Just the Three of Us.

     It started three years ago when we decided to take a trip to New York City for Mother's Day weekend. It has been a year since my dad passed away and we wanted to do a girls trip to start the new chapter in your life, since it is just going to be the three of us now. It started in 2010, in New York City, for four days we ran around eating and seeing as much of the city as we can. It was the first time, since my father's death, that we were able to share a laugh together and be happy with just being the three of us. It brought us closer together but also established us as three very independent and strong women. Looking back, I would have never predicted that life could have lead us to where we are now. We have survived a loss together and from that we have all been able to build a life for ourselves while maintaining the relationship that we had with one another, my father would have been proud. 

NEW YORK, NEW YORK 2010

GERMANY & PARIS 2011 

HONOLULU, HAWAII 2012

Captain's Log

<<//Winter Regatta on February 25, 2012//>>

"If you want to be the best then you have to learn from the best. And that is exactly what I have been doing each time I sail with Sly McFly. I want to introduce you to the fabulous team and provide you with the Captain's Log, written by Captain James Baumgart, of the most recent regatta that I participated in. The team that day consisted of Captain Jim, a jolly fella who man the helm. The deck hands consisted of Victor and John, who were the bowmen, Joannie and Me who were the trimmer of the sails, and George, who can basically do everyone's job, but in this race he was the extra muscle power that I needed to help combat the crazy gust of wind that we encountered. Be warn that there are a lot of sailing terminologies and if you are not familiar with them, then you are going to be lost or bored. I hope you enjoy reading the adventure that I embarked on with Sly McFly Race." -GT
 

“We hit the water well before the race time so we decided to practice tacking, gybing, and setting the asym, gybing, and dousing. The first asym gybe was a disaster as all kinds of lines got tangled. The sail blew through the foretriangle and wrapped. We were out of control, sailing up to land, we urgently needed to gybe, douse, and sail back into the water.”

“Fortunately the crew got this done without too much yelling and we rehoisted, got a good gybe done, got a good douse done, and checked in. We continued to sail around pre-race, and got our course. This time it was an upwind start, and I think we got a pretty good start. We were the leeward boat, right on the line, and middle of the starting line.”

“No one laid X mark on the start, we all tacked to port, and we got a nice lift and made the first mark on just two tacks. We rounded the mark within 2 inches and did not hit! But somehow we were already several minutes behind Mad Hatter. We did pass the J-24s and were in 3rd or 4th place out of 10 boats. After the next mark, upwind, we were in the middle of the pack. Winds were very strong, about 18 knots. We rounded and did not put up the spinnaker. It was a medium close reach back down the bay. We passed Fiasco, while Cat 34 Rio del Mar was trying very hard to pass us.”

"Winds were gusting, changing direction, and there were wild puffs and holes and all kinds of changes. We did not let Rio get above us and went way across the bay to force them to duck low. Normally this would have been a correct tactical move. We ended up in a position to take a very nice close reach to the downwind mark – our best point of sail. Rio was going up with their symmetrical spin. I called for the Code 3A – a big mistake (wish I had called for the Code 0 – or just left the jib)."

"The crew did a good hoist in very windy conditions. Boat speed was in the 7s. I was looking for 8s. As we cleared the Bali Hai and sailed into that slot between Shelter Island and Harbor Island we got some really big puffs and shifts. We saw the winds go to 23 knots and quickly shift forward from an AWA of 75 to an AWA of 50. This resulted in radical spin knockdowns, round ups and we were totally out of control. I think we had at least 5 roundups, one was really grand."

 "Grace, our most petite crew, was battling with the spin sheets trying to dump and ease. Main was all the way out. Spin was not quite in the water on some of the bigger wipeouts. This was a day when we could have really used more people, and bigger people, on the rail. Crew learned what a roundup is. While the boat is out of control, she spins to windward, stands back up, and I turn it down and then it happens all over again!"

"While we were battling this, the entire fleet passed us. I was calling for the spin down but before they did that I managed to get the boat turned downwind just enough to get it under control. Twinging the spin sheet would have helped. Radical mainsail twist or a reef would have helped. We sailed to the mark. On the way we got a nice little luff from Alinka 2 – not in our class – and not on our course – and not flying a spin - which resulted in another near spinnaker knockdown."

"My fault, I should have been watching BEHIND and we could have avoided them easily. The luff was legal. We did an early jib set and douse. We rounded in good shape with a couple of Class 4 boats. Our tack up the bay for the next lap was uneventful. We need to do a better job watching for puffs, shifts, and tacking on headers. Crew was learning to tack quickly in heavy air. As we rounded the upwind mark, no one wanted to set the spin again. I couldn't blame them but winds were down to 10 – 12 knots. We needed the spin badly. It was not repacked and the lines were a mess but we had the code 4 ready to go and the backup lines ready. I was calling for it. But crew really insisted we stay under jib. Now, we didn't lose any places under jib but we didn't make up any ground either. We had a nice rounding, nice upwind leg to the finish."