carwreck.com: around Boston harbor...

I went to the skipper's meeting for the Fort Lauderdale-Key West Race at the Lauderdale YC last night to meet the guys I had been invited to sail with. The person I had spoken with via email and on the phone was not there, but I introduced myself to Jim, the owner of the boat. I turned out that I was invited to fill the spot of someone who had not been definite about showing up for the race. The owner told me he would make some phone calls and determine if he actually had a spot for me on his boat. As the skipper's meeting got underway he told me that his boat was full with the six people his PHRF rating allowed.

I ran into the manager of the Doyle Sails FTL, who I had met the other day when I stopped by his loft, and he was still trying to find me a spot. Surprisingly, he is running the race committee for the FTL-KW Race. The suggestion I got from him and Jim was to return to the Lauderdale YC in the morning and continue to walk the docks as people were getting ready to leave. I decided that was reediculous since going to the YC without any assurance of getting on a boat would be too difficult to pull off with regards to parking my car and having all my gear (for the next two weeks) in place and ready to go. If I had a specific boat to drop my gear on and then go take care of my car it would be a different story.

So now I'm out of ideas where to go look for boats which are still transiting down to Key West for the Race Week and I'm now faced with the possibility of driving myself down to Key West. It's only about 3.5 hours so the drive isn't any big deal. This puts me in a not as great position for getting some sort of delivery job after the Race Week since I'll have to get back to Key West when I'm done. I guess that's not so different than going to Fort Lauderdale though. Oh well. So much for well laid plans.

Good luck man. I'm sure you'll pull it off. You're a resourceful mofo.

Sorry that things fell through man, but it sounds like your backup plan (i.e. driving) still leaves you with some options. I know you can work it out, man. Good luck!