Team Seacats

I’m posting from bee-you-tiful Islamorada in the Florida Keys to support Team Seacats during the 2008 Tradewinds Regatta. It’s sunny and not snowing. Neener, neener, neener. The wind forecast has been a bit sketchy, depending upon who you ask/where you look. There were light breezes between 5-8k during the tuning runs yesterday and the general consensus is that there was sufficient wind to get some productive practice/tuning runs under their belt. Local reports from the weather Channel are calling for light air again throughout the day with a honker in brewing up for tomorrow. This morning’s NOAA forecast is calling for 10-15k with a slight right shift around 1pm. My feeling (speaking as the expert I am patently not) is that they’ll be seeing at least 15k throughout the day. The marks have already been set and the guys are up the road at Founder’s Park Beach applying their game faces. I do hope they get in as many races as possible today, especially considering the race could be called tomorrow due to rough conditions.

As it happens, we will have a great view of the course from our hotel lagoon, so Renee, Tammy, and I will most likely cheer them on from here in the shade. We may even be able to procure some binoculars. That would certainly make me appear less useless and uninformed. Spin runs will, naturally, be much easier to call for those we know well. I haven’t taken much of a look at the roster for the event yet. I’m confident that, in addition to serving as PRO, Rick White will be posting both news, highlights, and photos over on Catsailor…so do check it out. I’d love to point you to a “Who’s coming” and fleet breakdown list but it’s been disappeared since pre-registration is no longer an option. Or maybe I just can’t find it. Hopefully, Rick or Mary will have time to get that information posted later during their all of their spare time this weekend. Until then, I can only talk about the folks I know well enough to recognize on the water and provide the link for the NOR. Fortunately, Nigel and Jake (Pitt and Kohl) are on the big, blue Team Seacats I-20 while Dave and Mike (Lennard and Krantz) have a spiffy new Zhik kite on their Infusion. I’ll also be on the lookout for other friends and do wish everyone a fun, safe day on the water.

So come back later for updates if you wish. I’ve taken a break from harassing teams of strangers for their names, home bases, turn-on’s, etc. for this event. I am overly enthusiastic to provide free publicity to any team at any time, but I’m dealing with a serious Fibromyalgia flare-up and simply don’t have the energy to chase people around. More soon…