The Elusive Regatta

Last Sunday, Maeve and I accepted an invitation from Katie, a third-year member of the Holy Cross Sailing Team, to spectate a regatta in Newport, RI. We hopped in the car around 8:30 AM and made our way to Newport arriving at about 10 AM. Just enough time to give Aunt Katie a good luck kiss and hug, watch her ready boat number 5 and sail away into the sunshine only to wonder would she ever come back? We stood there and waited for the boats to circle back around to the place she left us, but the boats never came. We waited and waited and waited keeping ourselves busy by dodging an excessive amount of yellow jackets, running up and down (dangerously close to the lapping waves) the boat launching ramp, eating some granola and apple sauce, calling Eileen to giggle with her about the fact that we had no idea where Katie had sailed off to, played near what I would hate to subsequently learn was a sewage pipe (see photo) until finally, two hours later, A-Ka appeared telling us that they came in 14th out of 18th place in their previous race (not too bad for the Crusaders apparently) and that if I had only driven another half-mile down the road, I would have come to a look out point where I could have watched the entire regatta. Sigh. They had some better races after Maeve and I departed and although we feel like we were jipped out of spending some time with A-Ka due to her collegiate duties, we'd drive anywhere, dodge any amount of flying insects, and come terrifyingly close to raw sewage to see her, if only for a moment.