On Friday night Caroline Garth, Joe Egan, Alexia Tragakes and I packed into Caroline’s car and set off for her delightful suburban New Jersey home. Fueled by a tasty carbonara carbo-load from the night before, the team arrived at Toms River Yacht Club on Saturday morning for the OCC Spring Open. As all 18 boats headed out for the first race, conditions were challenging with steady wind around 20 mph gusts up to 30. When 6 boats capsized in the first race of Division A, the race committee called a postponement to wait for the wind to die off. By 11:30 winds were steady at about 18 mph with puffs to 23 mph, and racing resumed.

After a long day on the water, both A and B divisions finished 9 races, which constituted a full rotation for the 9-team regatta. Since all the races were completed on Saturday, teams agreed to a one-day regatta and headed for home. Penn finished fourth overall. Given the heavy winds, we were at a significant weight disadvantage compared to some of our competitors, but we sailed some great races and enjoyed the spring sunshine. Results can be found here: http://scores.collegesailing.org/s15/occ-spring-open/

Thanks so much to Mr. and Mrs.Garth for hosting us and serving so much delicious food!

Audrey Harnagel ’16