Today was the final day of the 2014 Heineken Regatta and the winds had died overnight, making for a comfortable anchorage but not necessarily conducive to a fast and exciting regatta. The weather report wasn’t overly optimistic about the winds picking up and even the convective clouds forming over the hills of St. Martin were lacking their normal energy and vertical development. We set up the start line in winds of around 10 knots at most and the towards the end of the set of starts we had to postpone one start at the last minute for about 10-15 minutes during a period of exceptionally low winds. With few problems the classes all got started off on their (slow) way around the shortened race course and since we only had one set of races we quickly weighed Katzenellenbogen‘s anchor and headed for the finish line, located back on the Dutch Simpson Bay. We soon arrived in position and dropped anchor so that we could celebrate aboard and also watch the contestants cross the line. I had my first beer in 10 days, and it did taste very good!
Once the races were over we entered the melee of yachts jockeying for position to enter the lagoon during the special bridge opening and many of them were putting on shows for the “judges” watching from the balcony at the Simpson Bay Yacht Club. We had Elvis hanging from a bosun’s chair on the Gunboat Elvis and some of the boats had impromptu costumes arranged as well. Although we didn’t do anything special except blow our horn (I got some more air-time on the dual horns and pretty much emptied the air from the dive tank) we did have a number of very attractive ladies aboard so I gather that we got a very good score from our Heineken judges upon entry.
After we found our anchorage spot everyone departed our trusty start boat and repaired to our own boats or rooms in order to get prepared for the very big final party at Kim Sha beach. I shaved and showered and changed into fresh clothing and headed ashore around 19:00 so that I could be at the prize giving ceremonies and afterwards I wandered around the party area but the music wasn’t to my liking at all and I had a small meal at the Simpson Bay Yacht Club before heading back to my boat. The music was very loud from the boat and my neighbour had anchored very, very close so I lounged in the cockpit area until we drifted so close that we could actually shake hands so I mentioned across to the group in the cockpit that this wouldn’t work out and I turned on the engine to move the chain away (it was dead calm by this time) and with enough separation I went to sleep and tried to ignore the very bad music and even worse DJs. Considering the volume this was difficult but I was tired and the couple of beers also helped put me to sleep without having to resort to my earplugs.
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