I had to be at the SMYC by 07:00 so I got up early and left the Grand Case parking lot at 06:15. I’d neglected to account for traffic, or the lack thereof, since I arrived in just under 20 minutes rather than the 1 hour or more travel time that it normally takes to travel that distance. But fortunately they had coffee and croissants as well as other goodies laid out for the volunteers so I occupied myself by reducing their food surplus until it was time to board committee boat “B” and barge our way to the front of the queue lined up to exit the lagoon on the 08:00 bridge opening. We had a relatively large crew aboard the Robertson & Caine 440 catamaran and many of us were repeat volunteers (in other words, gluttons for punishment or recidivists).
After anchoring in the relatively calm waters on the outside edge of Simpson Baie our race officer, Rob, set up the start line and issued tasks for today’s starts. We had multihulls and the various bareboat classes as well as the relatively new “Lottery Class” to send off on their day’s courses and the work went well without a hitch, although identifying identical Moorings boats that different just in their barely-legible boat names and boat numbers wasn’t always easy in the mess at the start line.
We took a mooring to await the 15:00 inbound bridge opening and most of our crew departed on a water taxi. The bridge openings at the Heineken Regatta are always fun, with many boats jockeying for position inside and just in front of the bridge entrance channel. When no water is flowing past the rudder boats are not possible to steer and with inexperienced helmsmen this can make for some interesting situations. Our catamaran was easy to control despite the gusty winds because the two propellers are widely separated and one can steer the cat like a tank and ignore the rudders altogether.
Once inside we prepared the boat for a night’s sleep and I headed back to Grand Case to meet with Shaun and Wanita at Calmos Café. They’d had a fun day at the Orient Beach resort and had enjoyed the beach time. After a happy hour drink we decided to head straight to Marigot and to the Moroccan restaurant called “Marrakesh”. We arrived too early for dinner so walked around Marigot before having a fantastic and filling meal. The couscous and tajines were awesome and the ambiance inside the restaurant makes it seems like one has been teleported to Morocco!
Staying awake on the drive back to Grand Case was difficult for all of us and once back aboard I fell asleep almost immediately.
