John, Dan, Josh and I sailed John's FT10 "Savage Beauty" from San Francisco Bay to Half-Moon Bay in the YRA's annual race. This is typically a wild downwind ride in the 15-25+knots of wind that blows from the north down the coast. Of course, this year we had shifty 5-10knot winds from the south. HMB is south of SF. Go figure.
Captain John invited Sara and I to join him and the rest of his crew for a friday-night beer can race aboard his Flying Tiger 10m, sailed from South Beach Marina just south of the Bay Bridge in SF. The FT10 is a fairly new ultralight sailing boat with extendable sprit, giant asymmetric spinnaker, pre-bent mast with swept spreaders, and all kinds of other go-fast technology.
Chris and Scott invited me to join them onboard Chris' Farrier F-27 for race 3 of the interclub inside-the-bay race sponsored by Oakland Yacht Club. Six different fleets raced, each with an average of six or seven boats, on a course that was 13.7nm for the slower boats and 18.1nm for the faster boats. We were one of the faster boats.
My friend Monilee is a world-class mountain biker. I'm not. Her husband Fraser has done epic races like Trans-Rockies and Trans-Alps. I haven't been to the gym in more than three months. The two of them own six bikes, have their garage fully setup for long training rides, and are totally committed to bike racing. My bike has been in storage the last 18 months.
Dylan and Roshie invited Sara and me to join them for the historic Vallejo Season Opener race on their ultralight custom Dogpatch 26, "Moonshine". We love the Vallejo race - it was the first race we sailed on Velella, our much-beloved Ericson 27.
Ben and Allison, Joe and Sarah, Amy, and Sara and I took off for a day trip to Naples. We spent the morning exploring the ancient city of Pompei, covered in hot volcanic ash thousands of years ago and perfectly preserved until just recently.
During the first two weeks in Italy I slowly devoured a great book called "Basilica: The Splendor and the Scandal: Building St. Peter's".
Our first week in Italy was quiet and relaxing. Thirty other people joined us for the second week; we rented four different houses in Fondi, halfway between Rome and Naples. It wasn't quiet!
My brother Ben and cousin Bryan are a little too large to go mountain climbing. So we went mountain climbing. There was a lot of complaining. Much whimpering. Some swearing.
Sara and I joined my parents (Ann and John), my mother's sister and SO (Jane and Gibbers), and my father's sister (Joyce) for a week-long pre-celebration party in southern Italy. We stayed in a beautiful trulli near a small town named Ceglie Messapica. It was incredible.