Big sleep last night, broken only by shouts from an American boat nearby as the crew headed ashore at midnight: "You hold the fort Trent!"
Also a nap this afternoon, a shower, a couple hundred pages of a new novel, and I'm feeling a new woman. Classics Week was fabulous. Tara and Stewart are more fun than kittens, birthday parties and Christmas, and they can tack headsails like hopped-up grizzly bears with opposable thumbs. Power, style, speed, wowser. Tara occasionally dabbed her upper lip discreetly with a sleeve. Thank goodness for those long windward tacks, or they might have been too tired to party.
But man, those windward courses killed us in the races. Four races, millions of miles of close-hauled tacking. On the few reaches, we were out in front, giving all the boats in our class a run for it. We even got some really good pictures of the front of the boats that were behind us for a change, but then we'd round the mark and head up for the windward leg of the course, and it was, so long fellas. No matter, we were stylish and had a great time.
We went to parties every day, sometimes two. And they weren't of the beer tent variety: there was the welcome party; a party for the single-handers; a wine tasting; a Pimm's party on the lawn, complete with cream tea and cucumber sandwiches; a 110th birthday party for one of the local boats; a musical night; a champagne party; a lobster and rum punch party sponsored by Portland Yacht Services from Maine; the gig racing and cream tea, and the final prize-giving night at Nelson's Dockyard. All in five days. You can gauge the depth of our fatigue when you factor in four races averaging about 4-5 hours each. But what a great time. Everybody talks to everybody, and if you're wearing a Nova Scotia tartan kilt, you really get to meet a lot of people. Funny, they all want to know what you've got underneath. We alternated our answers, and we only flashed a couple of times. Once, memorably, on our second pass of the reviewing stand during the Parade of Sail. We had the cockpit speakers playing our CD of the Shantymen from Yarmouth, and when someone shouted "what's under yer kilts???", we went for it. Tara and I had proper lady underpants on, but the fellas were wearing our flowered bikini pants.
We went into the photographer's place this afternoon to look at some of the professional shots of Nancy D, and when we said which boat we were from, he cracked up and said, "Want to see my screensaver?" The underpants shot.
The kilts were a big hit. When the kilts went on and the Nova Scotia flag went up the main on the pigstick, the Bluenosers started coming out of the woodwork. Young guys that were working as crew, tourists, cruisers, a few Newfs, lots of other Canadians, we talked to dozens and dozens of people strolling the docks.
The day after Tara and Stewart arrived was the Concourse d'Elegance, the beauty contest. Kim Saunders told us to clean the boat like "your first mother-in-law was coming." Nancy was looking snazzy as hell, and that morning, everybody polished and tidied and dressed up in our kilts. There were judges going by on the docks making notes, and then one came aboard and had a look around in the late morning. I checked with the yacht club, and they said, you're clear, go ahead and let the crew mess things up. So we had lunch, drank a bottle of champagne (just for kicks), read our new magazines, didn't do the dishes, and got ready to go to the beach. Then Stewart sticks his head down the companionway to tell Tara and I that the judges were back. I said, Stewart, you bastard, but he said, no, really. Tara and I went into overdrive, and tidied everything up again, and two guys went through again, and another judge chatted with Randy on deck about all the people and boats they both knew.
Then we went to the beach. That night we picked up second prize in the Concourse d'Elegance, and it's not just for our racing class, but for all boats built after 1950. Gotta check how many that was, but third prize was Metani, and first was Stormvogel. Are we chuffed?!!
The races were exciting. There were bits where there were boats, huge boats, medium boats, small boats, all zooming around in close quarters, and there were some great photos taken. Guest crew Bill and Leona (race 2) and Dave and Michelle (race 4) took some great pictures. Before the start for race 4, there was a horrific collision that resulted in a small Dutch boat being dismasted. We were close by, heard the shout, and Dave started shooting pictures immediately. We handed off a CD of the photos to the captain yesterday, and Dave's quick shots will make a big difference in resolving the insurance issues. It was an upsetting way to start a race, and there were two other collisions later in the day: Kate and Charm III, and two of the big J boats - Ranger and Velsheda "touched" and both retired from the race shortly after.
We managed to stay out of the really close calls, but we were more than close enough for my personal space issues. Randy kept us out of trouble, and every day, backed us into the dock at the Antigua Yacht Club with skill and aplomb. Never failed to impress the onlookers. Particularly the owners of the incredibly expensive boats on either side of us.
Prize-giving night, we went out for dinner at the Gallery, ate fabulous tapas, and sauntered over to English Harbour. Best dressed went to the crowd of pirates on the purple Cornwall (Cornish?) Lugger, Veracity, and they also got the Spirit of the Regatta. Lots of other prizes, but we went home satisfied with our beauty contest win. You just can't race with the big boys and expect to win when you're racing your house. Beautiful house though!
Tara and Stewart are home in one piece, we've had a couple of nights of 10 hours straight in the bunk, and things are back to semi-normal. It was an absolutely great regatta - well organized, incredible free stuff (tshirts, hats, rum, magazines, croissants/juice/newspapers delivered to the boat every morning!), and snazzy parties with hundreds of friendly people. Having Stewart and Tara here was the icing on the cake, and they're responsible for the kilts and crew shirts and so much more. They really made the whole experience, um, FUN. And now that we've done it, we never have to race again.
I'll post a million more photos as soon as I can.
