Fleet 9 Sets Off for Midwinters 2010

Fleet 9’s annual midwinter break in Florida got under way today in bitterly cold conditions, 15°F with wind chill taking it down to single digits! Six fleet 9/region one boats were loaded into the truck at American YC, Rye, by Drew, Ted & Amie, Loic, Joerg, Tim, Olav, Justin Miller and John. MIAs were Blaine, coaching in the snow in southern MD and Dan, allegedly nice and warm in bed with his girl friend!

Some teams were pulled together at the last minute thanks to generous fleet 9 members not able to go. Blaine & Danny will be sailing Greg’s boat 8790 and Loic will be sailing Justin Shaffer’s boat 8753. Loic only did the deal on the boat Friday morning and by the afternoon had found a good crew, Stephen Long, from the mid-west. Other boats are 8931 - Joerg & Dan, 8438 – Ted & Amie, 8830 – Drew & Ramsey, 8190 – Tim & Graham. Olav & John were along to help and throw some gear in the truck. Justin M was there to pick Ted & Amie’s double. Ted Ferrarone dropped by for a chat and ran before the hard work started!

We were all done in just over an hour and the truck left around 11.30am for Hampton, VA to pick up Olav, Henry and Christian’s boats, 8441, 8012, 8951. John & Gareth are heading south on Tuesday via Hampton to pick up 8939 and BER9005.

Everyone was looking forward to sun & fun on the beach at Fort De Soto, St. Petersburg, FL!

cheers

John
505 USA 8939