NAC Monday Qualifier

AP up at 1200

1230 Heavy downpour with more cells lining up to the south

1600 Racing canceled for the day steady rain all afternoon with wind gusts to 35 ish.


Start time moved to 1030 Tuesday.


The best racing of the day!

Check out that chute!

The computer is a little fritzy, so we don't have much to say. Jeff and Amy also had their own adventure while attempting to move their boat in the harbor during a squall and ended up dropping anchor and riding out the storm in the middle of the harbor, finding the bow of the Scot to be quite comfy, offering adequate shelter in the storm. Jeff is a big proponent of the bow bag rule, “I totally agree with that rule”. Amy offered that they were, “Happy as clams until we ran out of beer.”
Dave spent the afternoon in the Gov’s meeting, with a brief beer break (others were jealous).

Amy says:

June 28, 2010
In which a last-minute addition to the fleet changes everything.

We are in Mississippi, it bears repeating, in June –– the last thing I expected was that we would be shivering. But there we were, at anchor, huddled under the front combing of the Flying Scot while lightning crashed all around, and the rain came down as if by firehose.

The Flying Scot class recently passed regulations that require a flotation bag (essentially a big swim floatie) in the bow of the boat. Which made our sojourn up in the bow actually pretty pleasant. Kind of like leaning against one of those inflatable dorm chairs, but if everything were shoved into a small broom-closet. Still, we had each other, and with the big aluminum mast deck-stepped rather than stepped through to the hull, the lightning strikes just aren’t as alarming. One thing missing of course was the cooler with beer and sandwiches, which we had not yet put onto the boat before our little adventure began.

The thunderstorms started Sunday night, with the first feeder-bands of Tropical Storm Alex doing slowly moving through. While I lost most of this (Monday) morning to a migraine, Jeff finished up a few key boat issues (change the spin sheets end-for-end. Reposition the mast to its usual spot (How DID it go 5 inches forward? We sailed at 28/9 yesterday for practice and oddly, we were competitive. Weird.) Replace the main halyard, that sort of thing). So when I emerged from my cozy bear-cave after my Zomeg-enhanced nap, I was surprised to find there was no sunshine. But Jeff had launched the boat (yay!), and we were ready to go...

In one of those nearly-very-bad decisions, Jeff and I took a look down the bay and figured we should move the boat to a closer into the harbor. Our timing was off by about 30 seconds or ten feet. Wall of wind, big windage, one small paddle, but expert deployment of the anchor made us the live entertainment hightlight of the morning. A row of spectators showed each time we swung on the anchor around toward the club. Thanks, fellow sailors by the way, for making the over/under bets on how far from the dock we would be when the weather hit rather than, say, tossing us a line.

Al Terhune and young Andrew Eagan (Marcus’s little brother, who is probably not as young as he looks to us) came to rescue us. Thanks guys. When the rain lightened up, they bailed out a powerboat and came to haul us to shore. Thanks also to Kimie Thinel and Deb Williams who were all ready to swim to our rescue. Especially thanks considering Marcus spotted a 7-foot gator the other evening while wade-fishing. (Apparently both fishing parties were startled and backed quickly away into the night)

We saw a great MacGyver fixit episode today: in the middle of being lifted by hoist from the water in big breeze, an older FScot broke its tabernacle – pulled the big bolt right out of the wood. What to use…what to use…hm, how about a street-sign? Nobody needed to know the speed limit right there anyhow. So with a few quick saw cuts, and some bolts, presto change-o, a boat as good as new, plus a little bit more pictureque.

No funnel clouds, lots of lightning, rain, plenty of breeze: The afternoon passed slowly, and the weather never really cleared up enough to permit racing. The bar opened early downstairs. There was a lot of socializing and an early Directors meeting. We needed but didn’t have a set of Giant Jenga. Racing was postponed until around 3:30, when the day was officially called off.

Fish fry at 6, meanwhile, a warm shower and see if I didn’t pack a couple of sweatshirts for Jeff and me.