Taking Stock of 2012

I got lazy with the Christmas cards this year. Not that I sent any last year. But as I thought through writing an imaginary card, I couldn’t think of anything that made this year remarkable especially compared with friends have gotten married, had kids, finished graduate school, moved to new cities, started new jobs, or found new companies.

Oh I’ve had a ton of fun. Travelled plenty – we ushered in the year in New Zealand, over oysters we picked at abandon by our beach campsite. We took a harried and packed week long trip to Spain where we sampled tons of sangria and tapas, skied, and immersed ourselves in the history and architecture of the Moors. Skied in Colorado. Climbed in Kentucky and Arkansas. Canoed the Boundary Waters. Drank our way through Paso Robles and Washington. Hiked the mountains in Seattle and Vancouver. Explored the cultural side of Santa Fe and New York. Enjoyed a gorgeous late fall in DC and finished up the year skiing in Colorado.

Within the city, I’ve enjoyed lots of opera, and got hooked on the trapeze. Sailed a little – not too much this year because I got sidetracked by the trapeze. Drank a lot of wine and read a lot of books. Enjoyed visits from old friends from afar.

If 2011 was the year of the new job and new home, this was a year of fun, fun and more fun. I didn’t set any expectations or aspirations for the year, and consequently, looking back, feel that this has been somewhat an aimless year.

Going into 2012 though, it’s time to stop smelling the flowers and instead re-examine my priorities and goals. I need to figure out how to progress in my career, or what I need to do to change track, especially if our goal is to move out west within the next 5 years.

Will begin by picking up the CFA again… Haha. While I’m unsure if finance figures into the longer term, the content covered will be useful for my current work. If anything too, the intensive studying should help me refocus and get me off hours spent web surfing in the evenings.

Stock Taking in Prior Years:

1. 2010

2. 2009, right before my move back to Chicago

3. 2008

4. 2007

5. 2006

6. 2005

Evening on the water

Lionel snapped this photo of us, after he’d missed us at the docks. Unfortunately, the Sailing Club can be a little tricky to find for those who have never been before. But since we were renting by the hour, we couldn’t afford to wait a half hour for him.

So just the three of us went out today. It was one of the best sailing conditions yet. 10-15 knots of wind from the north-west; maybe 1 ft of waves. There were dozens of other boats out as well.

Such a delight! We mostly sailed on a beam reach, tacking only occasionally, preferring to lean back and admire the beautiful skyline that is Chicago. This is definitely one of the memories of the Windy City that I’ll cherish.

She said Yes!

This is the first time I’ve been privy to an actual proposal! It was exciting!!! I’ve known Roger and Tracey for almost 10 years now, starting from our first winter camping trip so long ago.

Roger, Tracey, and I had signed up for a J34 sailboat course with their climbing buddy/sailing instructor Ja. Two days prior, Roger sent us an email, asking us if we could help with a “secret mission.” He was planning to propose to Tracey while we were out on the lake, he said, would we help?

Would we ever!

Thank goodness the weather gods cooperated. The forecasts had been warning of thunderstorms every hour, but it stayed dry. Though it was somewhat foggy – which made it disconcerting when, after a few tacks out on the water, we couldn’t really tell where we were relative to the land – it was nice and warm. There was a light breeze playing further out in the lake, so we were able to get some good sailing going. The J34′s an awesome boat; I love it. Our top speed was only 6 knots/hr, but it felt much faster on this boat than it would have felt on the J22.

Anyhow, since Ja and I had been clued into Roger’s plan, we kept on guessing when he would actually kneel down and do the deed. FINALLY, after nearly two hours on the water, he gave me a nervous smile from his perch at the stern. I dived down below the deck to grab my camera, and started the video rolling. He looked sheepishly at Tracey, and began, “So, we’ve been together for 10 years now…”

Tracey let out a little surprised yelp while Roger barreled on, ending with the “Would you marry me” spiel.

Match Race Sailing, Chicago Style

My company sponsored a departmental sailing outing at Chicago’s Match Race Center this past Monday. We were the first corporate sailing event the center was organizing – which made it even more fun! Haha, we had strong winds of up to 25 knots, which made for really thrilling sailing, especially with a group of mostly neophyte sailors.

It was a great day to be out too. The weather was hot, like a muggy 95 degrees hot, only that we were out on the waters with strong gusts of wind.

From Sailing

From Sailing

From Sailing

From Sailing

Sailing into the Sunset

Finally! It had been way too cold or rainy to go sailing… in comfort anyway. I’m a fair weather sailor, and after the last sailing outing in September, I wanted to start the season on a calm note. We monitored the weather radar scanner like a hawk, and at 4pm, made the call to take out a boat.

At the last minute, Rog and Tracey decided to come along. They showed up at the docks as we were finishing up the rigging.

Out on the lake, the water was calm. Love those south-westerly winds! Over on land though, we could see thick grey clouds rolling fast over the horizon. Although they were moving northwards, towards Evanston, we soon received a call from the sailing center, advising us to return.

Erm. But we were a little further out than we thought, and by the time we managed to tack into the harbor, the winds had blown the storm clouds far away, and our two hour sail time was just about up. Hehe.

Great start to the season!

On the water on a cold overcast day

See how low and ominous the clouds were

Last sails of the season

I’m a fair weathered sailor. If it’s too cold to sail in flip flops, it’s too cold to sail. Yesterday afternoon, we took the boat out with three of our regular climbing buddies. Though we all had jackets and long pants on, none of us thought to wear covered toe shoes. At the end of our three hour sail, everyone was shivering, and my feet were completely numb for the next hour or so.

Still, we had a blast – although Susan was tense throughout the trip. The water was somewhat choppy but the winds were strong. The conditions were a little too intense for us to break out the wine and the cupcakes and cookies that the girls brought though.

Then this morning, Jeff and I went out again. We would have been perfectly happy to sleep in some, given that the other two friends who were supposed to go out with us bailed at the last minute, but the club wanted to make good on our reservations, so we donned on thicker and supposedly warmer clothes, and went out into the wind again. Because we were going during the club sailing hour, we were thrown together with two people who were already starting to push from the docks when we arrived.

As the club sees it, club sailing is a great opportunity for sailing enthusiasts to meet new friends and have a great time out on the water together. In theory, I can see the appeal. I doubt we’d be going back for club sails any time soon though, especially with strangers without much sailing experience. Because we had essentially invited ourselves onto their boats, Jeff and I were content to sit back and just crew. But it was almost immediately apparent before we were out off the harbor that the other two didn’t really have a clue what they were doing. For starters, they didn’t finish rigging up the main sail before we pushed off, and then they didn’t even want to raise the main before we were out of the harbor.

It was an even colder and windier day than the day before, and the waves were much rougher as well. If we had gone out on our own, Jeff and I would have elected to not raise the gibe, and perhaps also reef the main as well. But the other two wanted to sail on full power, even though the girl couldn’t quite control the boat. A few times, she pointed the tiller too much into the wind, causing us to unexpectedly tack. Other times, she beared away too much from the wind, while still keeping the main sail tightly sheeted in, causing the boat to tilt at an alarming angle and waves to come crashing into the deck. We were soon soaked to the bone and my teeth started to chatter. Although they had wanted to keep the boat out till noon, I had to be a party pooper and gently suggested coming back in. Heh. Still, I can’t say it wasn’t a thrilling end to the season!

Shenanigans of the weekend

Another weekend flew by again, just like that.

Wine – At Fresh, a cosy little Thai/Sushi cafe, right under the Wellington train tracks. The sushi was tasty and fresh, and went down well with the wines that we brought (a Pacific Rim Riesling, and a Groth Sauvignon Blanc – which didn’t stand up to the other two SBs we had this week, the most outstanding being the Duckhorn, followed by a cheap but solidly good Kim Crawford)

Karaoke – large raucous bunch of Q’s friends and friends of friends crammed into a private karaoke bar yelling out songs

Sailing – Sailing with the (hungover) Rs, and K, who was in town for her birthday weekend. Best wind conditions yet (although the Rs might beg to differ)!!!!! It was just glorious to be out.

Hot pot – Noisy hot pot dinner with 6 girls and J. Opened the trusty Nora Albarino, followed by L’s Kim Crawford. The other girls weren’t big drinkers (though K was somewhat uncharacteristically pounding down beer), so we brewed lots of agave-sweetened roasted rice green tea instead

Climbing – K and H joined us at the gym to see what it was all about. Put in three solid hours there… gotta train up for the upcoming trip down to KY

Chinatown – Met up with my new coworker for some Cantonese dinner, even though we were feeling quite stuffed from the whole weekend of feasting

Wine – Strolled over to the Rs, to admire their new deck furniture while knocking back two bottles of chilled white (Terleto Chardonnay – crisp and refreshing, but could do with a fuller body; and the Grgich Chardonnay – oaky, buttery, and yeasty)

Like the open sea

(This gives you an idea of the conditions)

Jeff’s thoughts on the thrilling sailing we had yesterday evening:

We set out to sail this evening having seen the forecasted winds to be 15-20 knots. When we got out into the lake, we pretty much got what we expected. The wind might have been as strong as 25 knots. We had 5 foot waves crashing aboard, generally choppy waters and lots of swells. Plenty of boats on the water. Initially had issue putting up the sails with just two of us onboard; the main sail looked funny, and once the jib went up, the wind picked us up and we had to sail. Even the motor couldn’t fight the direction the wind wanted to take us.

It was a north wind. When we went to put the jib us we steered into the wind, but because of the strength of the wind and the rocking of the waves it was hard to keep us dead in irons; the bow kept trying to point port or starboard. Before we could pull the jib halyard completely up, the wind caught the jib, pushed us into a starboard tack point of sail. We were close to land with the shore on our port side, and we were trying to tack back into the wind firstly so we could correct the jib and then to sail away on a port tack. But even with the motor on we did not have enough power to tack. So instead of fighting the wind we jibed 270 degrees into a beam reach sailing east away from shore. Then we tacked into the wind to correct the jib. Then we went into hove to and reefed the main. We were probably overpowered with the jib up but it was exhilirating – we were heeling quite a bit, with the leeward deck lapping water quite a few times.

On our approach back to harbor, there were quite a few boats entering an exiting at the same time. Bigger boats coming in faster than us. I knew I had to steer south of the harbor mouth to give us time to lower the jib as I pointed north into the wind. That part was fine. But even with just the mainsail still up the strength of the wind was still causing the boat to heel and I couldn’t point into the wind because boats were coming in that way. So I had to bear away, let the mainsheets out, and told P to come back to the cockpit and nevermind if the jib falls overboard. Would rather that then have her fall over, cuz even with the mainsheets out a momentary gust could still rock the boat.

Post mortem
1. Probably could have sailed without jib, esp with just 2 ppl in strong wind
2. If we still want to raise jib, raise it farther out in the water in such windy conditions
3. I should’ve let go of mainsheet faster after we had the jib down on return, to keep our boat from tilting as much as I tried to steer into harbor. Boats were going in and out, lots to keep an eye on
4. Could have used a couple extra hands on deck in such conditions
5. We still had fun – and we had the boat under control and remained calm.

Hot Pot… and Sailing

… and the Botanical Gardens, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s old ‘hood in Oak Park. This was a great weekend to relax, take in the warmth of the sun and breeze.

Jeff’s sibs were in town, and they brought along a ying-yang hot pot for us – yay (couldn’t find the ones with the dividers in Chicago). So we broke it out, and had some flaming hot hot pot (the Sichuan spices were enough to pack more than a punch the next day).

And Monday evening, the winds were a ripping 20 knots. The club told us not to bring up the jibs, but we didn’t reef the mains and had a blast just shooting straight downtown, almost to Navy Pier. Alas, summer is already starting to wind down… by 730, the sky was a pale lavender-orange.