Pensacola FL Sailing Blog – sailingnightwatch

Yep, got to go sailing. Saturday started off rainy, windy and not to good. That was alright, Grandma and the kids went looking for a 6 month home for my want-to-be snow bird kids.

I have a kink in my back, and that was slowing me down.

Sunday, as you can see by the pictures, Sunday was the best. We kept the side curtains closed, but the back were half open. Perfect for a light sweat shirt. The wind was a little chilly. I noticed the other boats out had crews with wind breakers on.

The wind was 15 to low 20’s. Sometime lighter. Perfect. Enough wave action to move the boat and make you feel you are not tied to the pier. Got to do this more often. We are getting into the time of low tides and I can get stuck in the cannel. That is not good.

Oh, the kink in the back. Its there, probably did not help it yesterday, and working out this morning really did not help. Off to the chiropractor.

Well, it looks like it rained this past weekend. The pool was overflowing when I got home Tuesday night. I was suppose to be home Monday, but the speed censer gave up the ghost in Lake City FL. Not the biggest town in the world. Had to rent a car just to get to one of the hotels by the interstate. Breaking down is like the racing weekend went also. Got the car off the trailer and into the pit stall at Daytona and a drop link broke. The people who do our engine work were having lunch for there customers there this weekend. We were lucky enough to catch the office manager before she left for the track and she grabbed a couple drop links.

We were ready to go for Saturday qualifications. We ended second in our class. Our class is currently messed up with only 3 cars in it and a 20+ second a lap spread between them. Not competitive.

We ran the first sprint race and came in second. Surprise! Because of the way road race cars are set up, we always look for strange tire wear when running high bank tracks like Daytona. While inspecting, we saw that the boot on the right CV joint was torn. We took out the shaft and found the CV joint very heavily worn. Ended up sending a mechanic back to Tampa to get a new CV joint. Needles to say we missed the second sprint race and the mechanic missed a nice dinner.

Back to the track by 6:30 A.M. to install the CV joint. Made the Sunday morning qualifying, second of course, and nothing broke. Getting to feel snake bit. The car used to be bullet proof.

The first sprint race was like the first on Saturday, second place again.

The second sprint race in the afternoon was the best racing of the weekend and probably for several races. There was an M3 Beemer beside us at the start and we traded positions, back and forth with him till the last couple minutes of the race when we blew a power steering pump. That caused us to retire with about 2 laps to go. Third in class.

That was the last race of the year and we did finish first in class overall. It is really time to go sailing.

Yea I did. We got our first cold front of the season for real this past weekend. We had great plans, but 30+ knots of wind is not how you introduce the granddaughter to sailing. She has a hard enough time being restricted to a lifejacket. Therefore, Saturday was a wash. Sunday the wind was suppose to lay down in the afternoon. Well, it did about dusk. Monday, Grandma took off and I had high hopes. Well the wind did lay down to less then 6 knots. It really takes at least 5 knots to sail noticeably. Anything less and the boat has a tendency to wander excessively. My catamaran friend went out and gave me wind readings several times. 6 kts. was the max.

Well this weekend is a race weekend at Daytona. I am always excited to go there. Of all the big NASCAR tracks, this one gives the most time on the large track and yet has a challenging infield section. One can go as fast as the car will go. Scoring good points hear should lock up our class championship. Hope and pray nothing stops us.

I need a sailing fix.