Friday, May 6, 2011 Dunedin to LNYC
9:15 Breezy morning in Dunedin, just noticing the weather as we drive north. The winds are mostly southeast. There is a front moving in from the Gulf with a line of heavy rain. We are not able to stay ahead of it so we drive in rain for most of the ride in FL. As we head north the weather improves and when we reach SC it is mostly blue skies.
We have Jeff Penfield's FS5318 DAMFINO in tow. Regular readers will remember that Jeff passed a few months ago and the family wanted to move the boat to the summer home in Canada. We formed a plan where we would bring the boat fron Sarasota FL to LNYC. Linda Danilek (Jeffs daughter) would be meeting us at LNYC and would tackle the rest of the journey up north. This will serve to remind me to do a trailer bearing/hub replacement post on this blog in the near future.
Note to self: pay attention to gas prices. On our last few trips up this way we have seen low gas prices in SC. As we drive through GA we are getting a little low but trying to stretch it to make SC. As it becomes obvious that stretching is going to be risky I take an exit where the gas stations are close to the exit. Gasp! They are both charging $4.09 for regular. Bastards are in cahoots! These guys must be learning from OPEC. Where is Obama's gas gouging szar? I swear every other exit was 3 something a gallon. I decide to get only get a few gallons, just out of principle. Once in SC I take a promising exit and to find.... several stations at $3.69. Nice! A small moral victory.
6:40 pm. Finished the first of Stieg Larsson’s trilogy, a supposed best seller. Insert big eye roll here. Its called "The girl with the dragon tattoo" It was one of those slow developing books that was tough to get hooked on, so I guess being trapped in the van for hours was the best way to stick with it. Serial killer tale set in Europe during the mid 1900's, always miserably cold, a bunch of characters you want to see die, the ones that die you wish would live, etc. We finished the thing as we reached the outer circle of highway surrounding Charlotte. So, at least the timing was good.
7:20 pm Anyone hear the cracking open of the first beer? The sun is still fairly high in the sky, and it’s slow-going along Brawley School Rd. – still. Will they ever finish this road project?
Saturday, May 7
Ahh, the late start, a lovely idea for a regatta. We spent the morning saying goodbye to Linda and Roger Danilek, making sure they were A-OK for their trip to Vermont. They had decided not to sail so they could get back home so Roger would not miss school. The car was packed, Damfino in tow. They wanted to make sure we were set with a boat for the weekend, and offered Damfino as the back up boat if the borrowed boat wasn’t available. Fortunately, Bill Ross set us up with a beauty, and we became acquainted with our ride for the weekend. You never know what you’ll get with a borrowed boat, but we ended up with John Slater’s FS4865 so we were in good shape. Thanks to John and Bill for helping us out.
We missed the 11:00 Skipper’s meeting, some bottom scrubbing was in order, but caught up over lunch at noon. Racing was scheduled to start at 1:00, (so civilized!). The RC wisely waited through a bit of a postponement for consistent breeze. Two races were completed in light-ish breeze, then more wind came with some clouds, keeping us on our toes and switching gears.
So far, the top group consists of John and John (Aras and Wake) who are leading by one over Team Dieball (4 pts, and 5 pts). Then with 19 points is Steve Shaw on a borrowed Texas boat with a story (that I couldn’t stick closely enough to hear). Then with 20 points are Harry, Sandy Eustis, Us and Ben Williams. Fun! All three races had close upwind finishes and several places were decided during a last header/lift puff at the finish line. Very exciting! Close enough that we had to wait for the results to be posted to see how they scored us. I think most were surprised to see such soild breeze develop after what looked like a possible drifter.
At registration, we were provided with kilts (wraparound-skirt pieces of plaid material that had been specially cut and held up with twine) and were told to wear them this evening for their strict, “NO KILT, NO SERVICE” policy for the weekend! It was fun and games after racing with a modified Highland Games competition on land with Bocci ball toss, Boom Throwing, and a Barrel toss. Prizes to those who threw the farthest (I think, we were busy testing the local craft brew on tap in the kegerator- someone had to make sure it was safe!). Excellent theme for the Flying Scot sailors and fans. Participants were further entertained by a local bagpiper who played for the happy hour and “Gaming” crowd. Dinner was BBQ pork and sides, we caught up with friends, but, as always, not enough time to talk chat before it was time to rest up for the early morning tomorrow.
Sunday, May 8
Early start for Sunday morning – 9:30 warning signal. Surprisingly, there was breeze on the lake when we arrived to LNYC. The weather folks mentioned 2 kts in town when we checked the TV before leaving the hotel.
It was a cool morning, and, as we’re used to in St. Pete, as the sun rises as well as the temperature, the wind diminishes. Sailing out to the course in a nice southeasterly has us thinking "how long will this last?" By the time the warning signal sounded, it had already lightened considerably. Up the course, it was looking like a serious drifter. In the last minute of the starting sequence, we were on starboard, headed toward the pin, coincidentally; we were also headed toward the club. Very tempting; we chose the club. We had little speed, but we were pointing in the right direction. The race committee signaled another 5 leg race, as they had done Saturday. In the end the race was shortened to 2 legs. Downwind became upwind and it ended with a beat to the finish, for some, a reach for others, and a run for the rest. Local father/son team Chuck and Mark Gise won the only race of the day, Ben Williams and Deb Aronson were 2nd and Harry Carpenter and Adam Keene were 3rd. J&J (5th) ended up in a tie with Dieball (4th) for the regatta. We left before the final results were posted so a link will be added after they are posted at LNYC.
We were able to leave the club around noon. Kim decided to pick up another paperback for the ride home, something light, maybe funny.... Walmart was out of light and funny so, you guessed it, another serial killer. This one takes place in a nice summer camp, USA, rather than cold depressing Europe, so much more fun! Ugh. It is "The Woods" by Harlan Coben in case you care.
About the genre, I guess it is not too surprising as there are probably more serial killer books than anything else, except maybe self-help. The self-help are good for those who read too many serial killer books. Hmmm, could this be a conspiracy in the publishing business... maybe even a vast conspiracy. Anyway, we enjoyed clear sailing all the way home; 9 hours 45 minutes.
Good times, great weather, wonderful Scotters! Thanks, LNYC for a great weekend.
Oh crap, bodies in the woods!
Update; Linda and Roger are safely home with Damfino in Vermont.
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