Today is the last day of the Heineken Regatta 2015 and our team is in the groove and prepared to make things go smoothly. Mark came aboard my boat at 7AM and we had some fresh cappuccino from my coffee machine rather than the somewhat diluted and bitter brew served ashore. After we’d tanked up on caffeine we proceeded to the start boat. While I’d gotten a good night’s sleep (except for the loud music at 3AM), Lotte (Wietske’s daughter) had been out all night and had only managed 2 hours of sleep – which probably made for a very long day for her!
We only had one set of starts to do but the constant wind shifts made for a difficult choice for Nancy. To exacerbate the wind problem some of the starts got hit with short-lived wind shifts that had them tacking on the start line to get an optimal course line. The competitors were also used to their boats, the crew and the conditions and this made for some closer starts than the days before and we had a number of boats that crossed the line early and were required to return to the line as a penalty. Not all of them returned, which means that their whole race day was ruined since their scores are not counted.
After we’d started all of our boats on their last racing journey, we motored back and anchored about 200 yards behind and to the side of the finish boat so that we could watch the racers come through the line. This was great entertainment and a lot of fun, marred only by one competitor mistaking us for the finish boat (despite the fact that we were not flying a blue flag) and they did not pass between the finish boat and the finish mark; as they passed and asked why they didn’t get a whistle! After being informed that we were not the finish boat, they circled and weaved through the other finishers to go back through the correct line. As the passed a second time we were treated to hysterical screams by an irate woman (I won’t call her a lady) aboard that racer and I trust that she just got carried away by the heat of the moment rather than being like that at other times.
Once we’d gotten the committee boat turned back into a normal charter catamaran by removing all of our race appendages we were finished for the day. Mark and I got some of the remaining items and I now have more Coca-Cola in my fridge than I’ve drunk in the past 10 years so I am hoping that whatever guests I get aboard will help me reduce this ballast. Tomorrow Mark and I will return the charter boat to Sunsail base in Oyster Pond and that will be the end of the Heineken Regatta for us. Oh, wait – I just remembered that there will be a volunteer party sometime as well 🙂
I went aboard Zanshin in the afternoon to work on the pictures and figure out what I was going to do with my battery bank, and at 19:00 I flagged down a water taxi and went to the latter half of the prize giving at Kim Sha beach. The stage seems to get bigger every year and the sound system probably drew as much power as an average town, the bass sounds were felt rather than merely heard. I watched part of the show and then ended up at the volunteer tent for a while and had my dinner (a couple of slices of cold, but tasty, pizza). At about 22:00 I realized that I was fading fast and wouldn’t make it to the mainline act of “Kool and the Gang” so I returned to the boat and was soon fast asleep.
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