Jon Deutsch

The plan for today had been to get the boat ready, do a practice sail and then a Portsmouth handicap race in the evening, but rain, a tornado warning, flash flood warning and lake wind advisory foiled those plans. Instead I got the tires fixed and joined the group for lunch at Ybor Brewing Company. In the afternoon we relaxed around the house and then Rick and Jen cooked up a great steak, chicken and sausage dinner with salad and baked potatoes. The rest of the evening was spent playing cards and recounting old times sailing at FBYC.

We’ll have to get an early start to the day tomorrow to get the boat setup and ready to sail. We’ve seen a variety of forecasts, but presently we’re expecting lighter winds with a possibility of some rain.

We started out bright and early this morning on our trip to Tampa for the Fireball and Friends midwinter’s. I am sailing a Front Runner along with 7 other boats based in Richmond from Fishing Bay Yacht Club. 5 of us left Richmond at 5:30am in a caravan heading south.

The trip started out fine, but about 150 miles into the trip the tire went on the trailer I was driving. Unfortunately the spare was a dud too, but thankfully Mark came to the rescue and loaned me his spare. The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful and we pulled into Davis Island Yacht Club around 7pm.

Most of the other boats in our group arrived around the same time and after unloading the boats we stopped for some pizza before heading out to find our house for the weekend.

Tomorrow, after getting some new tires we’ll set up the boats and get ready to race in the afternoon. The weather is calling for scattered storms and 12-15+.