Today we needed to make 2 races for each class work, which isn’t all that easy with 75 competitors and 10 classes that are finishing at the same time as others are starting, but it was accomplished with a minimum of problems and few boats were OCS’d (on-course-side of the start line before the race starts), although there was some confusion on the finish line with boats sailing through it to see the course board and while in start sequence.
After the races and after our post-racing happy hour we received a visit from the crew of “Painkiller III” who presented the committee boat with 3 bottles of sparkling wine! This was thankfully accepted and put in the cooler so that we’d have something to celebrate at tomorrow awards ceremony.
The evening saw us invited to Clarence House and I almost made it there. The event was “Casual Elegant” which meant I had to use the best of my attire on board – a nice and clean Polo Shirt, black jeans and closed shoes from which I’d scraped most of the mud off that had accrued while hiking. I showered, shaved and made myself presentable and went ashore to find that the vaunted shuttle service was absent; after waiting a while I had to return to the boat as I’d brought no money, just my invitation to the party. Once back aboard Zanshin and armed with my wallet I realized how little energy and motivation I had left and opted to miss this event after all.
