Since finishing the ISAF Sailing World Cup regatta in Miami, we’ve taken a trip northwards to St Petersburg.
We’re here for the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta, which is a series around the USA featuring just one-design classes and is being sailed from St Petersburg Yacht Club. This is a good regatta for us to do, as its fairly low-key, and it attracts a good few of the Paralympic teams following the WC in Miami.
With 4.5 hours in the car, we took some time to discuss the recent regatta, as well as taking in the not so interesting scenery… America really is flat and boring, especially around the Everglades, and to top it all off, there wasn’t an alligator in site- even on Alligator alley!!! We also pulled in to help out the other British boat that was stopped on the side of the road with the brakes seized on…
With a slightly disappointing result in the WC, it’s been nice to take a few days to chill out, get in some solid gym work, and generally catch up with ourselves before the boat gets here and we start all over again…
There are 7 boats entered so far, and that’s not including the fleet of locals ready to hit the water; we should also thank Rick Doerr and the Sonar class association, as they’ve changed it to a Paralympic rules event, so we’ll be getting some even better practice in… (Normally this event is an open regatta where we add another crew, and use spinnakers, fun but having another body on-board, even our coach Simon, adds a totally different dynamic to the team.)
You can check out the website here, where they’ll be posting updates and results: http://www.sailingworld.com/nood-regattas/st-petersburg
So today its back into the gym, and I might just get time to sneak off to the shopping mall in Tampa… I bet you’ll never guess what I’ll be searching for 😛
SAILING HANNAH 
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