Prevoty Sailing Trip
On August 14, 2015, the Prevoty Los Angeles team held its second team off-site. Last time, we went to Universal Studios in Hollywood. This year we decided to do something different. We went sailing. This time, I remembered to bring my X100s to document the outing.
"I'm on a boat." Let's get that out of the way.
Our team gathered around 9am in Marina Del Rey. Obviously we had to wear our Black Hat Prevoty polo t-shirts. Yes, there was a group photo.
Our captain, Charlie, planned a straight-forward route: Marina Del Rey to Point Dume on a 45' Catamaran. Charlie shared some pretty funny stories/shenanigans and suggested we keep it together until we left the marina. Buzzkill.
As we started to leave the marina, a poker game broke out in the back. Some of us went out to the front of the boat.
The headwinds were pretty strong — up to 20 knots on the way up to Malibu. That didn't stop some of us from relaxing under the sun.
The boat was equipped with an incredible audio system and a rather provocative playlist. Fortunately, Spotify and portable sound systems were at our fingertips.
The boat was large enough to accommodate our sprawl. Some of us opted to sunbathe, while others struck up conversation.
It got a little choppy once we got around Santa Monica.
We ended up greeting a pod of dolphins on our course. Focusing at our speed was a bit difficult — hopefully the GoPro and iPhone footage does better justice than this still.
Our engineering team has been working hard over the last few months on some big releases and customer integrations. Some of us managed to get some rest on the boat.
We managed to get to Point Dume a bit earlier than expected and dropped our anchor a good distance from the beach.
As soon as we were anchored, some of us dove right into the cold water. I wish I recorded facial expressions of our brave team after they jumped in.
The current was pretty strong and we made sure to stay close to the boat. Those that didn't want to freeze stayed on the boat and ate a delicious Italian lunch from a restaurant recommended by Charlie.
The light was great enough for me to take some fun portraits of our team post-food coma + swim.
Our captain brought some binoculars for the cruise. Unfortunately, remote people watching served about 10 minutes of entertainment.
It turns out that while a lot of shenanigans were happening at the front of the boat there was a truly intense poker game going on at the rear.
These enterprising gentlemen were playing five card draw. I happened to get dealt in between thermonuclear war strikes.
There was really only one winner: Edward. He managed to clean a few people out and run the table.
In between Edward's domination, our captain fired up the motors and turned our boat back to the Marina. After another dozen or so rounds, we decided to take a break and check up on everyone else.
I managed to sneak in a few more portraits at the front of the boat.
Julien managed to steal the camera from me and snapped a few shots. If you look closely, you can see a plumes from a Simi Valley fire in the background.
As we approached the end of the day, we reflected on how we've been lucky to build a wonderful team. It takes a lot of effort to establish a culture of honesty, trust and perseverance. That said, it was a ton of fun to take a break and enjoy each other's company. There are probably a lot of anecdotes and inside jokes/"knots" that'll permeate our culture for the coming years.
We're looking forward to the next team outing!