Jibber Jabber - Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Matie!

 Each year my work puts together an operator seminar in which we give lectures and presentations on various topics within the energy world including lessons learned, emerging technologies, and best practices.  The seminar lasts for one week, however we repeat it 10 times in order for all of our operators and surrounding companies operators to participate.  All together, we host about 800 operators that come to the week long seminar.  This week we were ending our 7^th week at the Loews Hotel in Annapolis Maryland and will now be moving our “show” to Cleveland for the last 3 weeks of this 10 week event.  To thank us for using their hotel while in Annapolis, Loews took all of us trainers on a tour of the bay on a chartered sailboat.  We were shuttled down to the dock in these cool eco-friendly battery operated vehicles.  When we first left the dock, we were served a delicious meal of Sushi, Turkey, various salads, and wonderful pies, accompanied with Rum Punch and a variety of other drinks.  We enjoyed the meal and soon afterwards the Captain announced that we needed to get prepared for the race that she had entered us in. 

What?  Did you say race?  None of us knew the first thing about sailing and I thought she’d lost her mind.  I barely knew which end of the boat was the front and she was speaking in terms of Ports and Starboards and Jibs and Masts.  She quickly went over the things she thought we’d do best at (leaning on the high side) and soon the cannon fired to signify the race had begun.  Our sails were raised and she pointed the boat down yonder way and off we went.  We started near the back of the pack but very soon started passing boats on the left and right.  We were leaning hard to the left and there I was hanging on like a tic in a dog park.  We jibbed and jabbed, circled a buoy and headed back to the finish line.  On the way back we were doing 9.4 knots and were in a race not only with the other boats, but with the lighting and thunderstorm we were headed towards.   

The Finish Line



Raw Oysters with Beer Shooters to celebrate our Victory!



We ended up winning the race and celebrated by more Rum Punchin' (YAY) and got back to shore just in time for the storms to arrive.  What a great time we had.  Can’t wait till next year when we go to Williamsburg Virginia.  After our victory, we stopped in for Lobsters, Oyster Shooters, and more punch!