Well, I hate to be repetitive, but the weather Wednesday was as perfect as Monday and Tuesday. With winds once again out of the NNW at about 10-12 mph, we had our last two races and the regatta was finished a day early. Today it's overcast and no wind, so I bet the race committee is feeling especially good about their call.
Whaaaat?! You say, can they do that? What will we do with our spare day, you ask? Well, I already outlined my plan yesterday: Mote Aquarium, the only place I'll get to see sea creatures (although according to others there have been sightings of eagle ray, dolphin, sea turtle and manatee) and then the beach. Plus Ryan Malmgren's wife, Stacey Rieu, flew down last night and we'll have lunch together. So we've got a full last day planned and no one is sorry that the race committee didn't send us out for one race yesterday and one race today. All in all, an outstanding regatta.
The things I liked best about it:
The weather
The very efficient system of two tractors that pulled boats and put them in at the ramp (our bow number matched our trailer tag and our parking spot)
The race committee was very good, setting excellent, square courses, keeping things running smoothly
The weather
The things that could be improved:
Not losing my camera (or the tactic, that got stolen from Lawrence Bigus, who was parked right next to Harry Carpenter's boat parking spot)
Safety pins for the challenger fleet to attach their streamers (some had to go to the drugstore to get a pin!)
Some warning at the skippers' meeting that there is a potential for three races in a day. The first day, when that happened, many of us northerners were caught mentally flat footed and it took some significant effort to get psyched for a third race.
And that's about it!
At last night's dinner we heard a plug for next year's Midwinters in Panama City, FL, and the ACCs, which are mid-September at New Bern, NC (Blackbeard Sailing Club), as well as the Wife-Husband which will be back in this neck of the woods, at Davis Island near Tampa in October. It was good to be reminded about all those upcoming events and to think about getting together with this great group of sailors again!
For those of you not interested in a race recap, you can check out now. What follows is just a little bit about the racing.
We had one 5-leg race and one 4-leg race. We did occasionally get a shift and tried to play them, but it seemed mostly a matter of boat speed and a good start. Paul Abdullah won both races yesterday (though because of a protest decided against him - a questionable decision, IMHO- he was disqualified in one race) but it was Jeff and Amy Linton dueling against Zeke and Jay Horowitz for the overall standings. The Midwesterners held their own, with no big changes, though the Faugusts had an especially good regatta, trophying in seventh place. Go team!
Okay, I smell pancakes, so I've gotta run. Time also to pack up the boat and head home. Read more about the sailing at fssa.com and also at the fleet135 facebook page!
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