Since I am having computer issues Amy Linton has come to the rescue with updates. You all might re-visit the posts for Monday, Tuesday and today.
This may be the end of my following, what with Amy's vastly superior writing skills. Sitting in the club bar bringing the latest and greatest....
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
NAC Wednesday
1600 Racing cancelled for the day, no races sailed. More storms, heavy rain, etc. Computer is a giant pain in the ass...
Hurricane Alex has seriously put a damper on things here in Bay Waveland. Rain seems to be the theme as the day starts with it, breaks for a bit, then starts again. Missy and Lexi have missed out on longer morning walks so far, but we were treated to Chef John and Susan’s delicious breakfast burritos Wednesday am, since we have a 1:00 start time.
At the club, thunder accompanied Clinton taking down the postponement flag (a sign, perhaps?). Some of us remained on land, and it turned out to be ok, since the brave ones returned shortly, beaten back by another band of storms. Hoist helpers were ready at moment’s notice to assist with launching and hoisting boats back on trailers. This is a serious task, as much of the activity at the hoist takes place during thunder storms! The guys were great. They would assist 50 or so boats in and out on one hoist and one ramp, in crazy conditions with amazingly good humor. Dave and I decided it was a good thing we brought the spray tops. Can’t believe we even thought about leaving them home.
While talk of Bloody Marys in NO continued, Bushwhackers and Margaritas at the club sufficed. Henry Picco had recommended a restaurant,Rickey’s, earlier in the week, and we decided on that for dinner. Our house joined Harry, Carrie and Caroline Berger, Larry Taggert, and Mel, Bill, and Courtney, and Jeff and Amy there. Good food, good stories, good times. The conversation drifted to talking about stuff that freaks us out and this led to laughter that made our stomachs and cheeks hurt, and brought tears to our eyes. Watch out for critters in the boat, Ryan!
Start time moved to 10 ish tomorrow.
OK Amy to the rescue with another awesome recap of today;
Flying Scots NACs
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
In Which We Stay On Shore…
The rain started early and lasted late -- and while the RC tried -- racing was just not gonna happen today.
The day in a nutshell: Lots of standing around and sighing. A ton of staring into the grey and stormy distance. Lots of dualing cell phones with tiny map displays full of bright red polka-dots and green bands. Plenty of discussion about whether it was time (yet? Is it? Is it time yet? Huh huh? Puleeeeze?) to head to New Orleans for Bloody Marys, lunch at Dave-Bolyard-recommended Red Devils, and dessert at Court of Three Sisters. Sigh.
Also a whole lot of speculation about what, in the name of all things holy and profane, was going to happen with the weather. And what in the world was Clinton Edwards carrying a shotgun for (at the skipper’s meeting this morning during a discussion of how to improve on-the-water communications, one of the competitors asked Clinton if he had a gun. NOW he does, and I suggest ain’t nobody going to give the PRO any lip. Not to his face if they know what’s good for him). It’s an 8-gauge, so that’s one big gun.
Some napped, including John Arris, who had lined up a row of dining room chairs and snoozed peacefully until he woke himself up by dream-hiking. The children agitated for more time in the pool. Most of the rest of us chatted, told stories of regattas past, ribbed one another about something or another. Josh Goldman, for instance, has been getting approximately seventeen times his daily ration of shit from Brian Hayes, although during a regatta, one’s ability to metabolize the stuff goes way, way up…
At around 3 or so, even though it looked steely and grey across the water, the postponement flag went down…Despite the thunderclap that sounded just as Clinton reached the flagpole. There was a scramble to launch and head out, only to be turned back to the harbor as the steely and grey storm-clouds began rolling toward us, growling, and the bridge disappeared, and everything got another good rinsing.
What else to report? Last night, we had a late dinner at a beach place in Pass Christian called Shaggy’s (I keep wanting to call it Scooby’s), which gave us a taste of how beautiful a beach-town they grow in Mississippi (Properly pronounced Ms. Zippy). Crawfish in pasta, oysters, and cold drinks. Locals and Flying Scotties elbow to elbow to elbow.
And now, while making good use of their free wifi, BTW, let me say how nice a venue this is, despite the weather: the yacht club of course, like just about everything in this part of the Gulf, was wiped clean by Katrina. They rebuilt the club up on pilings (sorry too wet to bring the camera out), with a big open floorplan that is very pleasant for lounging. Plus, they have not just plentiful hot water supplies in the showers, but big bottles of yummy-smelling beauty products. Jeff and I emerged clean, warm, and sweetly-scented, with no particular plans for the evening, though I suppose dinner is recommended.
Tomorrow’s forecast: Dave Thinel was happy to remind me is down to only 90% chance of rain. Excellent! Clinton has a pocket full of shells, and evidently, a charged-up battery on the RC boat, which spent a long while at anchor while the steely and grey storm-clouds descended and a rescue boat was organized…Still no oil, thank goodness, and it’s good to know that Jim Cantore is in Padre Island, so we don’t expect Alex to visit us directly.
Hurricane Alex has seriously put a damper on things here in Bay Waveland. Rain seems to be the theme as the day starts with it, breaks for a bit, then starts again. Missy and Lexi have missed out on longer morning walks so far, but we were treated to Chef John and Susan’s delicious breakfast burritos Wednesday am, since we have a 1:00 start time.
At the club, thunder accompanied Clinton taking down the postponement flag (a sign, perhaps?). Some of us remained on land, and it turned out to be ok, since the brave ones returned shortly, beaten back by another band of storms. Hoist helpers were ready at moment’s notice to assist with launching and hoisting boats back on trailers. This is a serious task, as much of the activity at the hoist takes place during thunder storms! The guys were great. They would assist 50 or so boats in and out on one hoist and one ramp, in crazy conditions with amazingly good humor. Dave and I decided it was a good thing we brought the spray tops. Can’t believe we even thought about leaving them home.
While talk of Bloody Marys in NO continued, Bushwhackers and Margaritas at the club sufficed. Henry Picco had recommended a restaurant,Rickey’s, earlier in the week, and we decided on that for dinner. Our house joined Harry, Carrie and Caroline Berger, Larry Taggert, and Mel, Bill, and Courtney, and Jeff and Amy there. Good food, good stories, good times. The conversation drifted to talking about stuff that freaks us out and this led to laughter that made our stomachs and cheeks hurt, and brought tears to our eyes. Watch out for critters in the boat, Ryan!
Start time moved to 10 ish tomorrow.
OK Amy to the rescue with another awesome recap of today;
Flying Scots NACs
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
In Which We Stay On Shore…
The rain started early and lasted late -- and while the RC tried -- racing was just not gonna happen today.
The day in a nutshell: Lots of standing around and sighing. A ton of staring into the grey and stormy distance. Lots of dualing cell phones with tiny map displays full of bright red polka-dots and green bands. Plenty of discussion about whether it was time (yet? Is it? Is it time yet? Huh huh? Puleeeeze?) to head to New Orleans for Bloody Marys, lunch at Dave-Bolyard-recommended Red Devils, and dessert at Court of Three Sisters. Sigh.
Also a whole lot of speculation about what, in the name of all things holy and profane, was going to happen with the weather. And what in the world was Clinton Edwards carrying a shotgun for (at the skipper’s meeting this morning during a discussion of how to improve on-the-water communications, one of the competitors asked Clinton if he had a gun. NOW he does, and I suggest ain’t nobody going to give the PRO any lip. Not to his face if they know what’s good for him). It’s an 8-gauge, so that’s one big gun.
Some napped, including John Arris, who had lined up a row of dining room chairs and snoozed peacefully until he woke himself up by dream-hiking. The children agitated for more time in the pool. Most of the rest of us chatted, told stories of regattas past, ribbed one another about something or another. Josh Goldman, for instance, has been getting approximately seventeen times his daily ration of shit from Brian Hayes, although during a regatta, one’s ability to metabolize the stuff goes way, way up…
At around 3 or so, even though it looked steely and grey across the water, the postponement flag went down…Despite the thunderclap that sounded just as Clinton reached the flagpole. There was a scramble to launch and head out, only to be turned back to the harbor as the steely and grey storm-clouds began rolling toward us, growling, and the bridge disappeared, and everything got another good rinsing.
What else to report? Last night, we had a late dinner at a beach place in Pass Christian called Shaggy’s (I keep wanting to call it Scooby’s), which gave us a taste of how beautiful a beach-town they grow in Mississippi (Properly pronounced Ms. Zippy). Crawfish in pasta, oysters, and cold drinks. Locals and Flying Scotties elbow to elbow to elbow.
And now, while making good use of their free wifi, BTW, let me say how nice a venue this is, despite the weather: the yacht club of course, like just about everything in this part of the Gulf, was wiped clean by Katrina. They rebuilt the club up on pilings (sorry too wet to bring the camera out), with a big open floorplan that is very pleasant for lounging. Plus, they have not just plentiful hot water supplies in the showers, but big bottles of yummy-smelling beauty products. Jeff and I emerged clean, warm, and sweetly-scented, with no particular plans for the evening, though I suppose dinner is recommended.
Tomorrow’s forecast: Dave Thinel was happy to remind me is down to only 90% chance of rain. Excellent! Clinton has a pocket full of shells, and evidently, a charged-up battery on the RC boat, which spent a long while at anchor while the steely and grey storm-clouds descended and a rescue boat was organized…Still no oil, thank goodness, and it’s good to know that Jim Cantore is in Padre Island, so we don’t expect Alex to visit us directly.
NAC Tuesday Qualifying
Tuesday was a long day for most sailors. The starting time was moved up to 1030 to make up for lost races on Monday. In the end, the fleet didn't make it back to the club till about 1800. Officially, three races were sailed but it seemed and was, much more. A nearly complete race was abandoned the exact reason I don't know. Whats worse was it was a good one for us and would have had us above the cut. Another general recall continued until most of the fleet reached the weather mark where the mark boat spread the recall word.
For some added fun, a bunch of us returned to the club after the abadoned race only to be told to head back out to the course. The ensuing CF as boats were returning while boats inside the harbor tried to tack back out. Must have been fun to watch from the upstairs bar.
We had a bad first race and figured we would need a top five to get back to even. We had that in the race that was abandoned but... After what seemed like hours of sailing around we decided to bag it and returned to the club. So we are in the Challenger division.
Computer issue suck!!! So remedy is AMY!!!
JFS NACs 2010
In which we do a lot of sailing and get pretty tuckered out.
What a crappy day to be race committee! Feeder bands for TS Alex passed over the area, bringing wind to around the low 20’s. Shifting and puffing, and full of dark rain squalls. Today was the qualifying series, which means the fleet of 50 is split into four groups. To make a valid qualifying series, they have to have three races. At the end of the day, the top half of the fleet becomes the championship fleet, and the lower half becomes the challenger fleet. (Maybe those names are wrong, but in essence that’s the deal.)
Postponements, general recalls that took most of the weather leg to rein us in, and abandonments made it frustrating all the way around. Race two was abandoned after the fact, though the RC made a good-faith effort to finish us at the leeward gate. It’s proof of our reliance on this strange semaphore language of flags and horns to communicate between the racers and the folks running the race that we, for one, went ahead and sailed back upwind into the white squall to finish – and got a horn.
We were not especially fast today – not sure if we were not yanking on the main outhaul enough, or if the mast weirdness continues, but tomorrow, we’ll drop the mast and check it all over again. Because tomorrow is another day, here in Mississippi (correctly pronounced “Ms. Zippy”), and the actual racing for the title starts anew.
Rumor has it that Kim and Dave broke their Givashit block. I've had that go, and it's a bummer. Hope we can fix it tonight. There were some other things broken...We had a mainsheet hanging literally by a thread, but it didn’t break, and there were no street-signs used (so far) for boat repair.
Al and Katie were just saying they had a babysitter for little Cameron for nine hours today – a long while to pay a teenager to watch a sleeping baby, and a loooooong time to be hiking my butt off in rain and wind. In the past 45 minutes, I have crashed my bike twice – once narrowly saving myself from a precipitous tumble off the seawall. I am going to sign off now, even though I can’t find results anywhere to link. Bad blogger!
For some added fun, a bunch of us returned to the club after the abadoned race only to be told to head back out to the course. The ensuing CF as boats were returning while boats inside the harbor tried to tack back out. Must have been fun to watch from the upstairs bar.
We had a bad first race and figured we would need a top five to get back to even. We had that in the race that was abandoned but... After what seemed like hours of sailing around we decided to bag it and returned to the club. So we are in the Challenger division.
Computer issue suck!!! So remedy is AMY!!!
JFS NACs 2010
In which we do a lot of sailing and get pretty tuckered out.
What a crappy day to be race committee! Feeder bands for TS Alex passed over the area, bringing wind to around the low 20’s. Shifting and puffing, and full of dark rain squalls. Today was the qualifying series, which means the fleet of 50 is split into four groups. To make a valid qualifying series, they have to have three races. At the end of the day, the top half of the fleet becomes the championship fleet, and the lower half becomes the challenger fleet. (Maybe those names are wrong, but in essence that’s the deal.)
Postponements, general recalls that took most of the weather leg to rein us in, and abandonments made it frustrating all the way around. Race two was abandoned after the fact, though the RC made a good-faith effort to finish us at the leeward gate. It’s proof of our reliance on this strange semaphore language of flags and horns to communicate between the racers and the folks running the race that we, for one, went ahead and sailed back upwind into the white squall to finish – and got a horn.
We were not especially fast today – not sure if we were not yanking on the main outhaul enough, or if the mast weirdness continues, but tomorrow, we’ll drop the mast and check it all over again. Because tomorrow is another day, here in Mississippi (correctly pronounced “Ms. Zippy”), and the actual racing for the title starts anew.
Rumor has it that Kim and Dave broke their Givashit block. I've had that go, and it's a bummer. Hope we can fix it tonight. There were some other things broken...We had a mainsheet hanging literally by a thread, but it didn’t break, and there were no street-signs used (so far) for boat repair.
Al and Katie were just saying they had a babysitter for little Cameron for nine hours today – a long while to pay a teenager to watch a sleeping baby, and a loooooong time to be hiking my butt off in rain and wind. In the past 45 minutes, I have crashed my bike twice – once narrowly saving myself from a precipitous tumble off the seawall. I am going to sign off now, even though I can’t find results anywhere to link. Bad blogger!
Monday, June 28, 2010
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.
NAC - Sunday
Sunday brought slightly cooler breezier weather, a good thing. On Saturday I picked up the boom from inside the boat and soon found myself looking to put it down somewhere fast, before my hand was burned. That’s hot!
More check-ins today which seemed to go smoothly, as far as we could tell. Then at 1 pm the Junior and Womens championship got underway. There was a nice turnout for both fleets, I didn’t get the exact figures but 15 Juniors and around 10 Womens seems about right. The talk was that the heavier crews were favored since the breeze was pretty solid.
We went out for a sail in the afternoon to see how the new boat felt. Overall, not bad but I am feeling a little rusty and the boat has a different feel than Pig Pen. We have switched to the snug rig so it might take some time to get up to speed. Hopefully not too much time!
The forecast is hot with fairly typical sea breeze and not too much chance of thunderstorms for Monday. As the week goes on the breeze is expected to build; Wednesday may be 15 to 25. Guessing this is the result of tropical storm Alax which seems headed for Mexico or maybe Texas.
The rental house is mostly cool, a little rustic but pretty good for a regatta base. Our two dogs are getting along good with Alfe; a 2 year old Yorkshire terrier. The game is on!
More tomorrow.
More check-ins today which seemed to go smoothly, as far as we could tell. Then at 1 pm the Junior and Womens championship got underway. There was a nice turnout for both fleets, I didn’t get the exact figures but 15 Juniors and around 10 Womens seems about right. The talk was that the heavier crews were favored since the breeze was pretty solid.
We went out for a sail in the afternoon to see how the new boat felt. Overall, not bad but I am feeling a little rusty and the boat has a different feel than Pig Pen. We have switched to the snug rig so it might take some time to get up to speed. Hopefully not too much time!
The forecast is hot with fairly typical sea breeze and not too much chance of thunderstorms for Monday. As the week goes on the breeze is expected to build; Wednesday may be 15 to 25. Guessing this is the result of tropical storm Alax which seems headed for Mexico or maybe Texas.
The rental house is mostly cool, a little rustic but pretty good for a regatta base. Our two dogs are getting along good with Alfe; a 2 year old Yorkshire terrier. The game is on!
More tomorrow.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
2010 NAC Bay Waveland YC
Well, the answer to the repeated question, “When are you going to use the new boat?” will finally be answered. Not long ago, Dave received a call from a Miami sailor interested in a Scot. Dave receives calls frequently, since he is the FL contact on the website and he’s often aware of available boats in the state. Pig Pen wasn’t officially for sale, but the more they conversed, the decision was made and we received a deposit on the Pig last Friday. Then came the question of whether we take it to the NACs or not. We had pretty much decided to sail one last NAC in Pig Pen, then start campaigning 4901 this season. Ah, well. Since Pig Pen is now effectively someone else’s boat,we don’t want anything to happen, so we changed tacks, and started to prep 4901. Dave toiled in the heat to reset the rig perfectly for snug, and as we were cleaning up after the final measurements (seemingly hours and hours later), Dave noticed the starboard shroud had broken wires –UGH! Well, 2 new shrouds measured in the same compared to each other, but just a tad different from the old ones. So much for our perfect measurements. Dave cut new holes on the plates already! As someone very wise says, it is what it is…
Thanks to Ryan for new sail numbers! Stay tuned to see how it goes…
9:50 am, Friday, June 25, 2010
Turned off everything, check. Dogs in the van, check. Boat attached, check. Full tank, check. New road atlas, check. Avoid creepy neighbor while packing, check!
Left house.
Packed the van strategically for space for the pups, Missy assumes her position in the navigator seat (between us) in full view of map. Lexi was further back, looks comfy, settling in for the trip. We made reservations in DeFuniak Springs for the night, we could have gone further, however, reservations were more expensive the closer to MS we checked and, with the dogs, we didn’t want to risk a pop in. It feels weird to have our goal so close, probably shortest drive yet for a destination regatta.
We started reading Mortal Fear by Greg Iles 2 wks ago on a trip across the state, we have lost touch with our little serial killer, so back to that today.
Breaking news! Hans just posted…The baby is ready! And there was much excitement!
Thinking about racing, we feel like it may be a sweat fest, no movement in the trees on the highway. A friend called from home stating the temp was 106 degrees in the shop where he works. YIKES.
4:30 pm DeFuniak Springs
We could have made it all the way to MS, but, what the heck? Got the room, we can’t get into our house till afternoon tomorrow, so, it’s all good. The lobby thermometer says it’s 102.7 degrees.
Other things on our minds…Last night, on the news, they reported for the first time, there is oil in the Mississippi Sound – great.
Today, we watched the weather folks talk excitedly about a Tropical Depression in the Gulf. Seems to be going toward TX. Must keep watch.
NAC 2 Saturday, June 26, 2010
Well, the weather experts are not sending any spaghetti our way, phew! Good news!
All our clocks say 8:40, but a cool time zone shift makes it actually 7:40 am when we leave our Travelodge. Kinda nice. It should only take us a few hours to drive to Bay Waveland YC, located in Bay St. Louis, MS.
Jeff and Amy Linton called last night as they drove through Biloxi. Apparently, there’s a beachside Dillard’s/Shopping Mall. Quite a use for waterfront property. On Friday nights, the folks gather on the street, drink their beer, and watch the cars go by. As we drove the same route this am, we observed the remnants of said street-hang-out party. Must have been a good one judging from the empties...
Around 11:30, we reach BWYC for measuring. Kim hangs with the girls in the shade that is the ground floor of the club building and has a little snack, sharing a bit with Lexi and Missy, as they are at their cutest when one is eating. Dave was busy sweating in the sun while measuring in. All goes well with us, but we drew the lucky (easy, and least difficult to measure-items) list which did not involve weighing the boat or measuring the centerboard. That was nice, it went quickly for us. Others were not so lucky…. Can you say sandpaper!?
It’s hot at the club, so we decide to go in search of our house-for-the-week. It took a bit of sight-seeing, but we made it, and it seems good to us! Looking forward to sharing with Ryan and Carrie and John and Susan Domagala. After absorbing the AC for a couple of hours, we return to the club to see how the sanding is going with friends who have to work on their boards before passing the rigors of measuring in, and to meet up with new arrivals. Harry’s boat weighs in perfectly perfect and the centerboard has no issues. The boat is for sale! It’s new! What a deal!!
The club and the new Hwy 90 bridge
The sun sets, it’s nice to visit with Amy and Jeff, who have a short bike ride back to the Winnie for the night, and we return to the house to check in on the pups and prepare for Sunday. We hope to splash the boat and practice a little with other Team Florida members (and anyone else who feels like sailing). The Women’s and Juniors race in their NACs Sunday, too.
What is that Pig doing here?
Above and below are taken just west of the club, amazing how 5 years after Katrina it still looks like this
The rental house has no wifi so we will try regular updates but that will probably slow us down a little...
Thanks to Ryan for new sail numbers! Stay tuned to see how it goes…
9:50 am, Friday, June 25, 2010
Turned off everything, check. Dogs in the van, check. Boat attached, check. Full tank, check. New road atlas, check. Avoid creepy neighbor while packing, check!
Left house.
Packed the van strategically for space for the pups, Missy assumes her position in the navigator seat (between us) in full view of map. Lexi was further back, looks comfy, settling in for the trip. We made reservations in DeFuniak Springs for the night, we could have gone further, however, reservations were more expensive the closer to MS we checked and, with the dogs, we didn’t want to risk a pop in. It feels weird to have our goal so close, probably shortest drive yet for a destination regatta.
We started reading Mortal Fear by Greg Iles 2 wks ago on a trip across the state, we have lost touch with our little serial killer, so back to that today.
Breaking news! Hans just posted…The baby is ready! And there was much excitement!
Thinking about racing, we feel like it may be a sweat fest, no movement in the trees on the highway. A friend called from home stating the temp was 106 degrees in the shop where he works. YIKES.
4:30 pm DeFuniak Springs
We could have made it all the way to MS, but, what the heck? Got the room, we can’t get into our house till afternoon tomorrow, so, it’s all good. The lobby thermometer says it’s 102.7 degrees.
Other things on our minds…Last night, on the news, they reported for the first time, there is oil in the Mississippi Sound – great.
Today, we watched the weather folks talk excitedly about a Tropical Depression in the Gulf. Seems to be going toward TX. Must keep watch.
NAC 2 Saturday, June 26, 2010
Well, the weather experts are not sending any spaghetti our way, phew! Good news!
All our clocks say 8:40, but a cool time zone shift makes it actually 7:40 am when we leave our Travelodge. Kinda nice. It should only take us a few hours to drive to Bay Waveland YC, located in Bay St. Louis, MS.
Jeff and Amy Linton called last night as they drove through Biloxi. Apparently, there’s a beachside Dillard’s/Shopping Mall. Quite a use for waterfront property. On Friday nights, the folks gather on the street, drink their beer, and watch the cars go by. As we drove the same route this am, we observed the remnants of said street-hang-out party. Must have been a good one judging from the empties...
Around 11:30, we reach BWYC for measuring. Kim hangs with the girls in the shade that is the ground floor of the club building and has a little snack, sharing a bit with Lexi and Missy, as they are at their cutest when one is eating. Dave was busy sweating in the sun while measuring in. All goes well with us, but we drew the lucky (easy, and least difficult to measure-items) list which did not involve weighing the boat or measuring the centerboard. That was nice, it went quickly for us. Others were not so lucky…. Can you say sandpaper!?
It’s hot at the club, so we decide to go in search of our house-for-the-week. It took a bit of sight-seeing, but we made it, and it seems good to us! Looking forward to sharing with Ryan and Carrie and John and Susan Domagala. After absorbing the AC for a couple of hours, we return to the club to see how the sanding is going with friends who have to work on their boards before passing the rigors of measuring in, and to meet up with new arrivals. Harry’s boat weighs in perfectly perfect and the centerboard has no issues. The boat is for sale! It’s new! What a deal!!
The club and the new Hwy 90 bridge
The sun sets, it’s nice to visit with Amy and Jeff, who have a short bike ride back to the Winnie for the night, and we return to the house to check in on the pups and prepare for Sunday. We hope to splash the boat and practice a little with other Team Florida members (and anyone else who feels like sailing). The Women’s and Juniors race in their NACs Sunday, too.
What is that Pig doing here?
Above and below are taken just west of the club, amazing how 5 years after Katrina it still looks like this
The rental house has no wifi so we will try regular updates but that will probably slow us down a little...
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Tampa Fleet Race
What a day! 9 boats in the parking lot and 8 on the line. Most teams were out or off the dock by 1330. The weather was reminiscent of the race a few years ago when the fleet got rocked by a 45k squall. Yup, the area was peppered
with thunderstorms but a review of the radar was favorable, HA! The reality was that two cells, one Southwest one Northwest, merged and swept the upper bay. Fortunately, they didn't pack quite the punch of the said infamous storm. That didn't stop Dave Clement and Charlie Clifton from capsizing # 38, something about a ipod..... Dave and Charlie got her up and going without too much fuss however. The majority of the teams beat feet for the harbor yet
Mark and Stu Taylor and Jeff and Tina Tinret stayed out without too much drama.
The weather cleared and Team Taylor, (Tom, Drew, Lilly) did a awesome job with the races in a lightish Eastsoutheasterly. A valiant effort at a fourth race
was attempted but guess what?
It was cool in the pool with big girl/boy drinks followed by a up the river romp aboard Dave Germans big ole retro cabin cruiser ( 42' Chris Craft?)
Bridge clearance was a bit of a issue with the incoming tide but if not for the courage of the fearless crew the Minnow wiggled under!
Results soon, Linton, Silvernail, ???
Great luck to Team Tampa with next weeks NAC's in Mississippi, Rock the Gulf!!
Next Fleet practice is July 10th At 1500 1500 1500 an hour later to get some seabreeze. We need Race Committee for the event.
Andy
with thunderstorms but a review of the radar was favorable, HA! The reality was that two cells, one Southwest one Northwest, merged and swept the upper bay. Fortunately, they didn't pack quite the punch of the said infamous storm. That didn't stop Dave Clement and Charlie Clifton from capsizing # 38, something about a ipod..... Dave and Charlie got her up and going without too much fuss however. The majority of the teams beat feet for the harbor yet
Mark and Stu Taylor and Jeff and Tina Tinret stayed out without too much drama.
The weather cleared and Team Taylor, (Tom, Drew, Lilly) did a awesome job with the races in a lightish Eastsoutheasterly. A valiant effort at a fourth race
was attempted but guess what?
It was cool in the pool with big girl/boy drinks followed by a up the river romp aboard Dave Germans big ole retro cabin cruiser ( 42' Chris Craft?)
Bridge clearance was a bit of a issue with the incoming tide but if not for the courage of the fearless crew the Minnow wiggled under!
Results soon, Linton, Silvernail, ???
Great luck to Team Tampa with next weeks NAC's in Mississippi, Rock the Gulf!!
Next Fleet practice is July 10th At 1500 1500 1500 an hour later to get some seabreeze. We need Race Committee for the event.
Andy
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Hull Repair - Part 2
Ok, I messed up a little with the pictures, what else is new? In Hull Repair Part 1 we left off with the glass applied from inside the hull. The next little bit did not get photographed but what happened was we sanded the hull to form a bevel that extends about two inches around the cut out. After the bevel was sanded some filler was used to avoid air pockets and then a couple layers of glass was applied.
Sanding the glass smooth and flush with the hull
Another view of the sanded area
Sanded and ready to fill the inevitable small voids
The filler applied is 3M Marine Filler which sets up quickly and sands well
Sanding the filler smooth
Sanded smooth and papered and ready to spray the gelcoat
Gelcoat being sprayed
More spraying
Almost done with gelcoat
Here we have the gelcoat finished and curing, once cured the paper will come off
We sanded the area with 600 grit to knock down the overspray and finish the repair
We spent little time trying to match the gelcoat because it would have been impossible anyway. The existing gelcoat is old and has tiny crackes everywhere so matching the texture would be impossible. So we sanded it to 600 and called it good. At that point it only has a slight gloss which helps it blend. Ordinarily you would sand to 2000 then buff for a high gloss but that would have looked silly against the rest of the old boat. I figure a few outings at the club with some dock rash from the rubber bumpers strategically placed and you will never spot the repair.
Sanding the glass smooth and flush with the hull
Another view of the sanded area
Sanded and ready to fill the inevitable small voids
The filler applied is 3M Marine Filler which sets up quickly and sands well
Sanding the filler smooth
Sanded smooth and papered and ready to spray the gelcoat
Gelcoat being sprayed
More spraying
Almost done with gelcoat
Here we have the gelcoat finished and curing, once cured the paper will come off
We sanded the area with 600 grit to knock down the overspray and finish the repair
We spent little time trying to match the gelcoat because it would have been impossible anyway. The existing gelcoat is old and has tiny crackes everywhere so matching the texture would be impossible. So we sanded it to 600 and called it good. At that point it only has a slight gloss which helps it blend. Ordinarily you would sand to 2000 then buff for a high gloss but that would have looked silly against the rest of the old boat. I figure a few outings at the club with some dock rash from the rubber bumpers strategically placed and you will never spot the repair.
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