Cloudy and Rainy
The weather has been atypical for weeks and today was no exception. There was cloud cover and rain forecast, and the forecast was unusually accurate. Thus began ASW Day 2.
Fortunately, we had sufficient wind. Although even this looked questionable for a while as we postponed starts while bands of nimbus wafted by. Despite these challenges, we were able to get all the racers off on their respective courses. Despite the odd grumbling from some, the majority of the racers were content. And I trust that all of the racers had fun.
One boat that didn’t have too much fun was the “NSA Challenger”. They had a mishap while sailing downwind. Their rudder parted ways with the boat and managed to puncture the hull. Despite taking on water and later losing their mast, both ABSAR and Maurice Underwater Services were on hand to prevent injuries and tow the boat back into the harbour.
Back Ashore
I had a bit of drama when returning to the dock. The port engine had been a bit difficult to start the first couple of days, but otherwise showed no problems. Yet when I tried to put it into reverse gear to push the catamaran onto the dock (and prevent us from hitting another dock), it failed. At first, I didn’t notice, because a DJ was playing very loud music ashore. But when the catamaran kept moving forward despite reverse gear, it became obvious. I couldn’t restart it and concentrated on docking with just one engine. Fortunately, we had already gotten two lines ashore, so there was no real problem, but it wasn’t a comfortable scenario, and I have visions of denting the committee boat. Even worse, I had lots of spectators…
Once ashore and after putting our committee catamarans away for the night, we opened up our first “happy hour” beverages and relaxed after the rigours of starting and finishing the contestants. We had gotten the refrigeration systems sorted out the previous day and this meant that we had cold beverages for consumption!
Dinner
After the daily prizegiving ceremonies for ASW Day 2, we once again were faced with a difficult choice of where to go for dinner. David convinced us to try a local Thai restaurant, Lemongrass, and this ended up being an excellent recommendation. We will surely be returning there.