900 Leave our cozy residence at The Dockside Inn ready to meet Jeff and Amy for some pre-race tuning up / practice. The Women’s group and junior group are readying for their regattas. Our boat, by some providence, is parked right near a tractor, and we are in the water within minutes (the Yacht Club is equipped with these awesome tractors that tow the boats around the yard, to the ramp or hoist). The tractor thing is pretty cool, cool enough that you are not even allowed to bring your vehicle in the boat storage area, tractors only, thank you very much.
Some tractor action with Henry Picco's "Blue Nose" in tow
Jeff and Amy must have the plague (or at least pink eye –Jeff’s left eye looks pretty suspicious). They’ve asked 3 or 4 tractor drivers to come to take them to the hoist, with no luck. Kim always ready to help out, sprints across the yard to snag a friendly tractor guy, minutes later “The Majestic” is attached to the tractor and in route to the hoist. Chicks!
1100 Dave on computer, can we go practice, yet? Doing some important work, checking the class rules re: mooring rings and sending this very important communication to some very important people : )
1200 Out on the water we connect with Amy and Jeff and do some speed testing. We re both on Starboard tack, us to weather, and they promptly sail away from us and were thinking we drove 14 hours for this _________?!?! Jeff is kind enough to offer some helpful suggestions and we do better. Now at least for a time we can keep up, until a bad set of waves or a lull or whatever the hell and he gains a boat length. A boat length you KNOW you will never get back. The bright side to the abuse, I mean lesson, is they could very well win the regatta, at least they are one of the favorites, we KNOW they are fast.
1430 Dave has to go to a board of governor’s meeting (all hail the guv’nor) so we are back at the dock. Amy and Jeff come back in soon after, the wind got a little funny, and there were some storm clouds a’brewin’.
1730 BAR’S OPEN! Boy, did they give us quite a reception! Bagpipes (hey, are we back in Dunedin?), participants invited to join in a procession around the yard, good band, honors to “The First One” (Harry Carpenter is racing hull #1), and awesome food!! Dave picked up some parts from Harry, unfortunately, some modifications are needed. We get word that 59 boats are in the Championship Division, and 40 something are in the Challenger Division. It is a wonderful area to sail in, and we are excited for tomorrow!
Hull #1 "First One" next to the Big Tent
Thankfully, we feel better about having some practice in before the big race. Hopefully we will hold our own in the light to medium winds which are forecasted for tomorrow. Actually, just getting to the course on time may be an accomplishment, we are a bit concerned about the launching process. The forecast is 5 to 10 SSE with 70% chance of thunderstorms.
We will send another report after Monday’s racing but the full results will be posted on the website http://www.fbyc/nac.com Look for Flying Scot and results=should be easy to locate.
Another successful day is complete. Miss you. Wish you sailing folks were with us!
The prettiest boat in the bay, we kicked his butt on "the race" back to the club
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