Livin' it up in Okinawa

Friday, July 07, 2006


Fourth of July week in Diego has been a little boring but not too surprising for an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Luckily my crew and I had the 3rd and 4th off so we were able to drink a few beers. Unfortunately no fireworks! No pyro-technics allowed on the island per British policy. Some of the ships in the lagoon shot off flares but that was it. We grilled out in front of our dorms. One of our guys was shouting "Down with the Brits." This wouldn't be funny normally except that the British island police station is also in our dorm building.

My crew was recovering from the latest summercamp event on the 1st of July which was a mini-triathlon. It took me about an hour and a half to swim 500 meters, bike 12 miles, and then run a 5k. By the 2nd mile on the run my quadriceps and hamstrings were cramping up. First place went to a really tough girl, Jennifer, whose actually finished a full ironman race before. I didn't feel so bad getting beat by her.

The winds were kicking up today so I took the Pico laser back out on the lagoon. This time I was able to keep from capsizing. My last excursion I capsized the boat to where the mast was pointing straight down into the water. Normally the boat will stay on it's side with the mast floating in the water. It was raining and it took me five tries to finally get it back upright and sailing again. For about 15 to 20 minutes I wasn't sure if I was going to get it back over before getting pushed into shore and catching the sails on some coral.