Inaguration Day 2009

This is the first time that I have been able to watch the process of the inaguration of a new President. Since it is a cold and foggy day here, I stayed glued to the TV until the guests went in to the capital for lunch. I went back to the coverage later to hear that Ted Kennedy had a seizure and had to be taken to the hospital.

I am not going to comments on my political beliefs or thoughts. I did find the process interesting. I do like the comment that this is a peaceful and legal transition of power. We are fortunate that the citizens of our country have the right to elect the new president and the outgoing president steps down after his terms in office. This is history. The interaction between new administration, old administration and past administrations was a unique experiance to witness.

The parade has started with more "pomp and circumstance".

Final Retirement Ceremony and Party

On Friday, I attended the Shipyard's retirement ceremony at the Olympic Lodge. I enjoyed it even though I babbled and embarrased myself when I gave a very short speech. Capt Whitney presented the "bling"(gold watch, plaque, tie tack and framed certificate). My parents got a kick out of it. My sister and brother in law could not make it over the passes from eastern Washington.


As part of the final process, I had a retirement social at my house that evening. I invited sailing friends, longtime coworkers and friends from church. Even though only a fraction of the people I invited attended, the house was full! Some retirees were there and they socialized with some of the coworkers they had not seen in a long time. I enjoyed showing off my house to a lot of people who have never been here. Had a lot of leftover food that I took to the food bank this morning.


Also monday morning, I took my father with me and we went to Pass and ID to get my retiree base pass. My dad retired 23 years ago and all he had was an old delaminated ID card. We were able to get him a new up to date card. It was really easy. He was happy!

Duwamish Head Race-South Sound Series #2 - No.2

Another photo from the Duwamish Head Race. Gerry A. was on another boat during this race. Also Ole was sailing his new boat.

Duwamish Head Race-South Sound Series #2

Jan 10th was the Duwamish Head Race. This was the South Sound Series Race #2(or should it be #1 since the first race was thrown out?). This race starts in Des Moines(Washington not Iowa) and heads north to around Alki Point into Elliott Bay to Duwamish Head light and then west around Blakely Rocks near Bainbridge Island, returning to Des Moines(Washington not Iowa). The total length is 30.8 miles. I usually deliver the boat to Des Moines on friday for this race. But I had commitments on Friday so I delivered the boat on Thursday. I left at 0700 and the winds were calm, but by the time I got to Blake Island, the winds started picking up and eventually was blowing a steady 30knots from the SW with higher gusts. It was a sloppy wet ride even though I hugged the Vashon Island shore. I was the first boat to Des Moines and was able to tuck way into the harbor(at the bottom of the picture). I rode the bicycle to the Fauntleroy Ferry, PO/Brem ferry and home. It was a nice bicycle ride(about 26miles) along the King County roads that I had never been on before. Lots of hills!
The race started at 1010 for our class. The winds were about 7 knots from the SW at the start and slowly built to around 22knots from the south at Alki point. We were above the recommended range for the light spinaker, but since we were doing 9 knots dead downwind, the apparent wind speed was not too high. We pulled off a good jibe at Alki Point and took the spinaker down not long after the jibe. We never rounded up even though a lot of boats around us did.

We had a wet reach across Puget Sound where we put up the small #3 jib and started the beat back to Des Moines. It wasn't long before the wind lightened up enough to put the Heavy #1 genoa back up. We lost a few places on the beat and ended up 5th out of 11 boats in our class. We finished around 1513. It was a good day for a race and only rained a little bit in the evening. We had a good crew of six people.

I left DeMoines at 1600 and was home by 1900.

Here We Go Again!

The snow has hit again Sunday afternoon. It started snowing about 3:30 and by 10:30, 6 inches had accumulated on the back deck. It was still snowing really hard. It was suppose to snow about 3 inches and then start raining, but nothing yet. I wanted to get a picture before it starts raining if it does.

Tomorrow will be my first "official" day of retirement and I won't care if I can get the car out of the driveway or not and definatly won't have to make an effort to get to work. HA! I have lots of business to take care of here at home this week.

I do need to get the boat to Des Moines for a race on Saturday. Normally I take it down on Friday for the race on Saturday, but Friday is the Shipyard Commander's retirement ceremony and I am taking my parents, sister and brother in law. So, I will probably take the boat down on Thursday, ride the bicycle home and get a ride down with one of my crew on saturday.