Port Charlotte Regatta

Friday, March 16, 2012

Bummer, had to go to work most of the day before leaving Dunedin for Charlotte Harbor YC. Fortunately, we were able to escape Pinellas County (4:00 pm) unscathed by any traffic snafus.
Looking forward to this trip to start the new (older) Nelson DeMille book, The Lion's Game. Heard it was good.

5:00 pm Traffic scan on the phone shows red line coming up in Sarasota. Exit SR 64 was upon us, and we bailed from I-75, we'll try Rte 41 for a while. Able to get back on at University Parkway, unbeknownst to us, what lurked ahead. More traffic. Turned out to be a fender bender, and it took up 2 lanes of the hwy, it just mucked the whole thing up.

It was still light out at 7:00 pm when we arrived at the club, able to plug in, parked next to our favorite RV neighbors, and had beer with the group in the CHYC "Wheel Room" (aka, bar) and then leftovers in the Winnie with Jeff and Amy. Good night!

Saturday, March 17, Happy St Patrick's Day!

Beautiful day, light winds in am. Funny, we heard all predictions last night, everything from from super-windy to drifting conditions forecasted, and it turned out to be jus right.

The first 2 races were in light air and the breeze came in and built for the 3rd race. There was some controversy around the first race initiated by some miscommunication on the RC boat, ahhh, sailboat racing....
L-2, W-2, it's all the same, isn't it?

Really sweet facilities at the CHYC, and we cleaned up, got ready for dinner. Martin and the volunteers and employees did an excellent job taking care of us. Corned beef and cabbage, in true St. Patrick's style, The group got their green on for the evening's festivities, and tried not to look too conspicuous watching the regulars wander in for the YC party.
Early night, sleepy and full.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

More beautiful weather Sunday so we sailed two more races, the second one being a longish five legger in a nice breeze. Try as we might, the group could not reel in Team Linton, Congrats to them for the victory!! Chris Morgan finished second and we were third.

This regatta was the last in the series of six, completeing another great Florida District Championship. Congradulations to Paul Abdullah who took top honors by winning three regattas in a row!! Nice job. Second were Jeff and Amy Linton, Jim Egan and Chris Morgan rounded out the top four trophy spots. We had great attendance this year and look for more of the same next year.

We know March Madness for some people has something to do with basketball, but we are fashioning our own form of craziness this weekend. We sailed today, finished our State Series, visited with Mom and Dad who drove to the West Coast for the weekend, turned over the Governorship to Mark Taylor and hit the road! Must get to NOLA by Monday afternoon. We'll see how far we get tonight.

Sadly, we had to detour to Dunedin to switch out the Pig Rig for the Oddity (Honda van). No camping at Southern YC, but we're looking forward to staying with great folks at the Rose Manor. This added a bit of time to the already kinda long trip.

After awards and good-byes, we were on the road by 3:15, home and re-packed and off again by 6:00 pm. Eyelids started getting heavy and we stopped a little west of Tallahassee, small town called Quincy, but a really nice Best Western had a lovely bed.