Katie Takes Charge

Day Eight, St. Pete – Katie takes charge

Friday night the Lightning posse struts purposefully to dinner, Sawyer in the lead, with his rag tag team of misfits straggling behind. After dinner a regae concert awaits – the original Wailers, as in “Bob Marley and the Wailers.” Our team arrives at the venue and is disappointed to learn that tickets are $22 a pop. No way we’re paying that. It’s already damn near 9:00 pm - pretty close to our bed time. We’ll never stay long enough to justify the cost. Then a new leader emerges. Katie Elmer pulls out a giant wad of cash and starts paying cover charges all around and commands, “we’re going in!” Sheepishly the Lightning posse complies. Inside, cold beer and Margaritas await. Some hours, beers and margaritas later the band plays its last and our team shuffles back to the Ponce de Leon, having closed down the bar. Our leader for the night had made an excellent call – but how will we feel about it in the morning?

Flash forward to Saturday morning. Team Wilmington now shuffles down to the St. Pete Sailing Center. That excellent call didn’t seem as great at 7:00 am as it did the night before. Even so, the Lightning posse boldly perseveres.

Three races, starting 13-14 knots and diminishing throughout the day. Despite the diminishing winds, the weather is excellent. Plenty of sunshine and good racing conditions throughout. Team Sawyer finishes 29, 38, and 31 in a fleet of 55. Small errors really take a toll in this fleet – like mistaking the four minute warning for the five minute warning. “Why are these boats lining up on the line so soon – they’ll never hold those positions for a minute and a half. Oh, Sh#*!” Team Waldkirch struggles as well – they seem to be off their game even more than team Sawyer – seems like they just can’t roll with the big dogs. Maybe they should have gotten their beauty rest after all.

John Sawyer, Lightning 14318

RESULTS