Team Seacats

I only wish I could show you all of the plenteous and variegated fritilaries garnishing the lagoon floor that rest mere steps from our hotel room door. In point of fact, you would, at this very moment, be gazing upon Madam Nature’s splediferosity instead of parsing these measly bits of confused scribble had someone not forgotten the camera cable. That would be me, natch. I left it far behind me, along with my snow covered neighbors and my bubbie: a misunderstood but well meaning Pit Bull. Jake and I slipped and slid all the way to the airport following a rare winter treat. A fair few inches fell quickly as we were packing and I kept getting sidetracked by the fun outside. With our world clothed in the fluffy water, the backyard and neighborhood were suddenly transformed into what can only be termed artificial daylight. I kept grabbing giant handfulls of these unflavored snowcones and taking them inside for a rather messy treat. I blame this for skewing my priorities (not to mention freezing my tongue until I was slurring) and attention for Keys Trip 101. French pedicure, check. Sunglasses, check. Xanax, check. Glossy briefings concerning the latest on the zeppelin-like crash and burn of Britney, check y’all. And with that, I was ready to go. Mea culpa.

In any case, I’m not getting on a boat so my race photos would have been sub par in that respect, regardless. However, I did bring the camera charger so I will have plenty of evidence on offer for any civil or criminal proceedings (or a little friendly blackmail) stemming from any land based, after hours mayhem cum frivolity. What happens in the Keys will definitely not stay in the Keys so if a Meister Jaeger or Captain Morgan come a knockin’ then, be ye warned, my megapixels may follow.

Meanwhile, boats…are…racing! And…that’s the extent of my update. Wah, wah, wah. The reasons for this are 1) I have no binoculars, as aforementioned. 2) With several fleets meandering around in various states of readiness between the three minute start sequences, I am even more confused than usual as to what’s happening. 3) I am in pain and can barely think straight. I’m fairly sure that Jake will post later about his first ever competition on the same boat with Nigel Pitt after years of camaraderie at the same regattas. Nigel and Alex Shafer walked away with top honors at the 2007 Nacra 20 North American Championship in Pensacola last Fall while Jake sailed into second place crewing for Wick Smith at the same race. Wick’s back here at Tradewinds with his regular crew (son, Wick Jr.). I’m excited to see how things play out with that little switcheroo, even though each fleet has some great competitors from around the world in a sport where one small miscalculation, unexpected puff, or fit of overconfidence can cost dearly. My girls, Tammy Pitt and Renee Lennard are back from trinket gathering and armed with binocs so I may have some details later. They’re much better at spotting, anyway, being competitive sailors themselves. I know I saw three boats flipped at once across the horizon but none had blue hulls so I’m still feeling good. Tammy says that Nigel and Jake are in 4th at the moment. All of the boats seem to be enjoying super conditions, smoking up the course, and only one of the flipped boats I mentioned earlier is still over but not receiving assistance, so presumably it’s not too bad.

Meanwhile, Tammy’s got on a bikini top, so I’ll see what I can do for you. Oh yeah, no camera cable. Too bad, so sad. Well, you might be able to find photos of women in bathing suits somewhere on the Internet. If only one knew where to look. Good luck with your new assignment. I’m going to go talk to the girls, maybe play some on Neopets. Yes. I admit it. I’m not really a grown-up at all.

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…

It’s been a while since we checked in on the Sled project….our intreped model builder has been hard at work and is busy installing the hardware and wiring in the first prototype – it’s looking incredible…even though this visit provided me some good reading, I still want more and find myself pouring over the details. The Sled

Lady luck has been singing a little different Tune for Joyon for the last couple of days. He really struggled to get to and through the Doldrums at the equator and after having to go up the mast to repair a halyard, noticed that a shroud was coming undone. After having to return to the deck for tools and a second trip up the mast in very unsettled seas, Joyon has injured his ankle and only managed a minimal repair on the shroud. Sail changes are happening quickly as the winds constantly change with squalls and calms in the middle part of the world and he’s getting ready to enter some boat breaking heavy seas and upwind sailing. He is currently 2800 miles ahead of McArthur’s pace but that boat won’t go very fast with out a mast.

Our lake levels are very very low around here due to a really dry summer….what can we do?  Wait…I have an idea!