Update from Miami

Since the Midwinters East, I've had 6 days of rest in NJ before coming back down to Miami for a week of training.  I've been sailing here for four days so far and the training has been going well.  Fellow American Cam Cullman is down here sailing with me, and we've spent the last few days concentrating solely on reaching and downwinds.  Sometimes it's nice to have a small group and focus on very specific things in training; too often the training group is large and we're forced to do mostly short races.  Yesterday, for example, we set up a very short windward-leeward with a reach mark about 3/4 of a mile to the side.  We started at the windward mark, reached to the reach mark, gybed back to the leeward mark, and took it easy on the short beat.  We did this about 20 times, getting some great reaching practice in.

Dave Wright is joining us for the next three days and then I'm driving my car up to NJ.  All of my stuff has been down in Florida since Halloween, so it'll be nice to bring it back home.  On the 17th, the US Sailing Team Alphagraphics and the Development team are heading to the US Olympic Facility at Colorado Springs for a four day physical fitness camp where we'll be tested on our strength and conditioning.  It should be fun to run the beep-test at 6,000 ft!  From Colorado Springs, I go straight to Palma de Mallorca, Spain, for the third ISAF World Cup event.  March is going to be a busy month!

Finally, in other news, I'm looking forward to a fundraiser that I'm having at the Little Egg Harbor Yacht Club on May 15th from 5:00-8:00 PM.  Cocktails, hors d'oeurves by Pearl St. Market, and an auction with tons of great auction items are all being planned.  Stay tuned for more updates.  It should be a fun night!