Today (Friday) we arrived in Shell Point for the Stephen C Smith Memorial Regatta which starts tomorrow. So Valentina Vix and I took the opportunity to go for a recreational sail to familiarize ourselves with the location. We managed to find the St. Marks Lighthouse and avoided both the natural oyster shelf and the alligators which reside in the marshes of the bay (phew - I will crap my pants if I see one of those while I'm windsurfing)!

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We also caught up with local Mark Powell out on the water and after we finished sailing we collected our registration package and beer truck wrist band. The evening was spent socializing with the locals and enjoying the fruits of the beer truck. We had a great evening meeting many of the locals, so much so that we were almost too late for dinner in Crawfordville. Thankfully San Marcos Mexican was open late (10pm) and we managed to grab a delicious meal to finish off a great day.

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Racing starts tomorrow, and it'll be great to see the wide range of boards on the water, including Windsurfer LT's, Mistral M1, Mistral Equipe's, Mistral Prodigy's, Kona's, Fanatic Ultra Cats and Fanatic Mega Cats.

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Today (Sunday) was the final day of the Stephen C. Smith Memorial Regatta here in Shell Point, Wakulla County, FL. Today we just had the one race which was a longer race to a buoy at the outer channel markers, then port to a short wing mark which you could round in either direction, then back to the buoy at the outer channel mark which we took to starboard and then back down the channel with the incoming tide to the Start/Finish line just off the beach.

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I got a great beach start on port tack from the port end of the line, easily crossing the fleet who were fighting the fast flowing income tide. From there I headed straight for the shallows to keep out of the tide all the way to the first mark. The light wind was fading in and out and swinging left and right 15-20 degrees, so I tacked on the knocks and kept to the shallows and out of the incoming tide, however as I made my last tack to lay the 1st mark, the race committee decided to pick up the mark to shorten the course, thankfully they dropped it very close to me, however I had to wait for them to drop the mark before I could round it. As I rounded it the race committee boat said don't go that high to the next mark, we are going to move it, so I altered my course, heading to where I hoped they were going to drop the mark, however I beat the committee boat to the spot and had to wait for them to again drop the mark in its new position before heading back to the 1st mark again (lucky I had a decent lead by this stage). I rounded the top mark to starboard and headed for the finish, running with the incoming tide in the channel with two guys on Kona 9.0m rigs and Valentina Vix not too far behind. Pumping all the way to the finish I managed to hold on for the long distance (I use that term very loosely, it's only relative to the very short courses from yesterday) win.

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Valentina pumped her way past the two Kona's for a Windsurfer LT 1st and 2nd with Mark Powell recovering very well from missing the start for the 3rd in the LT Fleet.

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We had a great weekend at the regatta and met some fantastic people. It was great to see windsurfing alive and well in the USA, including a fleet of 11 Windsurfer LT's, in fact there were even more Windsurfer LT's competing with larger rigs in the Limited fleet.

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Once again a huge thank you to Cody from Sandy Point Progressive Sports for the great support and for providing our charter boards during my trip over the past couple of weeks.

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Hats off to the organizers of the 52nd Stephen C Smith regatta for their enormous fund-raising effort for the fight against Cancer while running a super fun and social event.

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Valentina Vix

The race day event at Smith Regatta, held in Shell Point, Wakulla County, Florida, was highly successful. The presence of an alligator crossing the road at the entrance of the beach community did not pose a significant threat, whereas the availability of a beer trailer led to some instances of overdrinking. Me and John Doolan are overwhelmed with how friendly everyone is.

The Beach start line is one of a kind. The race committee is located under a colorful umbrella. A great number of windsurfers had turned up. Cody from Sandy Point Progressive sports has been extremely helpful to everyone.

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We sailed 5 races followed by a dinner in the Yach club, music at the beach and more beer!!! We had a full day!