the 2006
Wayfarer Midwinters East
Lake Eustis SC, Tavares, FL * Feb. 3-5
pre-Midwinters fun - 1
(home to St. Pete's)
photos by Marc Bennett and Uncle Al
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For Marc and me,
departure day was Thursday, January 26th as soon as Marc could reach
Oakville after work. This scene in Al's driveway typifies the lack of
winter our area had been having.
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We made our first stop in
Detroit about three hours after our suppertime departure. Here we met
up with Nick Seraphinoff at his home near the Tunnel. Nick was
bringing his newly acquired Flying Dutchman to Florida, specifically to
St. Petersburg where a big FD regatta was taking place on the week-end,
and where Nick hoped to "pick a few brains". In his room, Marc had lots of ...
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... company!
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After a short
sleep, we departed Nick's at 0400 hrs in weather that felt more like
October than January. We hoped to reach ...
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... Chattanooga, TN by
late
afternoon.
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And here we are in
Chattanooga ...
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... right on time!! Marc was taking the pictures but Nick was unavailable
for a pose beside his FD (above) since after 12+ hours on the
road, he had rushed into the hotel to spend half an hour on the
treadmill! What a guy!! And then he still had enough left over to charm
our very nice waitress at the Texas Longhorn.
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On the Saturday, we reached
Florida by mid-afternoon. At this rest area, we quickly changed for
Florida.
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In a flash, Uncle Al
had replaced his long johns with his Tilleys. Our loose convoy
parted company south of Ocala where Nick stayed on I-75 to St.
Pete's while Marc and I headed east on 44 to Eustis where we were
planning to drop the boat off and stay the night at Mike and Dotty Murto's new
house. This whole trip was remarkable in that we had perfect driving
weather
all the way - not a drop of rain nor a flake of snow - and everything
went exactly as planned.
At the Lake Eustis SC, Marc and I quickly
had some of the draft beer
with which Mike Murto welcomed us to the LESC as always, rigged SHADES,
went to the Quarterdeck for a delicious seafood dinner with
some of the LESC gang, followed Mike and Dotty home, were impressed
with their spacious, new digs, and collapsed into bed.
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Sunday, we
dawdled back across Florida by way of the charming town of Inverness.
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Marc used to own some
property outside of Inverness and it has a great used book store which
alas, was closed on this day.
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We made our early-afternoon
rendez-vous
with Nick at the very busy Sailing Centre in St. Pete's where ...
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... Marc (l) and Nick
compared his FD to the real racing machines. Still no rain - but we
would pay for this later!
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While Nick stayed at the
Sailing Centre to pick more brains, buy sails, etc., Marc and I scouted
out accommodations for the three of us, settling on a Best Western
in Treasure Island right ...
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... on a lovely Gulf Coast
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... beach.
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Right next door on the
beach was a Tiki Bar to which we were lured by ...
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... the sounds of live
music: Chuck Cobb, the resident musician, was a joy to listen to. I
ended up buying two of his CDs before he ended his final set early due
to fingers that were numb from the increasing cold.
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Marc, however, was nice and
cozy in his Wayfarer Worlds top as he ...
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... took his Bud for a walk
to ...
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... the water's ...
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... edge.
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Uncle Al, too, is happy to
be here!.
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As we got indoors to
get out of the increasingly cool winds and overcast, we got a call from
Nick who had discovered that the Sailing Centre would not allow him to
leave his FD there for a day or two. He was now looking for a marina
and would get back to us. Considerably after we had showered in
preparation for dinner out, Nick finally got back to us. He had located
a marina not too far from the hotel but it was closed for the night. He
had however located Mungo, who lived near by, and for $20 would let
Nick's FD join the debauchery in progress outside of Mungo's humble if
not slummy home. But first, Nick had had to drive a "friend" of Mungo's
home, halfway across town. Having met these guardians of his boat, Nick
had few hopes of ever seeing his (uncovered) boat and its gear ever
again. But be that as it may, Nick assured us that he would be at the
hotel within minutes
would shower quickly, and then go ...
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... to dinner with us at ...
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... Sculley's (see
photo above, taken the following morning). We had a great meal, an
interesting waitress and a lot of fun. As we wandered back to the car,
Nick said: "You know, this looks a lot like the area where Mungo
lives." And sure enough, there was the FD, safely parked in front of a
place that looked quite respectable once the partygoers had departed.
And ...
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... the boat was still there and unscathed in front of the
House of Mungo when ...
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... Nick arrived to take it
back the following morning.
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By now the rain had settled
in over the Tampa area but the good news was that our "destination du
jour", the Sanibel-Captiva area - a mere two hours' south - was
expecting warm sunshine all day.
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