The Lure Of Wednesday Night Racing

What could be better than marking the middle of the week by getting out on a sailboat on the Severn River in Annapolis, and racing around for a few hours with a hundred other boats? Not much. Which is why it suddenly occurred to me that this should be the year that I enter my own boat in this irresistible sailing institution.

When I lived near Annapolis 20 years ago, I would often enough hop on someone else’s boat to go racing on Wednesday evenings. Just show up. Get the boat ready. Race. Drink a beer. Put the boat away. Head home. Super easy and a ton of fun. This year, as I was starting to line up a weekend shorthanded racing season, it suddenly occurred to me that I could and should also take Moondust out on Wednesday nights. More time on the water. More time learning the subtleties of racing the boat. More fun.

If I can line up a core crew, I’ll do it. I’m on it. Stay tuned…

Off The Water, On The Bike: Sailing is a great way to get outdoors and be active. But it is not usually a hardcore workout. For that, I go with my bike. And to really push myself, for the past few years I have been riding lunch rides (another transcendent sporting institution) with a local institution known as the Randy Thrasher Ride. Often paced by amateur racers, it goes hard and fast. Trying to keep up took my fitness to levels I had never experienced before. The result was addicting: Speed. Adrenaline. That superhuman feeling when you call down to the engine room for more power, and the engine room…just…delivers.

That was all fine until last August I learned the humility that must go with an aging body. I hopped on a Thrasher ride after being away and off the bike for about 6 weeks, thinking I would join the usually moderate roll-out and then drop off when the thing kicked off. Unfortunately, a couple of younger riders I hadn’t seen before showed up. I guess to prove their mettle, they hammered from the start. Stupidly, I followed, and was quickly at my limit. Just before I was about to drop off, I felt something go in my left quadriceps. That has never happened to me before.

That put me off the bike again, and it is only now, months later, that the leg feels solid enough to start pushing up the fitness curve again. I have a ways to got to be Thrasher-ready again, but warmer weather is slowly and surely establishing itself in the DC area, which means consistent riding (I will probably ride enough this week to top 100 miles for the first time this year). Which means steady fitness gains. Which means I might get back on the Thrasher ride by the end of the month. I need that feeling of fitness and power again. And the fun of riding in a fast, fun, group.

This time, however, I will live by new, age-appropriate, more-humble, mantra: Ease into everything.

Stravas so far for this week: Tuesday. Wednesday.

Here’s what the Thrasher Ride looks like from a bike:

Atlantic Anomalies: For any East Coast sailor the Gulf Stream and hurricane season are predominant features. And climate change appears to be leading to changes in both.

Scientists are worried that a weakening of part of the Gulf Stream is a harbinger of trouble to come:

Now, a spate of studies, including one published last week, suggests this northern portion of the Gulf Stream and the deep ocean currents it’s connected to may be slowing. Pushing the bounds of oceanography, scientists have slung necklace-like sensor arrays across the Atlantic to better understand the complex network of currents that the Gulf Stream belongs to, not only at the surface, but hundreds of feet deep.

“We’re all wishing it’s not true,” Peter de Menocal, a paleoceanographer and president and director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said of the changing ocean currents. “Because if that happens, it’s just a monstrous change.”

The consequences could include faster sea level rise along parts of the Eastern United States and parts of Europe, stronger hurricanes barreling into the Southeastern United States, and perhaps most ominously, reduced rainfall across the Sahel, a semi-arid swath of land running the width of Africa that is already a geopolitical tinderbox.

Uh-oh. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, meteorologists are warning that a number of factors, including climate warming, is creating a “new normal” in the Atlantic basin that means storms could be more frequent, and will be more intense:

Every 10 years, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration revises the baseline of what weather and climate conditions are considered “normal.” The most recent normals for Atlantic hurricane activity will soon be released, and a preview reveals a spike in storm frequency and intensity…

…The new hurricane normals are not official yet, though available data clearly shows an uptick in storm frequency and intensity, likely related to a combination of climate change, natural variability and improved storm detection…

…The science is clearer, however, that of the storms that form, they are expected to be more intense, with greater rainfall and higher wind speeds.

The new normals do show an increase in major hurricanes of category 3 intensity or greater.

“We could conceivably see little change in the number of named storms but still an increase in the number of major hurricanes in some future update,” McNoldy said.

This is concerning for anyone who plans to spend a lot of time on the Atlantic in coming years, as I do. It is partially offset by the fact that forecasting, and the ability to receive forecasting guidance at sea, means there will be more warning and more potential to dodge these intensifying storms. But anyone who has spent much time on the oceans knows that forecasting can only protect you so much. Sooner or later you are bound to get pasted.

Worth Watching:

For any cyclists who happen to be intrigued by Iceland.

Superyacht Superfail:

Chagrined and mortified superyacht captain explains why he is actually a hero here. If you say so…

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