2013-05-03

Today was the final day, number 5, of the Antigua Sailing Week and it came very close to becoming a no-race day due to light wind conditions. The weather forecast was borderline and had the winds come according to WindGuru and other online weather prognostication systems it would have been day ashore for everyone, but once we were on station the winds at the surface were between 3 and 7 knots and the wind speeds at the masthead were more constant and higher at 5-6 knots.
After measuring the variable directions for a good hour our Race Officer, Alfred, finally decided on where to set the start marker and, by doing so, implied that we would indeed be having a final race on this wonderful Caribbean day. The starts all went well except the final one, where we delayed it and reset the mark in order to make it a fair start as then winds had backed a bit. After the final start of the day it was decided that we’d shorten the course and had to race at speed on the catamaran in order to make it in time to finish the first competitors who were completing the race. We made it, with only seconds to spare, and were on station to mark the finish times of the first yachts coming in. We then had a lull and anchored in 160 feet of water (my hands and arms ached from preparing the anchor rode) but we didn’t drag at all despite the deep waters and finished all the classes without a hitch.
I didn’t get as much opportunity today to take finish line pictures, since I had duties aboard (we lost James and Carrie who had to zip off to finish the big boats at the original finish line) but I did at least manage to photograph a couple of boats.
After the races I retired to Zanshin to edit some of the pictures and get away from all the excitement at the docks. I was listening to blues music while editing the first day’s race picture when I heard an awful noise coming