| Daniel A. Alvarez Miss Laney Ericson 30+ |
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 Dan was bit by the sailing bug 20 years ago watching the windsurfers zipping around his grandparents beach apartment in Luquillo, Puerto Rico. Next Christmas brought a windsurfer along with an intro into competitive sailing. Windsurfing friends quickly introduced the 'kid' to a winch handle to help out on the offshore boats and so Dan began sailboat racing on 'Cachondo' an Olson 40 out of Fajardo.Dan left Puerto Rico to attend college in Boston where he began dinghy sailing, the weather too brutal for the guy from the tropics to windsurf. Dan soon learned that small boats can be wetter and colder than a sailboard. Shorthanded sailing followed shortly aboard a Rhodes 19 with his friend 'Peco', spinnaker up and 18 knots of breeze down the Charles River. Dan learned much about sailing thanks to all his sailing coaches at MIT (Hatch, Skip and Charles) and fellow sailors. Moving to the Bay Area brought Dan back to his windsurfing passion, but he soon found himself sailing in the Cal-29 and J-35 one design fleets and really enjoying sailing in the bay and the coast. Good fortune allowed Dan his own boat, the Ericson-30+, and he quickly found out that even though it is much fun to sail with friends, sailing alone was very rewarding. After reading of the previous SSS TransPacs, Dan knew it was something he had to do! This will be Dan's first trip to Hawaii, by water or air. Preparations have been pretty intense, juggling between a full time job and the boat; though as others have said, it is half the fun. This year he has spent more time working on the boat than sailing it, but the 2+ weeks to get to Hawaii should even the score. Dan's main goal is to get to Hanalei Bay, although it is still a race and as his college volleyball coach used to say: "Winning is always more fun than losing, so go out there and have some fun".
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