Team Traverse's adventures at the Lake Forest Halloween Regatta

This weekend’s adventure began Friday afternoon, when the sailors had to prove their dedication to the team by skipping school (and an epic Central/West football game) to arrive in Lake Forest at a reasonable hour. An auspicious omen indicated that the weekend was destined for greatness: Cap’n Gus managed to paint both himself and his backpack by sitting on a rock. Needless to say, the team was awed by our leader’s remarkable talent.
Torrents of rain marked the trip, much as the toll booth guard rails marked Cap’n Gus’s hull. Many hours of driving and many more bad jokes later, the team arrived in Lake Forest at the beautiful abode of the Moore family, where we were reunited with Haley Moore and Katie Smacktree, both honorary team members. Everyone enjoyed some pizza, followed by team bonding over “The Breakfast Club.”
The Lake Forest regatta was highly unusual: the wind blew! At first, we were somewhat perplexed by this previously unknown concept of ‘racing sailboats,’ but we managed to puzzle out the correct approach, until the wind really confused us by exceeding 15 mph. We had been under the impression wind was only allowed to blow at practice and in movies, but kindly individuals corrected this TC urban legend.
Prior to actually racing, a costume contest was held in anticipation of Halloween. We were well represented, with Anna and Abby B both participating as a biohazard containment unit and Opti sailor, respectively. Anna won the ‘Most Original’ costume award, which was accompanied
Over in the Laser department, El Capitano, Abby Skibowski, Elle, and Anna were excited to see that the Lake Forest club had provided them with targets to practice with in the form of small children in Optis. Cap’n Gus proved why he is the captain by bagging one, a feat none of the girls was able match. The other sailors were openly intimidated by the TACS squad, who were all appropriately labeled with caution tape. The races went well, with Cap’n Gus smashing his competition and the girls holding on despite Anna’s broken traveler and the unfriendly wind. Elle and Abby raced well but eventually succumbed to the weather and headed in early; Anna followed not long after when her attempted repair job failed. As Cap’n Gus was (and remains) ridiculously hard core, he stuck out another race to secure his first-place standing.
Not far away on the 420 course, Abby Branson and Andy were sharing a boat. Andy likened the experience to ‘taking a cold shower while shredding $100 bills,’ as it is cold, wet, and hard on pricey equipment. Neither person was familiar with the workings of the mysterious 420 (now extinct in Northern Michigan) so they sank two of them by way of introduction. Despite these difficulties, the dynamic duo didn’t let this deter them from doing their darndest to destroy their competition, successfully securing a solid 18th place out of 21 vessels.
Following sailing, the team took a break to dry out before going out to dinner under the supervision of late-arrival Coach Andy. After a delicious meal involving large quantities of meat, we toured Lake Forest on foot before returning to the Moore household to watch “The Princess Bride.”
Sunday arrived gorgeously sunny, but the wind was a little too excited about the prospect of pushing people around the lake and blew 25 mph. In light of the frequent hull inversions of the previous afternoon, the race officials decided not to send us all out to sail. Instead, everyone packed up and relaxed with Halloween candy and sub sandwiches while waiting for awards. Cap’n Gus procured the team’s only hardware, a festive Halloween-themed trophy. Celebrating his success, the team headed back toward Traverse City.
We were not yet done, however. Disappointed that we had had no time on the water Sunday, the team decided to remedy this lack with some alternative methods of ‘boating.’ The Sal, also known as Mrs. Rivard and Goddess of Getting the Team and its Stuff from Traverse City to Somewhere Else, took pity on her shorebound sailors and kindly hydroplaned both car and trailer on the way north to assuage their cravings. After that was taken care of, the remainder of the trip passed with no greater incident than some brief wardrobe malfunctions from Andy and Abby. All in all, it was a spectacular weekend and well worth everything.

- Anna Frick, team sarcasm provider and traveling correspondent