14 so the current would carry the boats back down and we could use what little wind there was to practice flying the spinnaker. Thankfully on the way back down the river the breeze started to build and once we got about half way passed tomahawk island the wind had built enough that we could turn around and use the trapeze upwind. The kids have really improved on the wire and can get out quite quickly, we are still working on doing a hand stand though, maybe after Portlandia Cup. In the afternoon we set up a short course to really force the kids to get the spin up quickly and go through a gybe. This has probably been the most difficult part of the winter program as even though the 420 has a pretty small spinnaker you still have to get the pole out without hitting your skipper in the face and keep the boat going in a straight line. The kids are still getting better each time they go out though and we are getting closer to being able to have the boat set up to go down wind in seven seconds.

We wont be having practice next week as Mitchel and I are heading to the Northwest Sailing Symposium on Saturday and Sunday to do some professional development and to have our NWISA high school sailing meeting. See you all at Portlandia Cup on February 4th!

Check out last weeks post HERE