First Day on the Job

Today was my first day on the job, and boy am I exhausted! We had 4 long races here in Kingston, Ontario. It was wavy and the wind was very up and down, making it very difficult to get the gear dialed in. It will be an early bedtime for me!

My fundraiser on Monday was very successful! With less than a week since the launch party we have raised $3,270! 65% of the goal! Please help me compete in Spain at the World Championships by contributing to my Rally at https://www.rallyme.com/rallies/863/solvigsayre.

Monday!

On Monday is my launch party for my Rally on RallyMe!
Please contribute to my Rally by clicking here!

This Rally is to fund my trip to Spain for the World Championships in September. This event is the first chance countries have to qualify for the Olympics. Only 28 countries get to be represented in the women's windsurfing class, and only one woman from each country goes!

Summer Living

Duck Gybes at Katama

It has been so windy this summer AND when I am off of work! I have been able to go short boarding several times a week, as was my goal. Short boarding is a type of windsurfing which requires a lot of wind and teaches a lot about board handling, especially through learning some freestyle moves. I have been able to work on my duck gybes and I am starting to work on my lay-down gybes.

Wind at Sengekontacket Pond

 Besides working and windsurfing I have also been working on improving this website and working on my fundraising campaign. There are a lot of aspects to being an Olympic athlete, beyond training! I am so fortunate to have family members that have experience in fundraising for various projects, helping me become better at this part of 'the job'.
One cool new part of this website is the 'Community Corner,' where I am sharing inspiring stories from the various communities I am proud to be a part of. If you know of a story I have not included, please let me know!

Chasing the Wind to Cape Pogue

Happy Summer!

Summer is going by so fast!

A month ago I raced my final event for the Eckerd College Women's Sailing Team at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. We lost the tie breaker for tenth, and finished in eleventh place at the National Championships. We sailed very well and I learned a ton! We also held onto "the bubble"for most of the regatta. "The bubble" refers to a cluster of team that are very close in score and therefore it is very easy to jump several places after a single race.

Read more about our National Championships at
http://eckerdtritons.com/news/2014/5/30/WSAIL_0530140559.aspx

After a few days at home I continued my drive up to Quebec for a training camp with the Quebec Team. The camp started with a little regatta that really pushed us. There were five long races with the wind shifty and light. There were younger kids racing too, it was a great way to start to join the Quebec sailing community.

We had an awesome week with all sorts of conditions. On our rest day we went stand up paddle boarding down one of the rivers. The current was really strong at first, below the dam, making it easy to keep going. We were going so fast we had to keep our eyes really open to enjoy the scenery. After two hours of paddling we made it to a local stand up paddle boarding spot. We all slept very well that night.

This year's first week of windsurfing classes just finished and it was a success! There are now several more windsurfers out there on the water having so much fun. One of my students will probably be able to go out alone and windsurf in a few weeks! 

I have been out sailing a bunch, including the day that the restored whaling ship, the Charles W. Morgan, left Vineyard Haven. It was an incredible day! 

photo credit Albert O. Fischer/ The Vineyard Gazette

Check out this great article about me in The Vineyard Gazette http://mvgazette.com/news/2014/06/26/wind-her-back-islander-sets-her-sights-olympics?k=vg5245e67ebc21d

The Next Chapter

I just graduated with Phi Beta Kappa and honors from Eckerd College and sent in the first installment of my team membership to Quebeq Voile! I am so excited to be joining their team as a full time international training partner. I will be training with them full time this year and continue my studies independently in Arabic. I am also going to be taking advantage of the French immersion the team has to offer and begin studying French.

This week I am on campus training and practicing for the Intercollegiate Sailing Association Women's National Championships. Semi finals start the following Tuesday at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. I will drive home for a few days before driving up to Canada for a training camp. This summer I will be working at the Vineyard Haven Yacht Club, working on the windsurfing program and training. Cross Training will be the name of the game, so come short boarding with me and teach me your moves!

RS:X North Americans

Last week I left school to go race in Cancún at the RS:X North American Championships.

I was there as a member of the Quebec Voile International team.

Quebec Voile International at the Opening ceremonies.

We had two training days, a rest day, a practice race day, and 4 days of racing (song to the tune of a "Twelve Days of Christmas").

On our second day of training we had a little adventure. We sailed to Isla Mujeres for lunch.

It was not quite as windy as we had hoped for, but windy enough to be railing. Railing is when you are sailing upwind with the centerboard down and have your feet in the beating straps. You are lifting up the windward rail of the board and pushing against the leeward rail and the centerboard. This can be almost as fast as planning upwind, but with a more reliable angle.

We did different speed drills on the way. We worked on body and sail positioning and pumping. I enjoy long distance sails with speed testing partners because it allows you to get into the groove and test new things, but also requires enormous amounts of concentration. I was working on keeping my head out and using the uphaul line to get farther out and in greater suspension. This upwind sail was great for me to get by confidence up. It showed me that my technique was good, even in the chop. It is important for me to have confidence in my technique, especially at a mid-grade event like this, so that I follow my skill set and do not get sucked into making mistakes of those around me.

It took 2.5 hrs to get there and needless to say I was starving and exhausted. Our coach boat ran out of gas before reaching shore and a teammate slowly pulled her to shore! At lunch I fell asleep and kept taking catnaps until my team tracked down a way to fill the boat with gas. My coach had considered having us camp out on the island for night as an adventure, but I had homework to turn in early the next morning, so we sailed downwind to Cancún in a little over an hour. It took a lot of work because the wind had lightened to the point where you had to pump the whole way back.

Quebec Voile at the Event site. There was nothing there besides this sign protecting the alligators.
(They eventually did put up tents for sun protection)

My results were not nearly as good as I had expected, but 

I earned the US a spot at the Pan American Games!

World Cup Miami

Three regattas down and two more to go, all worked around my final semester at Eckerd College, has been a busy month. Orange Bowl showed my natural strengths with tactics and early plaining downwind. Nationals showed me how strong I have gotten, but that I need to work on keeping my head in the game.

And then there was the Sailing World Cup Miami. The first day I felt fantastic. It was light wind and I was at the top half of the second pack, almost breaking into the top pack. I was strong and tactically consistent. I ended the day hungry to pump myself into the top pack. The next day it was light wind again and we were sent out late in the day. My energy was low, but I still sailed well. 

Wednesday and Friday we did not have wind, so there were no races. For the whole event we had 7 races out of the 15 scheduled, this meant that there was a lot of weight on my mistakes. I went into Thursday with a good point gap that put me confidently on the US National Team. The wind was up and down and shifty between the rain clouds. I sailed very well and had some great starts. One start I port tacked the fleet. I was right behind the girls who were hunting for the podium positions. I slipped and fell and lost the whole fleet and my position as a US team member. Friday's lack of racing was a big disappointment for myself and many others since the scores were so close. I was three points away from making the team, something I knew I could do in one race, but this is sailing and crazy things happen.

All in all I am very happy with my regatta. I sailed very well, even port-tacking the fleet! I am just very disappointed that the results do not reflect this. I am also bumming that I did not make the team; especially because it was the result of a silly fall and lack of race-able conditions, not poor sailing. It is a strange feeling to complete a regatta proud of your sailing, but not having achieved your goals or have the results to show it. I am confident in the sailing I did. It shows me that I have a great future and that with full time training, I will be in the hunt for medals.

Thank you for all the strength and support you have given me, I leave for Cancún on Saturday!

Québec Voile International Windsurfing Team!