My First Sailing Regatta

Although I have sailed for many years - since childhood, actually starting at the family Adirondack camp and later on my famly's 25 foot Cape Dory - today I will be crewing in my first regatta.  There is a national regatta for Albacore class sailboats (see image below) based out of the Hampton Yacht Club, and additional classes will have races as well.  I will be aboard one of the Club's six Sonar class boats (see image above).  The weather could be prettier, but it ought to be a lot of fun.  As the club's first membership wide announced openly gay couple, our experiences at the club to date have been great and have shown that not all of Virginia is inhabited by knuckle dragging Neanderthals.  I'll let you know how the day goes.

Sailing 101, Etc.

I've mentioned in previous posts that the boyfriend and I recently joined the Hampton Yacht Club and found ourselves announce as the first gay couple to be announced as members in the club newsletter.   I've sailed before, both at the family lake house in the Adirondack Mountains of New York and later in Virginia Beach when my parents owned a 25' Cape Dory, but one of the attractions of the yacht club membership is that the club currently owns five (5) sonar sailboats (a groups of Sonars are pictured above) - a 6th boat is going to be purchased - that club members can sign out once they have been certified by attending a class put on by the club's sailing director.  Hence I am taking the certification class and had my second class tonight.  Starting next week, we will spend all of our class time out on the water in the boats.  And when my schedule permits, I plan on signing on as crew for one of the evening or Saturday races that the club puts on for is own small fleet of Sonars on Hampton Roads Harbor.

In addition to the boats and opportunities to sail and crew, the club also has a great social life and the boyfriend and I are working to take advantage of it.  The photos below are from Easter Brunch at the club (the boyfriend not surprisingly knows many of the members who are patrons of his salon) with my sweet granddaughter:

 

Yes, the boyfriend is going to spoil her