Alison Bradley, Will Cyr, Ryan Seago, Karinne Smolenyak, Alex Ramos and Taylor Landeryou left on Friday, February 14th at about 1:00 PM and arrived at about 2:45 AM in Charleston. Races were cancelled on Saturday due to heavy winds, which was a relief for many of the sailors present as the wind clocked in at 25 with gusts of more than 30 knots. We went back to our hosts' where we did homework and watched the Olympics. Later we walked around the neighborhood and enjoyed the nice sun and warm weather. On Sunday morning we woke up ready to go out on the water and prove ourselves. We knew we did not have the luxury of multiple tries over many races so we had to put up good results. In the first race, Alex Ramos was winning until the wind shut off and the current took over. He finished 4th that race with no one after 6th place making it around the last weather mark. The race was cancelled and the fleet sat in postponement until around noon. With the wind finally picking up a bit before 1:00 PM, we set off for our first races of the day. By the end of the day we sat in 7th place over all, 5th in A division with Skippers Alex Ramos and Will Cyr with crew Karinne Smolenyak and 8th in B with skipper Ryan Seago and crew Alison Bradley. We left the Charleston at around 4:30 PM and arrived home at 7:00 AM on Monday morning with just enough time to make it to our first classes. We posted a fair finish for not having sailed since the end of the fall semester. The team looks forwards to improving over spring break in Norfolk as we look towards nationals in the summer. A big thank you goes out to our hosts, the Williams, for opening their beautiful home to us as well as the Charleston Sailing Team for hosting such a great event.
-Alex Ramos, '15
