Today was the second pre-race to the main event of the Antigua Sailing Week, the “Around The Island Race” and I joined Steve on Geoffrey Pidduck’s powerboat to run the pin end of the starts. The waves were high enough to make it quite uncomfortable aboard the powerboat since we were rolling about the start buoy most of the time and the occasional wafts of diesel fumes didn’t help much at all. But there were few starts and soon the boats were on their way around Antigua and we headed back ashore. The next task was to prepare our committee boat for the week ahead, getting the pole holders set up with cable ties and duct tape on the stanchions and otherwise preparing our boat. Since we’d done this before the tasks went rather quickly and soon the big “C” flag was hoisted to the top of the mast. Steve Parry had to do a briefing for the bareboat fleet at Nelson’s Dockyard and I joined him for that, the majority of this year’s bareboats seemed to be firmly in German hands thanks to KH&P’s diligent efforts. I went back to the boat for a bit and later on went back ashore to see the opening and prize giving ceremonies on the big stage at English Harbor and listen to some of the live music. Our committee boat team returned to our respective homes early, as tomorrow would be our first real work day and we wanted to be as rested as possible.
