The wind was forcasted to be SE at 15, but that never happened. Instead, it was pretty fluky until around 2PM and it settled in from the north at 5-7 mph.
Saturday is forcasted to be 20-25 from the NW -- Now that is Wave weather.
For the first day results click on the following:http:/
Rick
The new venue at the Elks Lodge in Tavernier has been working out well so far. We'll see what happens today (Saturday) with the wind blowing hard out of the only unprotected direction. But the water should still be pretty flat because of the mangrove islands offshore.
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Okay, Saturday morning, they are in postponement phase right now because of gusty 20-25-knot winds. Going to have an early lunch at 11 a.m.; and the winds are already slacking off a little, so it should be a great afternoon of racing.
Don't ask me why they postponed this morning in what are great Wave conditions. I'm not at the site. I am assuming it is not because the boats can't handle it but because a pretty high percentage of the sailors (in this relatively small group) are not able to handle it.
Reportedly, only three or four sailors REALLY wanted to go out and race in those conditions.
More later.
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I don't know much about winds and weather, but I DO know that the wind gods seemed to be having a little dispute Friday.
Even though tropical storm season ended at the end of November, we have another tropical storm, Odette, down in the Caribbean, coming northward and supposed to go northeast and not impact the East Coast of the United States. But we have been having a little bit of a struggle between the winds coming from from the north, northeast and east from the tropical storm heading north to the east of us and a cold front coming down from the west of us.
Right now it looks like the cold front is winning.
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The Elks Lodge is doing a great job with providing meals.
Most of the sailors are staying at the Bay Breeze Motel, which is very close, and reviews on that motel are excellent. The closer motel, which also has a beach, unfortunately is closed during this event because the owners had already planned to take their annual vacation during this time. But their place looks great, too.
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This is a good test run for the Tradewinds Regatta, which is also scheduled at that venue. We are learning the potential problems and how to deal with them.