Ocean City

Last week Sean and I joined my family for a week in Ocean City. It had been a long time since all of us had vacationed together. It will probably be a long time before any of us try it again.

The week started with a boat race. The Not Guilty team had spent the prior week getting repairs done, so it was no surprise that 60 minutes before the race began they found that the trim tab was no longer working. After a few attempts to bang this and that, it would not work even though just a few minutes before, it did. A lot of good ideas were discussed, but with such little time, Team Not Guilty had to figure out a plan. The discussion goes something like this every time:

Ray: Always something, I don't think we should race.

Rob: We're racing, it won't matter.

Ray: I don't think we should race.

Rob: It will be fine. I'll put extra ballast (on top of the two bags the sandman aka Gary had already bought that morning) up in the front and set the trim where it needs to be.

Ray: (to me) I don't think this is a good idea, but your brother always wants to disagree.

So they decide to race. Meanwhile Mom, Sean and I head to 15th street where we watch the race. It is one of the best races we've seen. We can identify Not Guilty without binoculars (barely) and they are passing other boats..... and getting passed.... and then passing again on the inside of the curve. It's an actual race with 7 boats in their class. One boat in their class is way out ahead but the one boat that usually wins slows down on lap 5. We know this is good news. After the final lap we head to the inlet.

For the next several hours we wonder if our boat 'broke out' or if by some chance R2 miscounted the number of laps and didn't finish where they thought they did. It turns out that the first lap which was supposed to be the parade lap was actually part of the race and they (along with many others) ran an extra lap. We go to the party and eat lots of great food. Then we nervously await the results.

Class 6 goes first... 3rd place: The 611 boat! We cheer because this means, Team Not Guilty will be taking home the Silver Medal and a large trophy, that looks more like a plant stand, and a nice check!

We were very excited that the ballast in the boat paid off!