Gone Diving

Last Thurs. and Fri. I completed my checkout dives for my NAUI Rescue Diver certification. Last semester I got scuba certified through the diving program at State and this semester I followed up with the rescue diver class. We have a really good diving program here with excellent instructors and equipment.

Fantasy lake scuba park in Rollesville, NC is a great place for beginner divers to practice navigation and basic skills. We completed skills in rescue towing, diver recovery and practicing search and recovery techniques. I don't have my own gear yet but I'm in the market. Hopefully more diving is in my future over the summer.

(Left) Alan taking a bearing on a "downed diver" simulated by a plastic bottle with rocks and holes in the sides that sinks in about 5 seconds after being thrown in. Basically the name of the game was GO FETCH!

A few of the instructors in the diving program at NC state are into cave diving. A highly technical niche in the diving community. Of course cave diving is inherently very dangerous without proper training. Guess I ought to start soon huh. (mom yelling at me now..."NO NO NO, NO CAVE DIVING!") Here is shot of an extreme cave diver using a DPV (diver propulsion vehicle) a rebreather wearing a drysuit and towing multiple safety bottles probably to restock the cave or remove the old ones. This is the most extreme example of cave diving. I wonder what this guys mom thinks.

Spring Fever

The tenth annual spring fever regatta was help last weekend on Lake Hartwell in northern GA. A total of around 80 cats sailed and a great time was had by all. "Team NC State" drove down on Thursday evening having Friday off from school for Easter. We took a whole crew from NC State and in all contributed 4 boats to the regatta. 2 Nacra 20's a G-Cat, and Hobie 18. Friday was the warmest day of racing and also the best for Trey and I . We took two bullets and a second. Saturday took a turn for the cold out on the lake but many sailors braved the 30 degree temps to get some races in. The wind was fierce on Saturday. NOAA reported 20mph with gusts up to 32 for the day and it wasn't far off. We finished up with a one bullet, a second and a third on day 2. Pictured above is Tad Pecorak and Derek Binkley (both members of Team Velcoity Sailing who sailed Tad's Nacra 20 to a respectable finish. Look for lots more pictures coming soon on the Spring Fever Website.

On the last day, the boat was feeling a little slow and we had to be content with a 4th, and a 3rd. The results were in and after the throw out we scraped out first place overall in the Nacra 20 class just one point ahead of Team Seacats who sailed exceptionally well especially on the last day in some really shifty winds. Had more races been run on Sunday, they probably would have had us.

Small boats:
Seacats skipper, Jake Kohl brought along hull number 1 from his Remote control 1 meter sailing project. He and some buddies designed their own RC racing sailboat. Check it out on Team Seacats website.

Back to almost Normal

I started this blog a little over a year ago to document my adventures in sailing and the outdoors so that I could show others some of the things I have done and whenever I meet someone and we get to talking about sailing, racing, or whatever, I usually end up giving them our site to go check out. When Team RAF was created, I devoted the site to the team. Now that the EC is over (at least for this year) I am just going to continue to post about things that I am doing and Matt, Chris and Mike are welcome to add to the stories. (Left, pic from a 15 mile paddle on jordan lake last sunday. )

Things are mostly back to normal in the world of team RAF. The boats are resting, and we are back in the grind of school work and projects. As for the boats, we have been contacted about possibly selling one of them and we are still talking about it. Right now it looks like Matt and Chirs are interested in keeping one of them and procuring a second trailer for its transport. I with my lonely hobie 18 in the driveway would like to get my trailer back to its original owner. The other boat could possibly be on the market in the near future.

International Rolex Regatta: The results have been in, Trey and I placed 4th in our class (Results, scroll to the bottom) on the boat we chartered "WAR". Among those we sailed against was Enrique Figueroa, a legend in sailing and national hero in Puerto Rico. Let me be one to say...holy crap this guy can sail fast! We were happy with our performance and Saint Thomas was an amazing place to visit. Thanks to Eric, Rachel, Heineken-Adam, Buzz-Alan, Christina , and The good doctor Tobin for everything. What a blast. Trey and I collected over 2 hours of video from inboard the boat this is being edited for your viewing pleasure soon. If you can't wait, there is some video of us on Day 2 (Saturday) at http://www2.blogger.com/www.t2p.tv just click on "Rolex regatta" but you have to log-in to view.

Spring Fever: This Easter weekend, Trey and I and a lot of other sailors from NC State will be going down to Lake Hartwell, GA for the 10th annual Spring Fever Regatta. A great time and LOTS of boats. I think we have around 100 catamarans signed up this year. Trey and I will be sailing the Nacra 20. It will be good to be back on our own boat. Here is a picture of Jen and I sailing a hobie 16 at last years Spring Fever Regatta. I don't remember how we placed but I do remember that it was fun.





Missouri River 340: In other news, I just signed up for the MOR 340. A 340 mile canoe and kayak race that takes racers down the twisty Missouri river from Kansas City to St. Charles all the way across the state of Missouri. Oh yeah, and you have to finish in under 100 hours. I have started training on a Kruger DreamCatcher and will likely borrow a Kruger SeaWind for the race from my good friend Stan who lent Team RAF the carbon ZRE paddles during the EC.

Look forward to some good pictures, video and trip reports in the coming weeks.

What time is it?

Over the last few days one of our team members, Alan has been enjoying a second spring break. He is off sailing an Inter 20 with Trey Brown of Team Velocity Sailing in the International Rolex Regatta. The regatta features large racing mono-hulls, smaler racing mono-hulls, 2-3 person skiffs, and beach cats. They managed to find someone who offered to support them for the trip, and being the business man he is, Trey quickly accepted the offer. Trey also help Team RAF with the donation of line, hardware, and most notably the spent Hobie masts that became our akas. Here are a couple of action shots of Team Velocity on 'War', the Inter 20.
















In other news this was posted on a WaterTribe forum thread:
"Wingnut thought one of them was so cute (Brownbeard or Redbeard -- the one that kept falling asleep), she was ready to adopt him!"

They must be talking about Redbeard...

Pictures and Video!!!

Here is a slide show of all the pictures that we took during the challenge. Below you can view all the "good" videos taken day to day. All pics and video were taken from my Optio-W20. Note: Google cuts out some of the video clarity just so you know its not the cameras fault. Here is the line up. enjoy.... (All links are videos)

Here are some other sources of pictures from the EC 2007:

NEW Picture slideshows!! I will add more when I see them online!

Salty Fog's: http://msullivan145.photosite.com/Album1/

CrazyRussian's (Credit to Amy!): http://www.crazyrussian.info/EC2007.html

Wizard's shlideshow: http://mlayden.photosite.com

Scareman's slidwshow: http://www.scareman.photosite.com/

Team RAF Videos

Day1:
View from Wizard after Tampa Bay crossing
Surfing outside of Venice Inlet

Day2:
Downwind past North Captive Island
Late Night around Cape Romano

Day3:
Left Round Key, Headed for Indian Key

Day4:
Early morning leaving Graveyard
Around Middle Cape
Around East Cape (bury that AMA!)
Hiked out around East Cape

Day5:
We finished early in the morning at 7:08am. Hooray
Sailing in "Cat mode" with Wizard as the fourth (Mike was veery sleepy).

What a ride. More to come, Pics and trip reports galore. Thanks again to everyone who has been following our adventure.

More To Come

Back at NCSU, school is taking up our time but I hope to have some trip reports from the guys, lots of pictures and bunch of VIDEO from the challenge up on here soon so stay tuned. Here is a little teaser pic of the Rise curising at a comfortable 10mph just south of Venice Inlet on Day1 and doing some wave surfing.

Yesterday we moved out of our beloved storage unit and tried to sort through the piles of tools, clamps, and leftover scraps from the build.

Back to School

Saturday afternoon Team RAF loaded the "Rise" and "Fall" on their trailer, packed up and headed back to school at NCSU in Raleigh. Traveling some 850 miles from Key Largo, they arrived safely on campus in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

Their challenging classes resume on Monday morning; but not to worry, the talented men of Team RAF have proven that they can accomplish any goal they set for themselves.


Congratulations to Team RAF for tremendous success with impressive style in the 2007 Everglades Challenge!

[This final report provided by DancesWithSandyBottom]

EC'07 Awards

Saturday at noon Team RAF received recognition for completing the EC'07. Chief awarded each man a trophy paddle and a shark-tooth necklace. In addition, the WaterTribe gave the Team a very special "Rookie of the Year Award" signified by a figurine of a newly hatched alligator.






(BrownBeard was not on hand for the awards because he needed to fly black to school early to resume a critical project for one of his architecture classes.)









The EC'07 challengers.
(A few had to leave prior to this group photo.)

[DancesWithSandyBottom reporting]

Day7

Friday (Day7): SOS took a ride on the overall winner of the EC'07 --the "Southern Skimmer" which is the first model of the EC-22 designed by Graham Byrnes, owner of B and B Yacht Designs .

Pictured here are Graham Byrnes ("Roo"), Matt Layden ("Wizard"), and Alan Stewart ("SOS") out on Florida Bay. Apparently, all three love designing, building and sailing boats.



This EC-22 was sailed in record time by Graham ("Roo") and Randy ("Tinker") to first place overall and first place in Class4.

[DancesWithSandyBottom reporting]

Day6

Thursday (Day6), Team RAF relaxed at the finish line on a lovely beach which looks out over Florida Bay. Kotzebue and SOS took me (DWSB) out for a ride in a catamaran configuration of the "Fall" and "Rise" boats. Our maximum speed was a hair under 12 knots. Winds were NW at 17-18 knots.

SOS downloaded wonderful photos and movies from his camera. Want to see a few of the photos?

Onboard the "Rise"

Late afternoon view of "Fall" from "Rise".

Sunset

The "Fall" surfing

Hiking out just a bit ...

The boats resting in Key Largo

in catamaran configuration.

At the finish line (done in 4 days, 0 hours, 7 minutes)












One happy sailor.

[DancesWithSandyBottom reporting]