A Summer Trip to Remember

The world is filled with beautiful settings and wonderful experiences. In mid-August, I had the opportunity to sail around the St. Petersburg/Tampa Bay area off the West coast of Florida for a week. Initially, I had some reservations and thought the experience might not be so great because Tampa is a large metropolitan area. But, after I experienced Tampa Bay at sunrise and sunset, that all changed.

I was part of a sailing class offered by the Offshore Sailing School. For 6 days I lived aboard a Hunter Sailboat in about 99-degree weather and 80-degree plus humidity. Thankfully, we had light breezes during the day and a generator at night for air conditioning.

Every day we had class, plus behind-the-wheel or under-the-sail operating experiences. It amazed me how cool and calm my instructor was as we navigated through piers and docks to practice docking. It looks easy until you have the wheel.

Sailing, Software, and Sunsets

The world of software has a complicated vocabulary and abbreviations, and you can say the same for sailing. Sails, ropes, chains—common items on a sailboat—are known as sheets, painters, stays, rigging, and more. Not to mention terms like tacking, a tack, jibing, jibe ho, hard a lee, starboard, port, barnacle, and the many flavors of knots and lines. Your head is spinning by the end of the day.

During the week, I had opportunities to see some pretty amazing things, like this beautiful sunset while we anchored in Tampa Bay near one of the bridges. At this anchorage, we were the only boat, which made for a very quiet evening. That night we took a dip in the bay and discovered bio-luminesensce: mysterious, blue-green light created by micro-organisms that would light up as you moved your arms about in the water.

Sometimes, as we sailed, I reflected about how fortunate we are to work in the software industry and be able to keep abreast of what’s happening around the world even while under sail. I had only my cell phone with me, but I was able to keep up on important e-mails and even field a couple of your calls while still relaxing.

Along the way, I saw tuna leap out of the water, dolphins playing on the surface, numerous bird species, and even an elegant sea turtle. This trip really cleared my mind and helped me get ready for this busy Fall: Robot Advisory Board Meeting, PowerTech Security Conference; Gaming and Leisure IT Conference; IBM Technical Conference; and a trip to Europe to visit some long-time Help/Systems customers.

Looks like no shortage of topics on the horizon.