Our last day

Lots of tired looking kids at 7:00 AM when we began opening doors and blinds.  The skipper's meeting was at 9:00 AM and Roberto wanted the kids there, rigged and ready to go.

After the trama of the orange vests subsided (while the girls were afraid they might look like pumpkins (Jessica refused to be photographed by I seeked one in - see attached), the boys kind of liked them as orange is Declan's favorite color) we all agreed they would be easy to spot and that it was a form of team bonding. (In the attached photo you can actually pick them out if you look closely so mother's do know best!)

Unfortunately as usual there was not any morning wind so we had a postponement until noon.  With a successful launch Shannon and I headed back to clean up (in order to pretend to have some sense of order) prior to the arrival of the Turners tomorrow.

Two short hours later we got a call from Roberto letting us know they were coming in.  By the time we got there Jillian was re-rigging her boat to go back out as the committee decided to do a Round 2 of races.  Given we were now there we decided to walk to the end of the pier and got an amazing show as they were racing right off the pier ( it also heloed that it was easy to see our team as they had the orange vests on).  To date the racing has been too far away to watch from shore so this was a special treat.  Out A team did pretty well and won 3 of 4 of the Round 1 races seeding them in the second group.  A Team then unfortunately lost the next 2 races.  Our B team lost its first 4 races in Round 1 an as such got them placed in the fifth group where they proceeded to win the next 2 races.

We had a great dinner of grilled chicken, salad, cole slaw, potato salad with desert of ice cream and cookies.  The boys went to bed without a peep at 9:30.

We enjoyed our week and are pleased to report that all the children are well fed, mostly well rested, all wounds are healing and that the kids will have greater sympathy for Declan and why he is the way he is now knowing what his parents are really like :)!

D&S

Congrats to Sebby & Jessica who Qualified for Team Trials at Texas Youth Race Week

 Click here to see list

Was it really an off day?

All were up early with a great debrief by Roberto encouraging the children to be more focused on sailing and less focused on everything else.  A little less slumber party and a lot more sail boat racing.  He discussed the importance of boat preparation and the first 3 minutes of the race.  If they get 25% of what he teaches they will all someday be great sailors!

We transitioned to the yacht club where we spent the next 5 hours measuring boats, sails, dagger boards, rudders and anything else they could find.  After sanding center boards, moving sail numbers, procuring new protest flags and a broad assortment of other activities the entire team is offically measured and ready to go for Nationals.

By popular demand we spent the rest of the afternoon at the "mall".  Over the course of 2.5 hours we procured clothing for Roberto's children, 2 Build a Bears, a Pilanimal (a stuffed animal that turns into a pillow and back to a stuffed animal ), a baseball cap (with some logo they tried to explain to me but frankly was lost on me regardless of how hard they tried), the world's shortest shorts (you can tell we do not have girls as I asked if they got a discount since they were missing half the fabric of normal shorts) and an assortment of other "girl stuff".

A dinner of pizza and salad was followed by a 2 hour debrief by Roberto on team racing.  Turns out after last year's great LOOT performance, the current LOOT team is slotted in the first round against LISOT (last years #1 ranked team and by all accounts still the kick ass team) which will likely result in complete destruction of the current LOOT.  Roberto tried to impart a lifetime of team racing learning on the children (the majority of whom have never team raced and in general seem to have only a vague sense of the rules of racing) in 2 short hours with all on a full stomach of Texas' best pizza.  We have high hopes but all have been forewarned when the results are posted tomorrow :)!  We are thinking of it as a great learning experience!

As if a small gift from God, Texas Comcast went down during the Roberto debrief and for the first time since we got here there was no TV blarring (recognizing Shannon and I do not have cable so the idea of the TV always being on has been hard to adjust to in these tight quarters).  So a dessert of brownies and ice cream with then all to bed as tomorrow begins a week of getting up at 7:00 AM every day...

As proof that your chidren are alive and well here are some great photos (think we have figured out the technology despite our advanced age:)!):  Notice the creativity of the LOOT lego block that the boys built at the mall to entertain themselves while the girls "shopped"....

We are ready to start team racing with everyone in good spirits and good health!!

D&S

Rainy and Overcast

Reporting in on the final day from the Houston Yacht club.  Here are the preliminary results:

Ceci 22, 20-5
Sebby 58, 45-33
Mikey bfd, 46-51
Jessica bfd, 76-58
Georgia 31, 69-60
Jillian dns, 63-63
Cameron 15, 89-72
Declan 51, 86-87
Lachlain 55, 92-88
Benjamin bfd, 78-90

First two numbers are today's races and final standing.  Though we think that Ceci will be penalized 20% for forgetting to sign out today which will push here out of the top 5 unfortunately.

The day was overcast with forecast for heavy thunderstorms.  We thought they might not even get one race let alone two.  Shannon and I spend the day at the club waiting for the crew to come back in and yet the weather held and the PRO got off two races....

We stayed for the awards cermony and had to endure 8 year olds telling jokes and six year olds singing songs on the PA for 2 hours while we waited for the results to finalize.

We are trying to see if we can post some photos this time

Trials and tribulations

Today was a tough day on the water.  We launched earlier than yesterday with all the boats on the water by 12:15.  Unfortunately there was no wind.  As the wind began to build so did the storm front and the first race was called in the final minute of the start sequence.  All the boats came back in and we sat in the rain for 90 minutes.  The boats went back out and in the next 4 hours the PRO got off only 2 races. 

On the race course we had highs and lows today.  Ceci pulled a 4th and a 6th potentially putting her in first place for the girls.  On the other end of the spectrum, Declan dumped three times and spent more time in the water than racing.  Benji got caught on the wrong side of the line with the black flag up and Jillian broke a line connecting her mainsheet rachet block to the hull...

Dinner was a real winner with tacos, strawberry spinach salad, queso, salsa, guac, chips and cilantro rice.  Homemade brownies with chocolate chip mint ice cream topped it all off.....hardly any left overs.  It is simply amazing what 10 hungry children can eat.

Early to bed tonight and another day of racing tomorrow.

D&S

End of the day

Everyone had a pretty good day on the water.  Long day but weather was good (though very hot - 99 F) and the wind was fairly consistent.  They sailed till 7:00 pm and then a late dinner back at the hotel.  Results are posted and everyone is pretty happy with the first day

All to bed now and ready for another bog day tomorrow!

D&S

So far so good

Shannon got Lesley off to the airport with no problem.  Hopefully she has had a good trip.  We are very appreciative of her staying an extra day and sleeping on the pull out sofa to help get us (true newbies) acquainted with what it takes to run the LOO Team!  Thank you Lesley.

The kids started the second half of Texas race week today back at the Houston Yatch club.  The morning was spent rerigging boats and getting the lay of the land.  Devin (with help from Roberto) got Lachlain (Declan's little brother and future LOOT member - we hope) all rigged up.  To be seen how the 9 year will do in the white fleet?

Shannon and Devin have found the grocery store and the Target so the Roberto and the children will not starve.  As such, we have a great evening planned with hamburgers on the grill, corn on the cob, potato salad and coleslaw.  Dessert will be what is left of the ice cream, cookies and strawberries.

We have yet to figure out the photo up loading but tomorrow is another day!

Still on the water @ 6:25pm.  Will post results later tonight.

D&S