Team Wind Whisperers

While Duane & Denis's attempt to race with the Ideal 18s last week at CBI was aborted due to threatening weather, on Wednesday evening Duane & Sol competed in three races, winning the final two. (We won't discuss the other one.) One photo shows them leading the fleet downwind as Duane faces backwards to better feel the wind, even while wearing a face mask. The other two photos are of them sailing upwind. The wind was puffy and shifty with choppy waves on the surface of the River Chuck.

Sol and Duane standing on the dock as they prepare for another recent headset-guided, socially distanced, blind single-handed sailing session at CBI. Both are masked and Sol is guiding Duane on shore by holding one end of Duane's white cane while Duane follows behind holding the other end. The combined lengths of Duane's white cane and his arm are pretty much 6 feet. Also, this was the maiden voyage for Duane's new pair of his signature black, Chuck Taylor high-tops! However, Sol is committing a slight guiding faux pas. The first person to spot it and write a comment below will earn a free beer once we can again get together for such things.

Duane and Barbara reopening sailing . Single handing in Keel Mercuries with mainsail only.

Back in September we did indeed capture our 3rd consecutive World Sailing Blind Fleet Racing Championship in the B1 (no useable vision) Division after a week of close competition at the Kingston Yacht Club in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. And here is the photographic evidence! Pictured from left to right and wearing our gold medals are Solomon Marini (Sighted Tactician), Barbara Bielinski (Blind Crew), Duane Farrar (Blind Helmsman) and Denis Bell (Sighted Crew.) Sol and Denis are each holding one end of an American flag in front of Barbara and Duane.

We had another team video meet-up this evening with the usual cast of characters. Highlights included an appearance by Andrew's pet pit bull Aldus and a discussion on the merits of Taco Bell. The lowlight was probably everyone having to watch Duane eat his take-out dinner (lemon chicken with penne pasta.) Denis, ever the timekeeper and OCD countdown voice, reminded us all that we have been sheltering for 28 days and we'll reach 53 days on May 4.

The Wind Whisperers and their families gathered for some indoor rock climbing at Watertown's Central Rock Gym on Saturday, February 29. I'll try to now add some descriptive comments to each of the photos for our blind and visually impaired friends, which I wasn't able to do when I originally posted this last night because all of the sighted people in the house were sleeping...

Last night (March 31) TWW broke out of our isolation with a Google video meet-up. On hand were Andrew, Barbara, Denis & Family, Duane & Family, Solomon and team friend Sarah. The highlight of the evening was an argument, complete with live demonstrations, as Andrew and Denis debated the Half- versus Full-Windsor dress tie knots and whether either knew the difference. Highly entertaining and very reminiscent of past conversations both on and off the water. It was a welcome diversion and we expect we'll do it again soon!

Hi, Duane here. It's been quite a while since I've posted to the TWW page and there's certainly been much team news that has gone unpublished, mainly because of the demands of my personal and family life since the team's return from Canada in early September with a third consecutive World Championship gold medal in hand.

After selling my house in Connecticut in mid-October I almost immediately had to take over the day-to-day management of my 93-year-old Dad's life and finances in North Carolina as his health declined. Dad became my full-time responsibility, not an easy challenge for a blind guy who lives in Massachusetts. For the next five months I helped shepherd Dad along his journey to the end of his life on March 15 when he died peacefully in a Charlotte hospital.

So, now that I am sheltering at home with my wife and daughters as we ride out the Coronavirus, I'll try to fire up the TWW page once again and bring you all up-to-date on the latest team news. Please like and share these posts as you see fit as this will help salvage us from the depths. Thank You all for your support!

Duane, Barbara and Denis took to the mighty Charles River on Friday for some Sonar Practice. Barbara, who just started sailing earlier this year and will be trimming main for the team, was looking forward to learning how to adjust the mainsheet traveler. However, with winds over 30 miles per hour (MPH) and at times reaching 40 MPH during practice, fine-tuning of the traveler was not needed as the team practiced windward-leeward courses. The team also successfully practiced their skills in not capsizing. The team learned it is very difficult to capsize a sonar, although Denis was convinced the boat was not going to come back up after getting knocked over during one very powerful gust. Newly appointed main trimmer Barbara executed the plan they discussed before sailing and let the main all the way out. Meanwhile, Duane tried to turn into the wind to prevent the capsize as he slid off the windward rail and plummeted towards the water below, fortunately using his left leg as a preventer against the opposite side of the cockpit. Simultaneously, Denis, convinced the boat was capsizing, started crawling over to the high side to stay dry. The cockpit half filled with water, but the mast came back up to a vertical position, much to the team’s surprise.

The team had set up the course between the MIT dock and the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge. They left the mooring before 5:00 and returned by 7:00. Wind readings for that time period taken at the MIT Boathouse are shown on the attached graph, with the steady, sustained wind in DARK BLUE with peak gusts in RED. Sustained wind speed was consistently in the 20s, sometimes reaching the 30s. Peak wind gusts were above 30 MPH with a few at 6:00 between 40 and 42 MPH and a recorded high gust of 47 MPH at 6:30. It was the 6:30 gust that knocked the team over while they were sailing close-hauled on a starboard tack.

Hi, wow, hey, we're back! Well, we really didn't go anywhere and we've been keeping busy, it's just that we've done a lousy job of telling anyone else about it, which rather defeats the purpose of social media. We promise to do better and update you soon on the high (and low) lights from the past several weeks. Stay with us! (With apologies to Ira Glass.)

Denis and Duane were ready to begin their Friday night racing at CBI today but the Wind and Weather Gods had other ideas. As in rain and no wind.

Amy Bower Says Fair Winds to Team Wind Whisperers

After two successful World Blind Fleet Racing Championships with Team Wind Whisperers, main trimmer Amy Bower is handing over the main sheet to a new team member. This past August Amy took over as Chair of the Department of Physical Oceanography at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where she has been a researcher for 30 years. The extra demands of this new position and the upcoming college search and application process with her daughter Sara simply will not leave enough time for commuting to Boston for pre-regatta practices and a long regatta in Ontario this Fall.

Amy has life-long memories of the two World Championships from when the team won the B1 division: Chicago 2015 with Duane, Sol and Denis, and Sheboyggen 2017 with Duane, Andrew and Denis.

On the high side, helping Duane achieve his long-time goal of winning his first World Championship in Chicago was a highlight. On the low side, the rough seas on Lake Michigan for one long day in 2015 proved too much for the stomach of Amy, a seasoned sea-going oceanographer, who has sailed the North Atlantic and Indian Oceans without such mal de mer. Maybe it was that extra glass of wine the night before that tipped her over the side, so to speak. The discomfort was tempered somewhat by the thrill of surfing in a Sonar, where the front edge of the keel was exposed for a nearby photographer! Another highlight was sharing the awards ceremony with her brother Tom, a Chicago resident and athletic director at the Latin School of Chicago.

Sheboyggen didn’t have quite the same sea state (thankfully) but many thrills nonetheless. The highlight was the down-to-the-wire victory over a talented B1 team from the United Kingdom on the final day of the regatta. Sharing an Air B&B house with another team from Boston, the Rogue Lemmings, was a good lesson in cooking with a crowd. Teammate Andrew befriended Amy’s guide dog Echo (a.k.a. Lady Echo) and kept her entertained with plenty of fetch games when the team was off the water.

The funniest incident that occurred during that entire week, which makes Amy smile to this day, was when she nonchalantly attempted to throw away an apple core off of the deck of the house. The core ricocheted off of a post right next to her (which of course she couldn’t see) and hit Rogue Lemmings main trimmer Christian "Thax" Thaxton squarely in the forehead. To this day, we are still unsure if he noticed, since he had been “celebrating” copiously that evening. Amy and Denis practically fell out of their chairs laughing about the whole thing. If it doesn’t seem that funny to you, well, we guess you just had to be there!

You can bet that Amy will be following the team’s progress at the September 2019 championship in Kingston. She will miss the team camaraderie and the competition. She says, "Here’s to a Hat Trick for TWW!"

Photo Caption:
Amy snuggles with a dolphin during a recent family vacation in Mexico. She is sitting in waist-high, blue water while holding the dolphin's snout and chin in her hands with their faces close together. Amy is wearing a big, beautiful smile, yellow t-shirt, dark blue PFD and has wet hair. The dolphin looks happy, too!
Photo Courtesy of David Fisichella