Suiei

On Saturday on Yokosuka Naval Base there was a Captain's Cup Swim meet... there are events all year long that the different commands from the base can take part in including 5K races, bike races, and yesterday the swim meet. This is a good opportunity for the commands to get together and work as a team to win points towards the "Captain's Cup" at the end of the year. The George Washington command is unfortunately not very active because they work so hard when they are here in port and because they miss half of the events when they are out at sea for a good part of the year! Even yesterday there were only 4 guys from the GW taking part in the swim meet. It was the first swim meet I have ever been to and it was pretty fun. There weren't that many people there considering it was on a Saturday AM, but there was quite a few events, mens, womens, mixed and they even had 2 different age brackets!


Damian participated in 8 events, including 2 relays during the meet! In all of the individual events, Damian took 1st place and came home with 6 shiny gold medals around his neck!!!!!!!! He did really great and I think he had a good time too. I know he is happy being able to be back in the water so much and swimming a bunch of times a week. In the picture to the right it looks like he is in the Olympic size pool all by himself but I assure you he is just ahead of the other competitors... haha It was a fun Saturday morning and a good way to spend a rainy day!


This Olympic size swimming pool is located on the second floor in one of the gyms here on base. The BIG earthquake last year (March 11th) shook so hard that water was pouring out of this pool and down the stairs of the gym.... crazy right?!?! It has almost been a whole year since that earthquake and there are going to be many memorial/remembrance events going on in the next few weeks. Many of the people currently stationed here were here for the earthquake and everyone has their own story about where they were or what they were doing... I am very thankful that we didn't come until after. If you REALLY want to see this video check it out on YouTube (put in "Purdy Gym Flood").

Japanese Word of the Day:
Suiei (sue-yay): Swimming