Dawn Riley's Blog

Abreviated “Tour de Friends”

A couple of years ago when I came home from Europe I did what I called a ‘Tour de Friends’. Starting in Newport and then NYC and then Annapolis and then onto Detroit and San Francisco. This time it was more virtual but still nice to connect.

I was in Newport RI for our Oakcliff Sailing Team and for the Melges 24/32 regatta that we sponsored. It was great to see a lot of people, ironically especially those from the midwest. At Zelda’s I ran into Suzanna Grubb and Luigi’s son Anderson of course. At the Candy Store, Chrissy Connet (aka wife of Spring Break) was having a late night snack.

This morning after Sue Reilly drove by in the parking lot, I headed across to Jamestown and stopped in and saw Meg Gaillard and her daughter Kate at Connaticut Yacht Club. Kris Farrar Stookey stop by with Hunt and their two kids on their way to the beach and just as I was getting ready to leave, Cory Sertl and her son were headed out onto the water.

I realized that I love Facebook and Twitter and web sites and blogs and Skype and how ‘connected’ we are to everyone around the world but after the past 24 hours I realized how NICE it is to actually connect with people. Face to Face or at LEAST over the phone so on the way to Suzy Leech’s house in Conneticut I called and left a message or talked to quite a few people including Tim Woodhouse who was very happy to report that yesterday was day 100 after he second stem cell transplant. It is a very important milestone.

I am now at Suzy Leech’s house with her daughter Nic who is 3 1/3 going on 10 and will be back to the crazy work pace tomorrow but what a nice, whirlwind, mini tour de friends!

On shore at the Bucket

Now – on shore at the St. Barth’s Bucket….  I behaved myself – there were a lot of  old friends and their spouses and a lot of people who were very interested and excited about what we are doing at Oakcliff Sailing.  It was good spreading the word and networking.   I was awake each morning bright and early with the sun and to get work done and to make a trip to the local boulangerie for a “pain au chocolat et une café au lait.

My porch

The days  were long: we were at the docks in time for the competitors briefing at 8:30 and then off the dock at 10 for a start just after noon and then back and wash the boat down and chamois the shinny bits.  This would involve about 8 of us washing and polishing.  That would take us up to a beer and a shower and dinner and bed.  The poor people who’s significant others were back home hardly had a moment to call them.

Sun already setting at the end of race clean up

My wingmen ended up being charter boat captain Chris Callahan and Justin “Juggy” Clougher.  They were a lot of fun.  I have run in the same circles as Juggy forever but I don’t think I’ve ever spent very much time talking to him. What a shame as Katie Pettibone says,  “he is one of the good ones.”  He and Chris were roomies at the same complex I was at and we ended up running as a pack… and laughing a lot.

Juggy, Chris and Pierre

On Sunday, after are great race, the boat stayed at anchor so we were off early and then had a few drinks and then shower and change and to the prize giving. That led to a bar where the owner’s ’shtick’ is definitely risqué!  He has a bevy of wooden ‘toys’ up in a basket on the bar which of course drunken boys can’t help pulling out and taking funny photos with.   He took a liking to me and his antics had Peter “Grubby” Grub and Vincent Moeyersoms from America 3 encouraging him and laughing.

Cubens on Tour

When that got old we headed to the sushi bar for a snack and then the Cubens joined us and before I knew it…. I was dancing on the table with Vincent.  The fact that I’ve been told I dance like Elaine on the Seinfield Show flashed through my mind when I saw people video taping me so I jumped down … hopefully in time.

A bit later I was chatting with good friend Jerry Kirby’s son, Roam  as well as a bunch of guys around his age.  They are good kids and we were talking about sailing and the future and their futures and Oakcliff and I realized in yet another moment of clarity. “I should not be influencing the youth at 1:00 am after a few G&Ts – Time to go!”   Juggy and Chris were trying to help my love live by  – ‘giving me away’ for the evening.  So far no luck but  on the way out they surrounded a very tall Italian Cup sailor, Shannon Falcone and tried one more time.  The look on his face was priceless as in – what in the world are these two drunk guys babbling about .

We headed out and I convinced them to go to the beach which was at the end of our road and we hadn’t even been to.  It was a beautiful full moon.  I  went straight to the waters edge.  Over to the right was kind of a big rock and it seemed out of place so I walked over to take a closer look.  The rock SNAPPED at me.  It was a huge turtle!  I jumped about 3 feet and let out a squeak. She kind of looked up as if to say “Great another group of drunk humans ruining my chill time”.  We were all just standing there looking at the amazing evening so I  started the charge and ran into the water. It was so bright with the moon I could see my feet on the bottom.    An amazing evening!

Onboard Helios - note the 'control panel' but we still use the wheel

So not even any near misses with boys but a couple of new friends and a very good time overall.

New York Apartment

I am working with a new project out in New York and have rented an apartment  in Huntington New York so I will have an East Coast base.  I have had some of my San Francisco things shipped from off of the boat as well as packed my Ford Escape Hybrid to the gills with clothing and a table and  chairs etc. on New Year’s Eve and drove out on New Year’s Day.

The apartment is above a Sausage Factory…. yes I do write the rent checks out to “Mr. Sausage”.

No electricity for the 1st 5 days but now have TV & Internet & Electricity – just need a couch so I can have visitors.

A cute kitchen and the photo of Jack & Emma makes it homey.

A tiny but functional bathroom.

There is a nice big deck off of the kitchen.  I need to get a BBQ for the summer, although I’m in the heart of Huntington, the ‘happening’ town on Long Island and have seen many of the establishments.  One in particular is 1 block away – Bin 56 – a Wine and Martini Bar that serves Tapas.  Excellent!

Social Programme – Mumbai

Don’t be silly and think that just because the meeting schedule was full that I didn’t find time to ‘socialize’.   Thursday night the hotel put on a very nice cocktail and dinner in the back gardens with some quite nice Indian Sauvignon Blanc – the Chardonnay not so much but the Sav was nice and crisp.  We lounged in the garden eating the consistently wonderful Indian food.  Their Black Dahl which was lentils cooked for 8 hours, spices and creamy yogurt was to die for.

5 start hotel's back garden set against 200sq foot / family apartmetnt

We ventured out to a local nightclub the Blue Frog for some live music – from an American from LA it turns out, Terra Naomi.

Terra Naomi - didn't sing many happy songs

On Friday, straight after we played soccer with the kids we headed to a panel discussion put on by the Young Indian’s Organization. Our group didn’t have time to go back to the hotel to change so they had arranged for us to go to a Tea House so we could cool down in the AC, have some tea and ‘freshen up’ in the loo.  I think we over did it  – 4 of us women were in the rest room in various states of undress when a poor Indian woman opened the door and quickly retreated. Sorry.

Kids in one slum - Magic Bus has been here - note the t-shirt.

The panel discussion was a bit disappointing as it was the 1^st time that we saw the elite of the elite.  And every single person I talked to came away feeling that there was a HUGE disconnect between these ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ we had been interacting with. There is a long way to go for social cohesion/equality when things were said like:  “They are happy living on the streets waiting for the government to give them a house” and then bragging about the 125 million dollar building this gentleman’s son was building in Dubai.

The one person who was fascinating was Nandan Nilekani who  left a very lucrative corporate job to take on the government project of implementing a registration system like our Social Security system.  Currently there is nothing like that in India so even if they did provide social security they would have no way of distributing it.  A good 1^st step.  An estimated 1.2 million people have no  official identity at all, no birth certificate, driver’s license, school certificate, library card let alone a passport, as a matter of fact only 500 thousand of the 1.2 billion have a passport.

In the shadow of the Trident - one of the terrorist attack sites

The dinner after was at a very fun somewhat bohemian club.  I didn’t eat dinner as by the time we made it upstairs I had partaken of quite a few of the drinks and appetizers that they were passing constantly.  The drinks included – shots in test tubes, mojitos, champagne cocktails, cosmos, kiwi margaritas, beer, martinis and I finally had to stop and switch to my safe G&T before the body shots started.  Fueled by the drinks it made sense to head to an after party.  We went to a different nightclub from the night before,  we mistakenly thought was called “Toad”.  It was really cool with wood on all walls and ceiling to look like a 3 dimensional rock wall with gold grout.  I met a very nice professional golfer and we have exchanged phone numbers and hope to keep in touch.

Saturday morning, 2 ½ hours after I went to sleep I woke up, showered packed and made it to the lobby to catch one of the buses.  We were headed out to the conference center and camp for the Magic Bus program.  I didn’t pick up on the fact that it was a 2 ½ hour drive so wasn’t too worried when the only bus left was one of the authentic the Magic Buses – as in a school buss with average shocks and grates on the window as opposed to the luxury motor coaches with AC that most were on.

one of the nicer places of living in the slum near the port

It was an experience – we drove through the town, past more and more slums, by the dump and a rotting river and someplace where there were a whole lot of chickens.  We saw many Muslim areas preparing for the Hajj when they would slaughter goats later in the day.  As we drove the air quality got better which was a good thing because our eyes were stinging from the dust and debris and at least I was wondering how to throw up through window grates with some of the smells.  My Catholic upbringing was telling me that it was payback for overdoing it the night before.

Once we got to the site I realized that it was worth the trip.  This was the only time we got to see the beauty of the country.  I can only imagine what the kids who come through here from the slums might feel – freedom, awe, possibilities.

The river near the Magic Bus Camp

the expanse

Overall I think that is what was so special about India – the belief in the possibilities. It might not be now and it might not even be in the future but there is no question that everything is a possibility.

Mumbai Panel Discussions

Last report the conference sessions had just begun and once they began it was an exhilarating and exhausting 3 days of panel discussions, interactive programs and yes, some social but first the panel discussions!

Companies Promoting Social Benefit Panel:

My friend Ashish, a management consultant and writer was the moderator.  He has also set up a training program in his home town of Lucknow designed to boost the employability of underprivileged young people.

A British Monk  spoke on the social interaction of  corporate, private, religious, government and the individual in society.  The other panelist was Clas Newmann, Senior VP, Global Head, SAP Labs based in Bangalore, India.  His presentation on CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) was funny and informative.

In India SAP contributes approximately 554 euros per employee per year to social programs.   In a country where a software engineer is going to make 8-10K/ year it is impressive that 90% of their social giving is voluntarily contributed by the employees.  They elect to press the button (Clas joked that everything is done electronically at SAP) and give a percentage of their salary to fund social program.

SAP attempts to give 40% of their social funding in cash, 40% in in-kind and 20% in employee paid time.   They have also elected to use the volunteer time as team-buiding, rather than going bowling they go to a site to volunteer.

At lunch, I was also able to confirm that the 1997 Sydney Hobart story about us loosing the mast on Morning Glory (owned by Hasso Platner, founder of SAP) and diverting a plane to get another one from New Zealand and putting it on a barge from the airport and working through the night to get it together and just barely making the start and going on to win the race and break the 25 year old race record was indeed true… it seems that the story has reached such proportions within SAP that it had become “mythical”.  Again sailing popped up in Mumbai India.

CSR in Mumbai - sign reads: "Is this the only waterfall our children will see?"

Media Activating Social Change Panel:

This panel discussed the limitations and responsibilities of social media vs. traditional media.  For instance in countries like India newspaper readership is actually going up because there are so few with internet access and yet more population and more education.  Also the TV news is a time when everyone gathers around the TV, even in the slums so it is a part of bringing the family, community together. This is opposed to the US where Dad is watching sports in the den, Mom is watching Oprah in the kitchen and the kid is watching Nic-kids upstairs.

There is also the question of responsibility for truth.  Social media is the ‘democratization of information’.  By it’s nature – everyone can post everything it allows people to essentially vote with their postings but ironically, it does not provide for equal and unbiased distribution of information. People don’t seek out the other side of an argument but rather look for support for their own side.  I raised the point that the FCC has abdicated its responsibility in traditional media as well.  They now fail to provide some level of equality in information by removing the restriction that news outlets had to provide equal time.  Thus the surge of the Rush Limbaugh’s on air.

The most interesting concept is that social media actually does not provide for a better society and more social cohesion and equality in modern and western worlds.  But the exact opposite is true in repressed countries like China or Russia where social media like Twitter are very important and key resources for fighting for equality and freedom.  For instance the “Twitter Revolution” surrounding the elections in Iran.  It ironically is also where the intellectually elite gathers as opposed to Western countries where they would gather around newspapers and periodicals.

Unfortunately we did not come up with any solutions other than the emergence of more and more sites like http://www.propublica.org/ or http://www.factcheck.org/ seem to indicate that the public does indeed want to be able to trust their information sources.

Thanksgiving

“Never has there been a place with more challenges, nor has there been a place with more opportunities. India.” That was a quote from one of the leaders of the “Hub” in Mombai yesterday. The Hub is an incubator for Social Entrepreneurship.

The World Young Leader’s Forum by the BMW,Quant Foundation continues to expand my brain. I swear I can feel it. Today’s topics focused on building social cohesion from a institutional level and from a growth perspective. Can one build equality without the other. India has staggering numbers – in 1950 the population was 350 million, today it is 1.2 billion. 72% of the population survives on $1/day. Last month they signed up 16million new cell phone users. In major cities the caste systems and barriers to success are breaking down rapidly but there is more poverty and the living conditions are worse for these people than in the rural areas. Water and sanitation are huge problems but on the other hand a group in a rural area literally stopped a train with bows and arrows to prevent a company from staring to mine and ruin their natural resources and forests.

Continuing on the contrasts, this morning, CK who I met on the plane gave me a ride from the hotel to the city center. He, his sister and I had an interesting conversation for the 45 minute ride. The driver dropped them off and took me onto an area for shopping. I was enjoying my 1st glimpse of the colonial architecture, and we drove by a huge cricket field where there were some tests going on a I was taking note of the different ways to wear saris when an Indian guy about 20 walked by wearing …. A Team New Zealand T-shirt!

Final Thanksgiving note

The hotel had ‘turkey picatta’ for lunch which I ate next to my tandoori chicken and unbelievable Dhal. Who would have thought that lentils could taste that good!

The Taj Hotel Where the Main Attack Took Place 1 Yr. Ago Today

Today is the one year anniversary of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. 26/11 and the world’s largest democracy renewed their commitments to fight terrorism, while remembering the 130 victims.

There is a lot to be thankful for and I am so glad that I am able to delve into this country and the opportunities here and at home. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Mumbia – Hour 1

Thirty six hours  including 3 plane changes and 2 quite long layovers I arrived in Bombay/Mumbai India.  Thanks to friends including Monica and a new friend, CK  who I met on the plane I was itching for the adventure to begin.  We got off the plane and were all thermo scanned to see if anyone was running a fever and potentially had the H1N1 virus.  All clear, through customs over to the change desk.   $80USD turns into 3350.00 Rupees… I’m going to have to work on my math skills!.

On a tip from CK I was off to the ‘prepaid’ taxi desk. No need for an ‘extra tour’ if it is already a flat fee.  I paid the 332Ir. and found my way outside.  There were hundreds of people waiting behind strictly patrolled barricades waiting for friends and family.   It could have been Valencia.  I headed out an opening to the right and found the taxis.  I had asked for the cheapest way so walked past the blue air-conditioned ones and found the tiny black and yellow taxi with my number on it.

As we left the airport the smell changed to a mixture of dust, moisture, salt and fire and we ran right into India.  We were engulfed by other cars and the spaces were filled in by a whole bunch of people standing in the streets and a whole bunch of other police officers directing them and traffic, many while also talking on their cell phones.  All of the civilians were really nicely dressed in Indian-Muslim clothing but they seemed a little extra sparkly for people standing essentially on the fast lane curb of a motorway.

The shift on the steering column taxi also had a problem at low revs.  I started counting how many times we stalled but my driver was an expert at restarting the engine, often on the fly so I’m sure I missed some.  Restart 10 was a bit significant as I was more concerned with the cement truck that we were trying to cut off and obviously failing to do.  Restart 14 was accompanied by squealing tires and us going from 30 to 0 in 30 feet.  And all along this 20 minutes of driving there were more and more of the fancy Muslim dressed people standing on the motorway.  I was looking around for a reason, no bars, no parks, no dancing… they were just in the middle of a motorway!  We came to a screeching halt one more time, engine quit and there were people everywhere. I could see the road opening up to the left and a commotion to the right.  Through the bodies, a green 1940’s type sedan with fully lit interior and 2 or 3 people dressed in full white were taking a right exit as people were throwing themselves at the car.  My driver was swearing at the people in the road and kind of shouted  to me – “Iman”!   Ahhh – They were all out in the middle of the night to catch a glimpse of him.

It is now almost 2am I’m in my very nice Comfort Inn Hotel room with a Kingfisher as a nightcap (Monica told me not to drink the water) and I’m about ready to hit it so I can have another day of adventure tomorrow.

Nitemare in Detroit

Team Nitemare descended on Detroit last weekend … and it was great fun!  Kevin D’Aprile came in on Friday and I was able to introduce him to the street as well as the Beach Grill.  We rode our bikes so I figure that we were able to burn at least 1/5 of the calories of the Mai Tai .

Kevin at the Beach Grill

Saturday the troops started arriving and many of them came to my house for a warm up kielbasa and salad, oh and a beer or two.   We all found a shower and cleaned up and then headed to Bayview Yacht Club for dinner, awards and a hummer.

The club did a nice tribute to Tom and it was hard not to get choked up and reminded me how recent his passing was. And all through the weekend we were reminded once again of what a fun / crazy / witty group of people Tom and Amy collected.

Did I mention unique

Sunday was recovery brunch at my house with family and neighbors joining in before most went back to Chicago, although Gary stuck around and we hitched a ride with my brother Todd’s boat up to Mom & Charlie’s house for Charlie’s birthday dinner.

Overall an exciting, fun and exhausting weekend that I wouldn’t trade for anything.

Porto Cervo Wrap Up

It was like being a kid in a candy store.  First of all I was lucky enough to be onboard a lovely 48meter Perini Navi, Helios.  The owners were gracious and very interesting to talk with on a variety of subjects from sailing to the economy in Michigan to national political campaigns.    I am always grateful that my chosen sport of sailing allows me to interact and get to know a huge variety of people, from the knuckleheads who are my dear friends, to the elite of the elite in worldwide business who own these boats.  Truth be told, I am always a tiny bit nervous when I meet a new owner as I am on their vessel.  That makes it even better when they turn out to be really cool people.

Maltese Falcon

On the third night I was invited aboard The Maltese Falcon for dinner.  The new owner who had evidently only owned her for about 10 days hosted a few meals where she was getting to know some of the owners and sailors from neighboring yachts.  Dinner was delicious, the guest entertaining and the boat spectacular. We had sushi, rack of lamb WITH mint sauce as well as a grilled salmon.  I sat next to a friend of the owner’s who claimed that English was the absolute worst of the 6 languages he spoke, so we settled on French.  It was great to be able to practice but I sincerely wonder if he regretted it at some point with my horrid accent.  C’est la vie J!

The woman who owns the Falcon and her son gave me a great tour of all of the accommodations onboard.  It is pretty spectacular and it was fun to see them still discovering new push buttons which operate everything and at one point a head they didn’t even know was there.  Everything inside is curved and fluid and the very coolest part is the way the masts are incorporated into the interior design.  The 3 or 4 floors around the center mast have glass windows in them so it looks a little like the elevator in Lost in Space or like multi-layered windows in an aquarium.  Very cool.  Oh and everyone onboard, crew, guest and owner were absolutely lovely.

Helios

Team Perini was impressive on the organizational and technical side and the last night of after dinner fireworks confirmed their social and event planning prowess.  On our practice day we ended up with a couple of boat problems. The ‘ex boat captain’ in me kicked into gear as I closely observed the current professionals start solving problems.  Hutch who was sailing with us was invaluable but so was Bruce from Perini’s ‘on-call rolodex’ that they had in this town.  Mechanics from Caterpillar?  They will be here by 2.  Electricians to assess the electrical controls on the engine?  Sure – 15 minutes.   Oh there is a problem with the B&G – management and technician are a 3 minute walk away.  One thing that I didn’t have time for was to get more of a tour and understanding of the mechanics below the decks.  I would have loved to get dirty in the engine room but with all of the experts I figured my experience working on 65hp engines would probably just get in the way

Shoe horned into the dock

A couple of interesting tidbits.  Helios is one of only 2 boats that was there which has a single screw.  Can you imagine!  Double screws on a sailboat?  And then there is the anchor protocol. The boats generally med-moor.  This entails dropping an anchor off the bow and backing up to the quay where they put a pacerell or gang plank down. The boats are packed in with only a fender’s with between them.  Granted the fenders are the size of a small Vespa, but when they want to get out they don’t squeeze out while trying to pull up the anchor.  They send a diver out who has a float bag.  He attaches the float bag to the anchor, deploys it, the anchor floats up off of the bottom and the windlass pulls her in and up.

It is then out to the open ocean for a regatta.  In the end the Mistral came in and reduced us to one 29 mile course.  I was the tactician and to say it was a learning experience would be an understatement.

We had some drama as we were hoisting the main, one of the battens started to escape out the back of the sail.   We had to stop everything and get two people out to the back of the boom. The fact that the boom is a deep V shape into which the roller reefing main sits made it less scary than it sounds.  The fact that it was already blowing 32 knots and that the boys were about 10 feet off the deck which puts them a good 30 feet above the water made it more scary.

we are the boat to leeward

Got that sorted, had enough time to hoist, roll out the jib and do a ‘one-tack for the line timed run to the modified pursuit start’.  Not the most accurate start but for sure not the worst either.  Top and bottom marks were islands and tacking angles about 120 degrees.  We had her heeled over – leeward rail plus stations in the water while Hank steered until his fingers blistered – seriously – and we were able to close in on our competition.  Down the run we reeled in some more boats and at the leeward mark we were able to slip inside of 2 boats.  Unfortunately our particular sail plan requires the jib to be completely rolled up in the middle of the tack so that eliminated some of our tactical options.  We finished solidly mid fleet in 9th.  Maltese Falcon won the race and event.  They had some power down the run hitting solid 19 knots and surging to 21.  We were also quite happy with our 14 knots.  As PRO Peter Craig observed… you all are pushing a lot of furniture around the race course!

At the other end of the spectrum – the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup – The fact that the Rolex Maxi Regatta teams had rolled up to the other side of the dock to get ready for their regatta starting 2 days later just added to the excitement and to the number of old friends that I was able to catch up with.     The boats were dwarfed by the size of the Perinis but they were sexy in their own way.

Room 138 – Cervo Hotel

Further around the harbor, Room 138 at the Cervo Hotel was a great one.  Friday afternoon, Cat a friend who is practically local, took me to the Grand Hotel to swim.  I did a few laps and thoroughly enjoyed the pool and then made my way to the shade of the bar for a drink and once my eyes adjusted I saw half of Valencia including Blood and Brookie, Ram and Beau Geste boys etc. etc.

On Saturday Cat insisted that we needed to have Bellini’s where they were invented. Frothed fresh peaches and a dry pro They were delicious – almost worth the $30 each! – I chalk it up to the experience and they did come with ‘snacks’.

The Clipper Bar is the place to be after dinner and since I was just there for a sprint – I took full advantage.   Tony Reaper, Ed Danby, Howard Gibbons, Emma Westmacott, Denise Wilson, Bernard Labro, Ben Ainslie, Rodney, Alec, Capey, Suma, Peters Harken, Grimm and Craig and many many more. Tomac and Toppa were supposedly there but must have been for the early bird special J. Bubs, Billy, Doogie, Tommy B, Rob and friends were also sighted on the docks.

The final dinner finished off with an amazing fireworks show set to music including beautiful Italian opera and Annie Lennox’s Sweet Dreams (are made of these).  Overall it was an amazing ‘extended weekend’ in one of Italy’s most exclusive towns with, great winds, crazy fun people and spectacular scenery both day and night.  I KNOW I’m spoiled.

Thank you to Rolex and phenomenal photog – Carlos Borlenghi for most of these photos.

More photos at: Scuttlebutt Article

Thunder Bay

A few photos from Thunder Bay Ont, Irene Prezio Race for Hope, where they raised over 50,000 dollars for cancer research.

Saturday’s Winning Team " Pompano"