Have you ever been in a team where almost every one of the other players could have been your child? That’s if you’d remembered to have children of course!
Well, that’s how I felt when I boarded The Spirit of Venus, a 40.7ft beneteau owned by On Deck Racing, at Charlotte Amalie harbour in St Thomas, one of the US Virgin Islands.
The crew and the skipper are all in their 20s or very early 30s, and I wonder as we venture out the harbour to practice skills if my much older knees and body are up for it. A mother and baby dolphin play in our wake as we leave the harbour moving past city-scale cruise ships to practice tacking up into the wind.
Thankfully, it soon becomes clear to me that while youth is definitely on their side, experience is on mine. Other than the skipper, I am the most experienced racer on board, which both reassures and troubles me given I’d only been doing this racing gig for about six years.
But, over the next two days of practicing off St Thomas yacht club, it is clear that what my young team mates lack in experience they definitely make up for in enthusiasm and ability to learn quickly. And Harry, our young UK skipper, not only has awesome helming skills, he also knows how to teach. Unlike most other skippers I’ve sailed with, he also almost never yells. Even when you make a mistake, he’s encouraging!
At the end of two practice days, I am very glad to welcome my friend Kay from Antigua, an experienced racer who I first sailed with 4 years ago, and am looking forwards to the next 3 days of racing.
Kay and I stay at Two Sandals on the Beach, a small bed and breakfast only a kilometre away from the Yacht Club where Venus is moored on a buoy. However, walking is out of the question as there is no verge and cars race along narrow roads. So we soon strike up a relationship with Roy the taxi man, who appears to love older women – even when they are wet and soggy.
And so the racing begins. Unfortunately, we are in a racing division where the other boats are bigger and faster and most days we come last or towards last. But we enjoy ourselves and the wonderful Virgin Islands scenery over the three days. I actually enjoy having too much to do in the pit – working on strings and trimming the headsails and kite. No rest for the old and wicked!
Every day after the race has finished, Cheyenne, our intrepid first mate shimmies down to connect our boat to the mooring buoy (we forgot the boat hook), and we celebrate with a Carrib beer, or more often as the week progresses, a rum and ting. Ting is a Caribbean soft drink made from grapefruit, which is delicious with local rum or vodka.
And before we drink too much, most of us also dive in for a swim, before partying the night away at the yacht club or a nearby club.
Too soon the regatta is over and we bid farewell to Cheyenne, Geoff and Fred. But luckily for Kay and me, we will soon be joined by other friends to enjoy the British Virgin Islands Spring Regatta, just an islands or so away.
For more information about Caribbean sailing opportunities: www.ondecksailing.com
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