Ethnic Day

I felt very rested upon returing home on Sunday so I called up a few people about an afternoon sail. I saw that Melissa had called me earlier to let me know about this Ethnic Day event down by Meriter Hospital. Since it was past lunch time anyways, I decided to meet her there for a bite. When I got there, the UW Break Dance Club was on stage and busting out to some tunes. Wild.

I wasn't there long until David met me there on foot. We had lunch from the Jamerica stand where I ran into an old family friend. The owner of the Jamaican establishment, Martin, was my next door neighbor when I was a child. I remember playing with his nephew when we were young and getting into trouble. Even though we were troublemakers, Martin had always been nice to us and gave us fresh picked apples from his trees in the backyard. Life was much simpler then.

After lunch, I met up with the rest of the group down by the lake. Matt and Adriana were there waiting as we pulled up. Brock on the other hand was out on the water helping Caitlin get her board heavy rating. With some difficulty getting in and the wind dying down to a green flag, she unfortunately did not get the rating. The day would not end sour. On the contrary, it turned out to be an excellent day of fun on the lake.

Matt had brought a case of Smirnoff Raspberry drinks and Mike's Hard Lemonade. Let me say, it didn't last long on this afternoon sail. With medium-heavy winds on a fairly chopping surface, we took the Badger Sloop from one end of the lake to the other in no time. With so much people in the boat, we had to think about how to distribute the weight around as we hiked out while keeling. Sadly, this gave Adriana quite the scare so we throttled it back. Nonetheless, we took a course from Madison's Northside to just out past Picnic Point. When we put the boat in safety position I jumped in the water for a swim. Due to the choppiness in the water and still gusty winds, the boat started getting away from me at a fairly fast rate. There was just no way I could swim that fast so Brock took the helm and came about on a man overboard rescue.

We returned to pier for a short break and dropped off Matt, Adriana, David, and Melissa, however, we picked up Caitlin's twin sister Kalika before heading back out. Just the four of us, the boat felt so much lighter and we sailed out on great speeds. As we tried safety position again, Brock jumps out this time to find himself with no life jacket and his cell phone in his pocket. As he was treading water with his cell phone held high, it was important that we throw him out a life jacket and then I took the Sloop into a man overboard rescue maneuver, picking up the tired Brock.

With the sun slowly setting in the West, we took a course home downwind. Although I have been witness to many beautiful summer sunsets, tonight's descent had to rank up with some of the best and most memorable. After putting our boat away and unrigging, the four of us went out for some Japanese dinner at Ginza of Tokyo. So far so good. I hope the rest of the week can keep up with this pace.

Ethnic Day
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"The end is the beginning of all things, suppressed and hidden, awaiting to be released through the rhythm of pain and pleasure."
-Jiddu Krishnamurti