Fun, Sun & Rum all in One.... Our trip up from St Barts brought much delight as Fluffy spotted a new set of rocks that suddenly disappeared, leaving one word to come out of her mouth 'WHALES'. Can you believe that after all this time of seeing none suddenly they were appearing everywhere. After losing sight of it can you imagine the excitement on the disco when it reappeared some 15minutes later about 5 metres from the boat, then another one popped up next to it AND then another two, oh my goodness I was nearly crying with excitement. We circled them, it was amazing then they all took deep breaths and headed for StKitts. As you can imagine not much else came out of my mouth for the next hour although I did manage to get the whale and dolphins guide to try and figure out what they were, we think they were pilot whales. By this time it was lunchtime and Matt was trying to persuade me to go make lunch, so I told him he couldn't see anymore whales until I came back, then two more appeared behind the boat, I was almost on the floor with laughter and delight...
We arrived into Simpson Bay where there was a mass of boats anchored. While sitting there waiting for the bridge to open to allow incoming boats to enter the lagoon, Anthony appeared, he is one of Matt's friends from the Solent, so we arranged to meet him that night at Simpson Bay Yacht Club. It was great to catch up and again hear how bad the weather is in the UK!! On Wednesday we had to register so we spent a few hours in St Martin Yacht Club, basically a shack but with only 2 walls!!
On Thursday we were up early as our friends were arriving and we were going racing again - YEAH. We off loaded the Disco into a car so she was once again fit to be a racing boat! We raced off at 5pm to meet Mel and Graddo at the Yacht Club where we shared a few beers and stories while waiting for Scotty and Hutch, they arrived around 7 with stories of the new mainsail still being in Gatwick, we were all disappointed but really I think we all wanted a good time in great company, winning isn't everything if you didn't have fun. So the first party was well underway and we thought we should join it, as the six of us walked down to the dinghy dock, Matt and I were devasted to see Burn Rubber, our dinghy, half deflated, we all piled in anyway, obviously we'd all had a few beers, the water was coming in over all sides, the only dry part of my trousers was on my tummy, we were all drenched, Mel's bag was brimming with water. We all laughed real hard and headed up for a few more beers and BBQ. The others decided to get a taxi back while Matt and I took our wounded dinghy home.
We met the following morning on the dock at 6.30AM, to get out of the lagoon on the 7AM opening, we had a few practising tacks and then up went the spinnaker and it was all coming together like clockwork. The race around the island was excellent and we pulled off a few smart moves, even beating upwind in the Carribean is enjoyable! We were pleased with our 8th as we have alot of bigger boats in our class and its a different handicap system here so we weren't sure how we would do. Arriving back at the marina we knew we had to fix Burn Rubber, then I noticed that one of her plugs that holds the air in was unscrewed, so it looks like we were sinking due to an error rather than she had a puncture. Whoops! That night we went to the party again although we were all a little tired as it had been a long day, so we decided we'd party harder in Marigot the next night.
Going through the 9AM bridge that day definately was better, and the day was throughly enjoyable, our special moment came on the downwind leg, when the boat behind us was gaining on us, and Matt was telling me to trim harder and I was telling him to steer faster, the boat behind decided to hoist its jib and then head for the buoy, we gybed for it and when we next turned back we'd walked all over them.... With a move like that we should have come 1st... Marigot the party destination for the night is on the French side of StMartin, we managed to get ourselves squeezed into a restaurant where they where cooking fresh lobster and shrimps the size of a UK lobster on the BBQ, it was a gorgeous dinner, when all the food had gone down we headed out to the stage where we danced the night away. We had to get a water taxi back to the boat, while waitng we bumped into Brains, a friend of Scotty's, and Ally, Matt's old flatmate from Hamble, we all had a good laugh when the guy who was organising them asked where we wanted to go we said Disco Inferno, he told us that he couldn't take us to a disco only to a boat, he found it quite funny when he eventually understood it was the name of our boat!
Sunday, our last day of racing and Scotty's birthday. The wind had been blowing in gusts all night, so I wasn't surprised that we put a reef in and put up the number 3 jib. Scotty and I also put on spray jackets as we were getting soaked on the rail before the race started then once the gun went it seemed to calm down a little. We again showed off our spinnaker skills when everyone was broaching all over the place and some didn't put up their kite's at all, it was the same boat we'd wasted the day before, they must be loving the sight of the disco transom!!! Once back ashore we cracked open the bubbly to celebrate Scotty's birthday and was also a toast to such a fine weekend. Unfortunately the prizegiving and final party was a bit of a bore so we left there after a few hours of nearly sending us all to sleep and headed back for a few cocktails. While the crew relaxed on the beach, Matt and I put the Disco back together again, when we went over to the hotel we were pleased to see the mainsail had finally turned up, so looks like we'll try it out at the Rolex at the end of the month. They decided for a final supper for Hutch and Scotty we'd head back to Marigot where there seemed to be alot more going on. We lucked out again and ate another delicious meal and drunk plenty of fine wine. On Tuesday we said goodbye to Scotty and Hutch but only temporarily as they'll be back in a few weeks, I think they were a little sad as they left Grado and Mel with us and we were heading to St Barts the next day.
Our 15mile sail back to StBart was enjoyable, far more relaxing than all that racing. That afternoon we all took a dip in the clear water that surrounds the island. Thursday was a strange day as we encountered several rain squalls, but Mel still enjoyed the shopping and the red wine. That night we headed to a pizza place where they had a live band. And yes Mel sang, only a few lines of Come Together but that isn't one of her songs!!! I'll never hear Don't cry for me Argentina without thinking of her again! She celebrated her last night in the Caribbean by sleeping on deck sadly the rain didn't share her plan and finally moved down below after a sudden full on downpour that soaked her and her sheet to the skin! So Friday we said more goodbyes, its always sad saying goodbye, but must be sadder for everyone else as they are going back to the UK at least we get to stay here!
Revised -- Sunday 10 March 2002
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