During the hectic race week I had visions of today, post-race day 1, as one where I could kick back and relax either ashore or on board and do nothing at all. Well, that was not to be. Both committee boats had to be returned to the Sunsail base, the bigger catamaran “Buckaroo” that was used for the other committee boat had to be returned first as it was going out on charter the next day and had to be cleaned up and brought back to spec by the base crew. We also had to get rid of all the stuff that was left aboard and ensure that the flags were removed, the halyards and rigging returned to functional condition and the other post-race tasks. Hans helped me get the big one off the dock, then I took it around to English Harbour by myself, calling Sunsail on the VHF when I was in the protected anchorage. One of the people from the base came out in a dinghy to help me and we set up the lines and fenders so that we could go to the fuel dock. We ended up circling around for almost an hour while waiting for a large wooden yacht to get off the dock – they’d completed fueling but were in no hurry at all to cast off…
Once Buckaroo was fueled and docked, I returned to Falmouth harbour and got the next boat – and Sabina had a much harder time of slamming into the headwinds and waves for the 1 mile at sea to English; where the bigger cat had idled along at 3 knots, I was flat-out at 2200RPM on both engines and barely going over 2 knots due to the slamming and windage. But in the end I made it and the fuel dock had already closed (14:00 closing time on Saturday) and the Sunsail tech and I anchored the boat close to the docks as they were full of charter boats.
I puttered around for an hour or two aboard Zanshin before it was time to head back to the AYC and the volunteer party. The Sushi restaurant next door provided food and I got my special portion of Kyuri- or Kappa-maki; which is a simple cucumber roll with no fishy bits inside. This was wonderful and I gorged myself on the fine sushi and powerful wasabi/soy sauce. The party ended rather early, mainly because everyone present was a bit burned out from the weeks events.
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