Guest appearances from the Director, the Count, our new friend Katie & April's Disco resident Lorna.... Clearing into West End was all straight forward, Bob went to check into his Hotel leaving Duncan, Matt & myself to have beer o'clock before all meeting back up for dinner. While in Customs this speedboat had been racing up and down, and the officer that was dealing with us was getting quite annoyed moaning that he was going to kill someone. Back on the boat, Matt was cleaning the transom while standing in the dinghy, Duncan was reading and I was opening the beers. Duncan points out that the guy on the speedboat is coming back again, his engine roars so it would be difficult not to know he's on his way, suddenly I hear Duncan swear and as I look up the speedboat is heading straight at Disco and could only have been 30meters away, then the whole boat lifted out of the water, headed for the sky, flipped over, crashed back into the sea upside down and completely disintergrated!!!! I don't think any of us have seen anything like it, it was like a movie stunt. Duncan jumped into the dinghy with Matt and Burn Rubber was first on the scene, Yeah Burn Rubber International Rescue! They pulled the boy out of the water, luckily a doctor appeared in the next dinghy so they passed him over and headed back to the Disco, while others were helping to pick up boat pieces and take the hull and engine to shore. My heroes...
On Wednesday Matt and I found ourselves back in St Thomas as we forgot the crew shirts for the regatta, then raced back to Nanny Cay for a quick dip in the pool and ready for Lorna's arrival. Chat, chat, chat was all that went on during dinner as we all caught up on the gossip. Thursday was practise day, and we also managed to get in some snorkelling and lunch at Fat Hog Bobs. The Regatta Village opened that night so it was BBQ for all as well as a few beers to wash it down. We also took a group decision to take on an extra member of crew to replace Marc the Swimmer who couldnt make it and to spread the work. Katie was introduced to us by the ownwer of Cold Beer, she teaches sailing around the Virgin Islands so she was willing to help out where told. Well we certainly needed the extra hands it was sooooooo hot out there, I think we all sweated like we'd been running in a sauna!! Despite 2 port/starboard incidents we came 3rd and 4th in the two races, and were lying 3rd overall. More heat was waiting on Saturday and the downwind legs were verging on unbearable. Another port/starboard incident started the first race and I won't even bother going there, we took them to the protest room that evening as they refused to take their penalty turn, and then tried all sorts of stories to say they were in the right??? WHATEVER!
An unfortunate 2nd race saw us finish with a 5th which made us 4th overall at the end of the day. Sunday was going to be tough as we were to battle ourselves back into third, well how unlucky could we get, NO WIND again, and they cancelled the last days racing and we were stuck with a 4th, oh well, instead we went over to the Caves on Norman Island for some ace snorkelling, the moment we jumped in we were surrounded by small yellow and black fish, they reminded me of Flounder from The Little Mermaid, however they were quite aggressive thinking we had food, I taught a few of them a lesson and tried to catch them, they then kept a further distance from me, it was quite amazing to turn around and see a huge shoal of fish behind us. Lunch was had at Willie Ts, a barge in a secluded bay, it was rampacked and everyone was wasted. That night we headed off to Bomba's Surf Shack, known to us after our visit as Porn Shack... We were all relieved that the BBQ was off, its famous for its full moon party which is basically an orgy from what the photos looked like, with girls getting free t-shirts for getting naked! West End was where we ate instead with what has to be the worse waitress in the world, everything was just too much to ask, that included a menu!
Monday wasn't the nicest of days, Duncan went off to dive on HMS Rhone, a mail ship that sunk around 1852, while Lorna, Matt & I spent the day in the Marina. That night we headed off to Bob's resort for dinner and had a feast of lobster, it was absolutely gorgeous from beginning to end. We said our goodbyes to Bob that night and Duncan in the morning. Now its just the three of us hanging out in the Virgin Islands and relaxing once more until we head to StMartin, 90miles upwind!!!
I guess I can't live in Paradise everyday...
Revised -- Wednesday 10th April 2002
Carry on to Disco's delivery to Antigua
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