Well Damon, it’s our first day here in Santa Barbara and the venue is
absolutely beautiful. We have taken over the parking lot with a sea of
motor homes and boats. The weather is a blue sky with wispy clouds and
wind at 20 plus today. Eric Finley and I took out the Super Cat 20 with
seas at about the 4-6 foot range. Trying conditions to say the least.
If the wind stays at this speed it will be very interesting to see who
has the balls to pop the chute. The beach is a stereotypical picture of
California, complete with the requisite Baywatch scene of palm trees,
white sand beach, and a hot chick in a pink bikini jogging on the
beach.
All the rock stars are here, and we mere mortals are walking shoulder
to shoulder with the likes of Jeff Alter, Mitch Booth, Enrique
Figueroa, Greg Thomas and Jacques Bernier. The view is somewhat surreal
– in a parking lot adjacent to the venues lays some thirty brand new
Hobie Tigers in various states of assembly. Three huge shipping
containers hold more hulls and parts in a never ending stream of
construction. It is a seemingly impossible task to get all these boats
built in the few days that we have before official competition begins.
We are in the process of setting up an internet cafe on site courtesy
of Hobie Fleet 2 from Nevada City, Ca. The parking lot where the motor
homes are parked it set up as a WiFi hot spot so everyone with a laptop
can stay connected to home with out leaving their rigs. Three parties
are planned for the week, with the rum drinks and beer flowing freely.
Tomorrow we will begin to weigh the boats and measure the sails – I
hope there is a keg close by because this will be a long day with 100
boats now competing. Speaking of beer – the daily stipend you have
given us is great, but 250.00 per person per day is a little less that
we are used to. Eric is blowing through his like the proverbial drunken
sailor. This is really making the living conditions unbearable. I am
afraid we will need more money to last us out the week. The Mount Gay
rum is gone, as well as the Blue Sapphire gin, so we have already
resorted to drinking the cheap stuff. It is only the first day and
already we have had to lay off the college girls we hired to wheel the
boat up and down the beach – the inhumanity of it all!
That’s all for today, I’ll send more tomorrow, and remember – send more
money! We don’t want to have to pawn these nice laptops you gave us to
afford the “entertainment” we have planned for later in the week, if
you know what I mean, and I think that you do…
Dave Atwater
Somewhere in Santa Barbara