Day 3 More Life in Deltaville

Good day! It’s race day minus 1!!! (No, Kim’s not too nervous!!)

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

Day 2 Arriving at Fishing Bay Yacht Club

Greetings,

Happily we only had about 2 more hours of driving left to do today. We woke to a nice clear, cool, morning, in fact it was noticeably cooler outside the air conditioned motel room. Leaving our initially-questionable-turned-comfy Econo Lodge accommodations in Petersburg, VA, we filled the Ody and we were on our way! After a disappointing 18 mpg on the last tank yesterday, we filled up this am – Hooray, 19.4! Then another “What are the chances” moment…yesterday we saw two battered old pick-ups with trailers containing every possession possible in them doing about 40 mph. We finally got past them and resumed normal speed after a bit of yelling by Dave. The same "Beverly Hillbillies" were holding up traffic again today! Whatever.

The last hour of driving was done on local roads, its been a while since we have seen so much farm land. The area is really nice, at least it is a huge change of pace from what we are used to back home in Tampa Bay. I don’t think I have ever seen so many marinas located right next to a farm field. We also saw gas prices that we liked-$2.70!!

897 miles later, we arrived at FBYC (Fishing Bay Yacht Club). Lots of activity at the sailing center at 0947, kids were sailing and working hard, volunteers receiving their instructions, boats arriving from everywhere. This place is awesome.

The Fishing Bay YC Main Clubhouse

1200 Measuring and weighing commence. Nice, a little early, but we had a few problems...mooring rings (are you kidding me?), boom length (if you just measure it correctly, everything will be fine, Harry just sold us this boom last year! He wouldn’t sell the wrong size boom!!), it all worked out.

Pig Pen measured and ready to go

1400 Registration complete, boat rigged and ready! We go to Dockside Inn to check in since there’s not enough wind to sail yet. We are a little curious about the Inn; several interesting comments from locals along with a strange look or two and we are pretty sure there is a story. We pull in the driveway and can’t help but laugh, we are also the only car in the parking lot. We have photos but I forgot the wire (150 trips through the house, we knew we were forgetting something) to transfer them from camera to computer, so they will follow later, it is now later, hence the photos.

Look Now! They have a VACANCY! Shocking

The Dockside Inn with office on the right, Wooo Hoooo!

1500 BREEZE ON! Back to the club to go sailing, what a beautiful area, interesting wind. We spend about 2 hours practicing tacks and jibes and Kim is much happier. We have actually sailed very little the last month or two so we are afraid we will be rusty. With a little luck, we will get some more practice in tomorrow before the 3 pm board meeting.

1850 Safely back to shore, and we run into the Lintons- we go to dinner with sick Jeff and Amy. Cough, cough, cough. Jeff even turned down a beer, we’ll just leave it at that. We have been feeling the early cold symptoms over the last week and a half but have been fending it off with Vitamin C, etc. Hope our luck continues.

2050 Back from dinner (I believe only one pizza place in Deltaville, we may become very familiar with their menu), fully sanitized with all immunity defense mechanisms on! (Vitamin C, Echinacea, Airborne, and anything else we could find) As Dave mentioned, he’s been having some back discomfort, good thing he brought his personal P.T. and a full bottle of Alieve.

Maybe we’ll see some fireflies tonight, but it’s getting chilly. Amy said it was too cold for fireflies in PA last night (44 deg!!!), not as cold here, but I needed long sleeves and no AC in the hotel room, please.

PS Several people have asked about Clifford….

See you tomorrow.