Lightning North American Championship 2008
Regatta Day Three - Crissy, Gary and I waited at the boat until 11:30 for Sandy. Sandy does have a cell phone but he rarely has it with him. Besides, we had no idea of the number. It was a bit chilly but the wind was blowing close to 15 – great for sailing.
By the time we got out to the race course, the first race was almost finished. I was up on the deck doing video while Crissy manned the binoculars and Gary drove. Paul and the girls got a fifth – nice comeback after yesterday. As the second race began, the running commentary began. Although I’ve picked up a lot of knowledge along the way, I’m not a racer but I always enjoy listening to racers give their opinion on what various people are doing right…or wrong. Anyhow, it was a great race to watch (see the video) and Paul got another fifth.
At the end of the race Paul immediately signaled for a tow. For the first time, the juniors were finished first and he wanted to get a head start on the fifty boats that soon would be sharing three lifts. After dropping the kids off, we put Calusa on the mooring and headed over to Fort Adams and lightning central. The NA sailors were arriving while those who weren’t planning on staying were packing up. Meantime, kids were coming in from their classes at Sail Newport. Lots of activity. I wanted to get on the road and we finally were set to go around five but I had to take a ride down Ocean Drive before I left. We just didn’t have time the previous few days and how can you go to Newport without seeing the magnificent mansions and views of Rhode Island sound. I never tire of it.
We made great time down 95 and made a quick stop at a McDonald’s in Madison, Connecticut. As I waited for the girls, the sky was getting dark and I noticed some lightning south of us. It looked liked it was moving fast and would probably blow over quickly. Not. It started just north of New Haven and continued until just north of Milford. Thunder, lightning, and the kind of rain where everyone is doing around 30mph and you can hardly see anything in front of you except for the tail lights on car in front of you. Very intense. It looked like it was just about over so I decided to take the Merrit to avoid all the traffic on 95. It all started out fine. No rain and little traffic. And then we hit another storm. This one was worse than the first. It felt like this thing would never stop. No one talked, no radio on and then all you could hear was what sounded like rocks hitting the car. Golf ball size hail was coming down with thunder and lightning all around us. I couldn’t see a darn thing and it definitely was in the top five of my all time worse driving experiences. If you’ve been on the Merrit, you know that there’s no real shoulder on the road to even pull off on. Going about 5mph, I just wanted to get to an exit. And then it suddenly stopped. Thank God.
I turned on the news when we got home and the leading stories were all about the horrendous storms in Connecticut. Tell me about it. Meanwhile Paul left Newport around the same time as we did but didn’t do the Ocean Drive tour. He managed to miss all of it. Timing is everything.
All in all, we had a great time. Newport is one of my favorite places to visit and this trip was no exception. Of course we’d just rather forget day two of the regatta (and the trip home) but stuff happens. The rest was a heck of a lot of fun.
Doreen
