IMG_0945The week of seminars with a few parties thrown in went by fast, especially as Howard was still working to complete a few tasks on the boat and I helped out every day at the Salty Dawg ‘General Information’ table when I wasn’t helping him.  Unfortunately our two crew were not able to join us in Hampton until the last couple of days so they missed the Air Sea Rescue demonstration put on by the Coast Guard on Monday.  A special treat for the SDs as this is the only yellow CG helicopter in the US, originally generated as part of a centennial celebration. Howard and I on the other hand had perhaps the best view, albeit rather wet from all the spray, from Paul’s catamaran; it was pretty neat.  Hopefully none of us will ever have to be rescued in this fashion.

Michael arrived on Tuesday, just in time to catch Chris Parker’s weather webinar.  Up until then we were fairly confident we would be departing the following day.  However, after hearing that Chris expected a cold front to come off the US East coast on Thursday evening that would chase the fleet and bring stiff breezes (30-40kts) together with potential for severe squalls (50-60kts), we decided to wait for a better weather window.  It looks like the next opportunity will be on Saturday, but time will tell.

So today we took a break from boat tasks and had a most enjoyable afternoon in the NASA Langley Space museum in Hampton followed by a beer in a newly opened brew pub where we met up with our friends Brian and Mizzy.