Vashon Challenge Race

On Aug 15th I went down to Tacoma with the boat. The reaason was to attend a skippers meeting for the Vashon Challenge sailboat race around Vashon Island. The race was to start on Sat, Aug 16th.

To get easily to the restaurant where the meeting was to be held, I elected to stay at the Dock Street Marina in the Foss Waterway. This is a fairly new marina. It is RIGHT at the entrance to the Dale Chihuly Glass Museum. That is the strange cone in the pictures. Behind the museum is abridge that crosses the railroad tracks and takes you to the old downtown area of Tacoma. Along with lots of cafes, shops and the Tacoma UW campus is also the Washington State History museum and the old Union Pacific rail station that is now a Federal Courthouse. I am going to return to this marina on Labor Day with my yacht club and spend three days. I will take the time then to go to the museums and maybe take more pictures.

The race on saturday was a singlehanded(1 person) or doublehanded(2 person race). I was the only singlehander, but still raced in a doublehanded class. There was 19 competitors. This race is around Vashon Island for about 33 miles. The winds were light at the start and then died for a couple of hours. The fleet drifted together until the wind built with a nice beat up Colvos Pass and a great run down the east side of Vashon Island. The winds built to about 18 knots, but the commitee shortened the course at Pt Robinson knocking off about 8 miles. I finished 2nd, but 4 boats that were behind that I owed time to corrected on me. I was still happy with the results. I had come from behind after the wind died and left me near the back of the fleet. One boat that is like mine but was sailing doublehanded finished about 45 minutes behind. It was a very hot day. I finished at about 4:15 and motored straight home getting back to a hot house by 8pm.

Retirement

Work can be such a hair raising experiance!

Yesterday, I took a big step toward retirement. I submitted my paperwork to the regional HRO for processing. My retirement date is not until Jan2,2009, but they like the papers at least 120 days prior. I was not planning on submitting the papers until early Sept, but my local Admin office also has to originate documents that set up a schedule and sign off sheet for physical exams, tool room, security briefing and drawing/tech manual checkouts. I ask the admin assistant in our office about how to start the process, and she initiated it immediately.

Retirement is kind of a scary thing to do. I really don't think that money will be an issue. The big item I have is what to do with myself. Sure, I have lots of activities, but I need to keep motivated and not sit around and veg. I am sure I will miss the work, but not some of my coworkers :-). I will consider a second career, again not necessarily for the money. I will look into volunteer oppurtunities, but one of the big things I really want to do is travel. In my 30 years of traveling for the government, I have seen lots of the country along the shorelines. I want to see the Rocky Mountain states, Alaska, even Washington DC! One of the really neat things I am looking forward to is to sleep in (untill 6AM), have breakfast at the kitchen island, read the newspaper, watch the local news and PLAN MY DAY!

This is my first post.