The first week of August saw a host of activities, on both land and sea, all packaged around the Carriacou Regatta. .These ranged from Karioki competitions, to Mexican dominoes, on land, and Round the Island keelboat races , as well as the all Island open workboat competition. Most of the land based activities were to raise funds for the Carriacou Childrens Education Fund, and all the yachties a do their bit to help the kids.
We had heard all about the local, no handicap, open workboat sailing races, and were on Paradise beach, ready and waiting for the 11.00am Le Mans style start.. By 11.45 there were still no boats on the beach!!. As the local beach pub barlady explained to me, “No problem mon, dis 11 ‘oclock Caribbean time.! All de boats dey sail frum Bequia, Union, Petit St Vincent, Windward to get here. Be here soon” They started arriving at about 12, some of them having sailed 30 odd miles down from Bequia, just for a morning race! With inter island pride at stake, and good prize money, they take the races very seriously. The boats are beautifully prepared , and are 22 to 30 ft, and crewed by 6 to 8 BIG guys. Each boat needs at least two huge men out on trapeze, as they carry big fully battened lateen mainsails, and genoas, with only a drop down centerboard. Human ballast is everything! The last crew in were given 15 minutes to rest, and time to buy another case of beer, before the race was called.
We had heard all about the local, no handicap, open workboat sailing races, and were on Paradise beach, ready and waiting for the 11.00am Le Mans style start.. By 11.45 there were still no boats on the beach!!. As the local beach pub barlady explained to me, “No problem mon, dis 11 ‘oclock Caribbean time.! All de boats dey sail frum Bequia, Union, Petit St Vincent, Windward to get here. Be here soon” They started arriving at about 12, some of them having sailed 30 odd miles down from Bequia, just for a morning race! With inter island pride at stake, and good prize money, they take the races very seriously. The boats are beautifully prepared , and are 22 to 30 ft, and crewed by 6 to 8 BIG guys. Each boat needs at least two huge men out on trapeze, as they carry big fully battened lateen mainsails, and genoas, with only a drop down centerboard. Human ballast is everything! The last crew in were given 15 minutes to rest, and time to buy another case of beer, before the race was called.
No count down, no race flags,…. Just a blast on the Vuvusela (yes,it really was taking the place of a conch shell) and a bellow, and they’re off… down the beach , to launch, drop the centre board and go! The race was around most of Carriacou, past Windward, across to PSV, back to Windward , and back to the finish at Hillsborough, a distance of about 20miles, which they cover in about 1hr 30min ! Great spectacle, and great skills!
In terms of our land activities, we were coerced into a Mexican train Double12s Domino’s game, with a bunch of Americans. The game proved to be a mixture of skill, luck, and shit stirring! It came, of course, quite naturally to Mary and I, and we did quite well! We also met a number of extremely interesting fellow cruisers. One fellow, who was nick named “Rocket Scientist “ all day, particularly when he screwed up or got sneaky, turned out to be just that! Gordon just happened to be the chief computer programmer in charge of Nasa, when John Glen did the moon walk!. US Presidential citations and all!!
Maintenance is an ongoing chore aboard, and Mary decided it was time for me to strip and repaint the toilet seat and lid. Having carefully taken it all apart, and painted the tops with my best International Brightside paint, I decided that the easiest way to paint the undersides, was to re assemble it and fit it back to the toilet, paint , and close it so that the wet paint was not exposed. We had been asked out for the afternoon, so it would be dry by the time we got back to the boat. Mary, at the last minute decided that a quick trip to the heads was required before we left, and having ascertained that the seat was dry, on top….. she assumed the position….only to find when she was done, that she now possessed a perfect white waterbuck –like bum ! I was of course abused and reprimanded, but also required to remedy matters. This required her to present her rear in a rather undignified manner, while I undertook a delicate and jointly hysterical paint removing challenge !!
The joys of a cruising life!
In terms of our land activities, we were coerced into a Mexican train Double12s Domino’s game, with a bunch of Americans. The game proved to be a mixture of skill, luck, and shit stirring! It came, of course, quite naturally to Mary and I, and we did quite well! We also met a number of extremely interesting fellow cruisers. One fellow, who was nick named “Rocket Scientist “ all day, particularly when he screwed up or got sneaky, turned out to be just that! Gordon just happened to be the chief computer programmer in charge of Nasa, when John Glen did the moon walk!. US Presidential citations and all!!
Maintenance is an ongoing chore aboard, and Mary decided it was time for me to strip and repaint the toilet seat and lid. Having carefully taken it all apart, and painted the tops with my best International Brightside paint, I decided that the easiest way to paint the undersides, was to re assemble it and fit it back to the toilet, paint , and close it so that the wet paint was not exposed. We had been asked out for the afternoon, so it would be dry by the time we got back to the boat. Mary, at the last minute decided that a quick trip to the heads was required before we left, and having ascertained that the seat was dry, on top….. she assumed the position….only to find when she was done, that she now possessed a perfect white waterbuck –like bum ! I was of course abused and reprimanded, but also required to remedy matters. This required her to present her rear in a rather undignified manner, while I undertook a delicate and jointly hysterical paint removing challenge !!
The joys of a cruising life!
No comments:
Post a Comment