How We Stay In the Flow
- Anne Longo
- Apr 5, 2021
- 5 min read
Hi everyone! Welcome back to Flow State Sailing! Thanks for tuning in so far. We hope you’re enjoying it.
We are starting a new segment called In the Flow, which will showcase all the ways that Megan, Lindsay, Sarah, and I are working our way towards Transpac 2021 and future sailing and racing endeavors. This week, I’ll show you what each of the four of us are currently working on to prepare for the race. Going forward, our In the Flow posts will focus on race related as well as non-race related content from what boats we’re racing in the meantime, to our workouts, to songs we listen to to get motivated.
I asked Megan, Lindsay, and Sarah to answer a couple questions for me:
What’s your position on the TRADER team to prepare for Transpac 2021? What are you working on right now? What are you doing to stay in the flow?
How Lindsay is staying In the Flow right now:
Lindsay is the Media Lead for Team TRADER which means she’s working on traditional media communications like newspapers and magazines by maintaining contacts with sailing and local publications to keep them up to date with press releases on big announcements about the team as we progress towards Transpac. Lindsay is also the liaison with The Magenta Project, who have been so supportive of the opportunity we have with TRADER Sailing. She also helps organize the east coast side of the team.
Because we are pretty much as far away from Hawaii as you can get in the states, we can't help with the boatwork preparations (which is a bummer because years of working on Dreamcatcher prepared us for this), so the east coasters have taken on much of the sponsorship and marketing work. Lindsay has also helped me put this blog site together. Thank goodness for her; I can write, but don’t have much to go on in terms of web design.
Right now, she’s working on housing logistics for our training trip, as well as continuing the fundraising efforts, squeezing in workouts and laser sails when she can, and making the most of the new spring weather by getting outside. What’s she up to? Spring skiing, hikes, and walks around her neighborhood, featuring: a really large hill!
How Megan is staying In the Flow right now:
Megan is staying out on the water in dinghies, J70s, and more to prepare for the Transpac as much as she can in the cold University of Rhode Island weather. She makes us proud every day kicking butt at sailing practice while also staying occupied with a full college course load.
She’s currently super busy with “designing an oceanographic buoy that would be theoretically deployed on the hydrocarbon sea of Saturn’s moon, Titan.” I agree, this is hard to follow, however, it’s really cool, I’m sure, and I’m excited to hear more about it as the semester wraps up. More on Megan’s studies to come in a future blog post!
One thing Megan is working on that inspires me is her physical fitness routine. She is going to physical therapy and making sure she’s in good shape to push her body for the Transpac without “hurting anything important.” Keep it up, Megan! She was also recently interviewed for the docuseries that our on board reporter is working on. I’m sure she was cracking jokes and keeping it light throughout the process. This is one of Megan’s greatest skills - onshore and offshore. We’re lucky to have someone like her on our team. She’s part of the glue that keeps Flow State Sailing together! She calls herself our support squad at the moment because she’s pretty busy with school, but she’s working on a lot of behind the scenes stuff including talking with potential sponsors and helping our fearless leader, Lindsay, with odds and ends.
How Sarah is staying In the Flow right now:
Most of Sarah’s work for TRADER is on the marketing side of things through managing our social media channels (Facebook & Instagram) as well as overhauling the TRADER Sailing website. She will also be tackling spinnaker trim for the Transpac as the team’s spinnaker subject matter expert, which she’s very excited about! Ever since she got her start on asymmetrical boats, spin trim has been one of her favorite sailing skills to develop. The Transpac is a predominantly downwind race so it’ll definitely be a challenge but one that Sarah is definitely up for! What she’s working on at the moment in terms of social media: content creation, planning, and preparing the team for Instagram takeovers over the next few months. Check out our Instagram page in the coming weeks to learn more!
One of the main goals of our social media is to show the efforts the team is making across the country to prepare for this race, even if they aren’t physically with the boat or other team members. Sarah also plans to incorporate sustainability and environmental protection ideas into our social media so she’s picking my brain to include some cool and informative content to educate and inspire our followers and supporters. Sarah is always working on something sailing related. When she’s not working on TRADER marketing content, she’s editing photos of VX One racing or hopping on boats in Charleston to help racing teams train.
How I’m staying In the Flow right now:
Well first off, I’m working on this blog weekly to keep you all up to date! This has been really fun for me. And I know my mom, our #1 fan, appreciates the updates! I’m also the mini sustainability manager for Team TRADER. I say mini because this wasn’t a preexisting role on the team; this was something that was important for me to ask for when we got involved with this project a few months ago.
I believe that sailors like us have a duty to protect the environment and the ocean, our playground, because we experience the beauty of it in a way that few others can. When you’re out on blue water and there’s nothing around you expect maybe a couple boats on the horizon every few days, you begin to appreciate it even more than you did when you were onshore. I do what I can to protect the environment and do my best to inspire and educate others on how to do the same. Small daily efforts make a difference when lots of people try their best.
Fundraising is a skill I developed in college and am continuing to use for Team TRADER. I’m currently working on grant applications, reaching out to potential sponsors, and helping my teammates by creating fundraising ask templates. If you or anyone you know has a company that may be interested in helping us out, please contact us!
I get out on the water whenever I can whether it be wakeboarding with friends or working on a 50 ft Beneteau as a mate for private charters here in Charleston. Right now, I’m getting ready to compete in Charleston Race Week later this week on a Melges 24 with a team from our hometown. I’m super excited. Megan, Lindsay, Sarah, and I have been working really hard to get things done for TRADER, so it always feels good to get to do some sailing and remind ourselves what we’re working towards.
I hope you got something out of this blog post and learned a little more about what the women of Flow State Sailing are working on to make our dreams happen! I have a lot of fun writing these and it’s awesome to see our audience growing. If you like what you see, please share with friends and family! The more the merrier!
As always, sail fast & have fun!
~Annie L
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