Edited by nacra55 on Nov 24, 2013 - 11:00 AM.
Ron Beliech
Nacra F-18
Brandon, MS
If you have not clicked on the videos do so and save them. They will make winter better. Ricardo.
Winter is sooooo much worse after you leave St. Barths. It is the best regatta I have ever attended, hands down. I wasn't stressed one bit and we had a giant hole in our boat 30 minutes into the regatta. Write up in the SA forums.
Sam - you da man!
Awesome write-up (for others, you can find it on the USF18.com site as well).
It's saying something when so much goes against you and you still had a great time. Something about the island air infuses you with the "no problem, mon" attitude.
You coming down to Tradewinds in Jan? Maybe you should just leave the boat in Florida over the winter?
Island air really gets into your soul. It's demoralizing returning to the NE; we saw more people when we landed in Baltimore than we had the previous 10 days (Puerto Rico doesn't count, they're still breathing island air). It's the worst cultural adjustment I've had, and I've done a lot of traveling.
The boat will be staying in Florida for the winter; we still don't have a container unload date, and I'm not sure when the fiberglass shop will get the work done. Optimistically we'll be able to do Tradewinds, time and money permitting π
Edited by samc99us on Dec 04, 2013 - 07:17 AM.
Sam - btw - in case you need a bit of island fix, there's a webcam just next to where you guys kept the boats.
http://earthcam.com/cams/frenchwestindies/stbarts/
In fact, if you click the right arrow a few times to the right of the bottom row of pics, you can see some F18's in the foreground. If you're lucky, you can catch an airplane takeoff and land.
It's been about 5 years since my last trip to the islands, and I know what you mean about the culture shock coming back. I was in a funk for about a month dealing with the "real world".
Edited by rehmbo on Dec 17, 2013 - 10:38 AM.
Hey Sam- I think you made a couple cameos in the video that Tebo put together.
Really nice. Wants me to go down there even more.