Back to blogging with a ringing endorsement.

I've been off the air for several months for reasons too complex and lenghy to eplain now.  But with the New Year and refocused priorities, I'm back.

I'll start by sharing an email written by a recent student of mine. 
 

Capt. Dave Amann, President
Sailing Florida Charters & Sailing School
Dear Capt. Dave,
On Dec 10 & 11, 2012, my friend Ed and I joined Capt. Roy and a
young man in your employ whose name I forget for a two day, one night
course on cruising fundamentals (ASA 104). For me it was an outstanding
learning experience, largely due to Capt. Roy's excellent technical
expertise, his careful, articulate and complete explanations about the
various systems on the boat. His vast sailing experience gave him
anecdotal examples of how systems fail and how to respond to trouble.
He was very caring and kind, treating us as friends and colleagues,
rather than students, willing to go the extra mile to make sure we
understood. Conditions were less than ideal, with 25 knot wind, a
broken main clew attachment, and soaking rain and darkness. At all
times, his calmness was infectious and lent confidence to us.
I am a retired physician, and have had many good and not so good
instructors. Capt. Roy Rogers is right up there with the best. I would
recommend him and your school to anybody who asks.

Something new

Back in April one of the birthday gifts Cathy gave me was a gift certificate
for an introductory helicopter lessen. Until recently I'd been too busy to
collect on it, but finally this week, I went and gave it a whirl. It was
very fun!

The lesson entailed half an hour in a flight simulator and half an hour in
the real thing - a Robinson R-22. I found that the controls for a
helicopter are not intuitive. It takes time to get the hang of it and even
longer for it to become second nature. That doesn't happen in an hour.

When time came to get into the real thing I realized how tiny the machine
was - just enough room for the two of us. Obese people need not apply. The
instructor performed a quick pre-flight, then started the little
horizontally opposed flat four cylinder engine and warmed it up. He lifted
us just a few feet off the ground, flew slowly along the taxi way, then
turned, accelerated and climbed out and up over the runway. The view was
spectacular. He flew us out over Clearwater and north along the Gulf shore.
It was a view of boats in the Intracoastal Waterway, marinas and people on
the beach like I've never seen before.

Returning to the airstrip, before setting down, the instructor had me try
the controls. I found them to be even more sensitive than was the
simulator. In my inexperienced hands the machine would soon develop a
rotation or bank in a way that I struggled to control. If left to me, we
surely would have crashed. I asked how many hours of flight training it
took to become certified. Fifty. Fifty hours at $280 per hour. By
comparison, racing my R6 motorcycle is a huge bargain. I enjoyed the
helicopter experience, but I'll stick with flying on my race bike.

Letter to former students and friends.

Hey you guys!  Hope you’re both well, and that you’re enjoying a summer with many opportunities to get out on Long Island Sound. 

 

Here in St Petersburg we’re in the heart of summer heat, humidity and the daily threat of afternoon storms.  That doesn’t stop us from doing what we do.  Business activity has dropped off, but not as much as anticipated.  We’re still pushing off bareboat charters, doing day sails, sunset sails, and I’m still doing lots of teaching.  We work harder at hoping for winds which generally are light this time of year, and then late in the day keep a sharp eye out for storm cell development.

 

Cathy and I are now well settled in our condo, which is just three blocks from the marina.  It’s great being right down town again.  Walking to restaurants and entertainment.  This year’s hurricane season get-away is a trip to Europe.  We fly to Brussels on Sept 1 to visit a friend who is doing graduate work there.  We’ll travel by train to the north of Germany to visit an old friend of mine from my days knocking around in the Islands.   Another train ride down to Berlin where we have another set of friends.  We’ll travel by car with them for a visit to Paris, Versailles and then a week long B&B tour of Burgundy.  We fly home from Paris on the 24^th. 

 

I expect this coming season with Sailing Florida will be even more busy than the last.  For one thing, we’ll have even more nice new boats.  We’ll soon take delivery of a new Hunter 50, soon after that,  a new Jeaneau 53, then sometime later another new Hunter 50.  I’m hoping that before my life is again dominated by the demands of more charterers and students at the dock, that I’ll get time this fall to get away to play on my R6 race bike.  I’ve ridden the three road race courses here in Florida (and look forward to doing so again) but there are a couple world class tracks in nearby states that are on my bucket list: Barber, near Birmingham AL, and Road Atlanta in GA.        

 

Look forward to hearing from you.  Be well.

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Massey Yacht Sales Newsletter

http://www.masseyyacht.com/newsletters/jul12/jul12.htm

Skipperroy.blogspot.com

Checking in

Correspondence has dropped off over the weeks of my new role with Sailing Florida.  I regret that.  I enjoy reflective pre-dawn hours with good coffee and a cat sitting near while I try to give words to the experience of this life.  But over these past weeks I’ve been consumed by the challenge of my new role as charter operations manager.  

     

It’s one of the ironies of life.  The more full your life, the less time there is to reflect and appreciate. 

 

As expected, with July’s heat and afternoon thunder storms, charter activity has diminished.  It’s the onset of hurricane season.  We won’t see significant demand for charters return until fall.  I can take time off with little thought of activity on the dock.  I can take time to write.

 

I can say that over all I’m enjoying the new challenge at work.  I believe I’m making an impact.  I’m seeing an improvement in several aspects of our operations.  But I know the real test will not come until the winter, when we are back up to full demand.  I need to utilize spare time this season to prepare for the next. 

 

Here’s another irony of life.  In the short list of adjustments I’d make to better balance life, one is that I’d get more time to go on cruises with Cathy   We want to explore the Pine Island Sound.  Spend more time on Sanibel, Captiva, Cayo Costo and so on.  The other adjustment would be that I’d get more opportunity to ride my R6 race bike and take it to tracks I haven’t yet been to, such as Barbur, VIR, and NOLA.  But, while I’ll now have more time away from work, this is not the season for those activities.  It’s too hot.  And too stormy.   If you live in Florida, hurricane season is a good time to leave the state and go on vacation to a cooler part of the world.  Last year we spent a couple weeks of August in the Pacific North West.  This year we’ll spend most of the month of September in Europe.  Perhaps this fall, before it gets very busy again at work, I’ll be able to arrange time away for that cruise of Pine Island Sound and a few good track days too.     

 

 

Do the math.

Our friend Jim from Colorado saw the photo of me on my R6 last Saturday, and knowing my DOB, he came up with this formula.  Cathy and I both thought it quite hysterical. 

 

 

A track day in June Florida heat.

I finally got that day at the track I’ve wanted for so long.  It was a long wait and as always, a lot of work to make happen. 

Arranging to get the rented pick-up truck in the middle of a busy Friday afternoon. 

Then getting my riding gear, tools, tire warmers, and spares out of our storage unit. 

Then the bike, the ramp and wheel stands out of Jeremy’s garage.

 I was up at 3 AM Saturday morning for the three plus hour drive north to Jennings FL.     

There’s a tropical storm in the Gulf.  It was predicted to bring a lot of rain to the Tampa Bay area.  The chances of rain farther north were less than here, but still a worry.  When I arrived at the track I found it was dry, but very foggy.  I wasn’t sure how this would affect the track day schedule.  I walked around the pits and saw other riders preparing to ride.  I heard the PA system making announcements as if business was going on as usual.  I got registered to ride, began to unload the truck and set up my pit area. 

The fog kept the sun from raising the temperature, but the humidity was very high and I was sweating just from unloading.  I knew it would be brutal in my riding gear.  By the time of the rider’s meeting the fog was nearly gone. 

I expected this track day not to be a very busy one.  It’s so late in the season.  This track shuts down for the months of July and August.  It’s just too hot then.  Another reason this track day would be relatively quiet was this weekend is a CCS race weekend at Palm Beach International Raceway.  Most of the fast guys would be there racing.  Knowing this, I was still surprised at how few riders showed up for the Intermediate and Expert rider’s meeting.  There were only nine of us.   I and only  one other rider had registered as expert.  Normally Intermediate and Experts ride in separate session, but as there were so few of us, our sessions would be combined.  Our session would be first up, before the Novice riders’ session.  

When I got out on the track it was still overcast, and I could feel the moisture still in the air.  Tiny droplets formed on my visor.  I always take my first track session easy.  I want to feel how the bike is working.  I hadn’t ridden it since the end of February.  I need to reacquaint myself with the flow of the corners too.  This track is quite technical.  Half way around on my second lap another rider came blasting around the outside of me on a slow corner.  This was obviously the other Expert rider.  I thought to myself, he’s feeling very confident for first session on the track, particularly with this moist air and a cold track.  I let him go, intent on my own process of confidence building.  Half a lap later I saw him again – this time on his feet, having just gotten up after crashing off the track all by himself.  From his location and the dirt on the track, I could tell his bike had gotten way ahead of his brain.  At the next corner the red flag was displayed.  The track would have to be cleaned up, bike and rider removed.  That was the last I saw of that rider on track.     

I was ready to go again when the track went green.  My confidence and speed were on the rise.  Since there were only two groups that day, Novice and Intermediate/Expert, we were getting more sessions in than is usual for a track day.  The sky cleared and the air was drier.  I was getting good heat in my tires.  The bike was working well.  My lines were getting better and faster.  But God it was hot!  I could feel myself sweating and tiring after just four fast laps into a session.  I sat one session out to rest and cool off in some shade.  Sessions I rode in were almost entirely on my own.  There were so few riders.  I’d see one or two each session.   I’d see them a couple corners ahead.  Soon be on them.   Since they were Intermediate riders I was cautious finding a line around them.  They might do something unexpected.   I’d go past and not see them again that session.  Not like riding with Experts at all.  Experts would hook up and stalk you; find a way to pass you back.  That’s when the fun really begins.  With the one other Expert out of the action, there was no one to ride with.  No one to make me ride hard to chase down or ride close to at speed.   And, it was so god awful hot!  This wasn’t being fun.  I knew the afternoon would be even worse.  At the lunch break I loaded up and headed home. 

Back in St Petersburg it’s raining like a monsoon.  I will enjoy a quiet day.  I need to unload the pick-up, and go with Cathy to hang shelving in her latest new office.  There’s some work related correspondence I need to get out, but otherwise I’ll be here hanging out with the cats, watching AMA racing from Barbur AL.

 

 

ASA Members Week

Last evening we wrapped up a week of seminars, clinics and sailing with ASA members from across the States. It was a terrific time. I got to meet and sail with many fun and interesting people. I was sad to say goodbye.

Skipperroy.blogspot.com

How it is

I’m struggling to find a starting point.  This past month, since moving into our new place, has been such a blur.  These past couple of weeks, since taking on a new management role at work, have kept me running just to keep up.  It’s all great, but it’s an evolution; it will take time to come to terms. 

Cathy’s is over in West Palm Beach with her mom this weekend.  Just as well since I’ve been working such long hours.  Today is a little lighter for me.  I don’t need to go in for a while yet.  I just caught the last 15 minutes of the 24 hour race at LeMans and saw Audi sweep the podium with proto-type hybrid cars.  Later today is the MotoGP at Silverstone, which I’ll watch on the DVR after I return from the marina. 

I am so overdue for a track day!  I’m thinking I’ll try to get away to Jennings next weekend for 2 days of riding before summer heat becomes more oppressive. 

Long ago, while working for LaVida Yacht Charters in St Thomas, I developed the ambition to become an operations manager of a charter yacht base.  But the charter companies I worked for through the 80’s and 90’s were small, family run operations, and while my role in their business was important, I was never going to be the manager.  In the late 90’s I tried to get my own charter company going.  It nearly happened – a trawler charter boat operation based in Rodney Bay, St Lucia.  But my investor left me at the chapel door.  That was the beginning of the end of my time in the Caribbean. 

Now, so many years after all thoughts of that ever happening, I find myself where I wanted to be - managing a charter yacht operation.  Not in the islands, but in St Petersburg Florida - happily married, a lovely home in a lively little city, a fleet of nearly 20 sailboats to look after with the help of 4 employees, and an R6 race bike to play with.   I feel incredibly blessed.    

Blessed, but very busy.  There is paper work I could be doing right now.  I will need to get down to the marina soon.  There’s a ASA national level week-long event going on here and Sailing Florida is playing a central role.  I was out sailing yesterday with 8 out of town ASA members.  I’ve got other captains covering those activities today so I can take care of some regular charter operations.  

But I shouldn’t really say “regular”.  What’s going on is solving problems stemming from a lightning strike on our 2012 Catalina 445 while it was out on charter.  I’ve got to help get the clients that were on that boat moved to another boat.  It’s a bit of a mess.  Fortunately, no one was hurt, but this has really put us in a bind.  That boat was scheduled for several weeks of charter in the near future.  But now it must go to the boatyard for a complete electrical survey and probably extensive electrical rebuild.

House Warming Party

It feels like it has been weeks since I last wrote.  Perhaps it has been.   I’ve been too busy to keep track of time.  Too busy to take time to write.  Too busy to run as regularly as I like.  Too busy…

The Open House Warming Party we hosted here last Saturday was a hit.  Getting there was like crossing a finish line.  It was a race to finish the final touches of decorating the condo.  People began arriving right on time while Cathy and I were still setting out drinks and hors d'oeuvres.  And once the calls from the call box began, the calls kept coming.  Others arrived without a call – people who lived in the building.  Soon our space upstairs was filled.  I went around mentioning to people that the two young guys who work with us at the marina, Sean and Kevin, had set up a keg of beer on the balcony off of our bedroom on the lower floor.  Soon a second party formed down there.