So what could possibly go wrong on my fifth trip to the Caribbean to do a couple of sailing regattas with On Deck? I thought this would be especially true, given I had a so much shorter way to fly from the UK than Australia. And I was really looking forwards to meeting up with my ski buddy Linda from Melbourne and sharing the delights of sailing and regatta racing. Hopefully, she’d become as keen as me about this sailing stuff. I was also looking forwards to some sunshine and warmth ‘mon’ amidst the emerald Caribbean seas and a pina colada or three!
Alas, smooth sailing it was not! My daily journal records the dramas of my latest Caribbean adventure.
Day 1: Arrive into Miami from London; brave traffic Jam and meet up with Linda in South Beach. Realise that I have booked accommodation for the St Thomas regatta wrong and have a series of phone calls to clarify and fix. At last sorted, and have a pleasant stroll through Miami, finishing with margaritas and pizza for dinner.
Day 2: Fly to St Thomas for the first regatta. Check into villa overlooking seas and yacht club. Catch up with our skipper, Steve and crew members Nick and Henry. I don’t remember anything going wrong this day, except for Linda leaving her reading glasses on the airplane.
Day 3: We head out early before the first race of the day to practice and show newbies like Linda the ropes of racing. We’re about to put a spinnaker up when a mini-hurricane hits and all the other boats are thrown into broaches or jibes and we’re saturated with rain. We lose a baton from the main sail and another from the jib. The life ring is also flung off the back of our boat. A support boat retrieves it, but gets too close to us when they hand it back. So when the first race starts we haven’t had a chance to practice spinnakers so can’t join in the spinnaker run to the first mark. Naturally, with these handicaps we don’t do as well as we might have in strong erratic breezes during the two races of the first day. We’re last over the finish line in both races and end up 8th on handicap out of 15 boats in our division. But we are determined to do better the next day.
Day 4: Again we head out early, this time to practice with the spinnaker. The big kite blowing out front makes our newbies feel a little nervous, but we’re ready for the first race. Steve manoeuvres us into first place over the line and we’re tacking competitively at the front of the fleet towards some rocks called the cow and calf… jagged rocks poking above the sea with more rocks just under the surface… when Steve calls a tack away from the rocks, so everyone is ready and he calls the tack but nothing happens… then he yells for us to dump the sails… then it’s clear we have no steerage and we’re still headed to the rocks so Steve starts the engine in an effort to slow us down… and we’ve slowed down to 4 knots, and Steve calls for us all to brace ourselves. I know what is coming as I’m in the pit so hold on; Linda gets cannoned into the bulk head as we hit the rocks hard with a loud thump. Eventually we float off the rocks and are towed ashore by the first aid boat who administer ice to Linda’s badly hurt (and newly fixed) front teeth and jaw. At this stage, I’m really thinking that Linda is loving this sailing gig! Later that day we hear that the chain that helps you steer a boat had slipped off, which is why we had no steerage. And now the rudder is damaged too much to do any more sailing. Thus ends our St Thomas regatta experience.
Day 5: Linda and I decide to explore the island of St John so we catch the ferry for the short trip over to the island. When we arrive we’re convinced by a local man spruiking to arriving tourists to rent a car. We follow this man to a smoothie shop run by Thomas. Thomas organises us a car for the day and we head off to explore the beaches and sights of St John. We’re firmly on land here, so what could go wrong? We drive up along the hills above the beaches and stop at a lookout to enjoy the view. As I walk around the car I notice that we’re missing the spare tyre on the back. But we’re not driving far so what can go wrong? We drive around viewing gorgeous beaches amongst much lusher vegetation than we’ve noticed on other islands. We pick a beach to come back to after lunch. We find this wonderful restaurant right on the beach across the other side of the island – Miss Lucy’s. There’s a jazz band playing and we pick a table under the tree right near the water. Linda’s jaw and teeth are still sore so she doesn’t eat much, but we both enjoy pina coladas and the music. We decide it’s time to leave and spend the last few hours on our chosen beach when we find that our back tyre is not only flat but shredded. Naturally, Thomas did not give us any paper work and there’s no taxi service over this part of the island. Staff at Miss Lucy’s help us track down Thomas and eventually arrange a taxi for us. Then when we’re back at Thomas’ smoothie shop he refunds us the taxi fare and gives us enough to get taxis to and from the beach. As a bonus he throws in two free smoothies each; the last laced with rum. So all’s not too bad at the end of the day!
Day 6: We head to Tortola on the ferry and check into our villa for the British Virgin Island (BVI) races. Steve assures us our boat, Spirit of Athena, will be ready for the next day’s racing. We have pina coladas at the yacht club and catch up with Girls On Deck from previous years: Kay and Colette. I’m looking forwards to getting back on the boat and racing, but I’m not sure what Linda’s looking forwards to…?
Day 7-8: The first two days of the Spring Regatta have low breezes and sunny skies. And nothing too bad happens except that we lose steerage again and Steve is careful about our starts. The newbies are also feeling nervous about spinnaker work so we don’t use the spinnaker and just get used to the racing. I’m thinking maybe Linda is beginning to enjoy sailing a bit more? On the evening of the second day of racing, we head to this great restaurant over the over side of the island. We move the table to the beach front and sit in the sand and all drink and eat too much before heading back to our villa for an impromptu dancing party. Now Linda must surely be liking this??
Day 9: Today is a lay day, which means we all relax around on the pool and on the beach and do some snorkelling.
Day 10/11/12: British Virgin Islands spring regatta proper! The next 3 days are filled with lots of wind, and some broaches and Chinese jibes as we attempt to fly that spinnaker. On the third race of day 2, we feel like we’re getting the hang of it and put the spinnaker up as we head down for an around the islands race. Steve calls for a jibe, so Kay goes forward to pull the cord on the spinnaker pole. She pulls and pulls but it won’t release until suddenly the whole pole comes down and hits her head with a resounding whack and there is blood all over the deck. She has a large gash in her head and we pull out of the race and seek medical assistance. Luckily Kay is fine for the next and last day of racing and we finish the two regattas with a great day of racing where we do better than we have all week. We fly the spinnaker, we jibe and we race and despite the windy conditions, nothing goes wrong! YAY. Until I leave my expensive sailing sunglasses at the pool later that day… never to be seen again.
Day 13 – Linda and I get up early to catch our very early flight to San Juan and then to Miami. After boarding the flight we hear that some of the bags bound for domestic flights didn’t make it due to weight issues. I’m not worried as surely we’ll be fine, we’re going to Miami! But alas no, San Juan and Miami are both part of the USA and ‘domestic’ and our bags did not make it! We get to Miami and after vigorous arguments, American Airlines agrees to try and find our bags and deliver to the hotel… so we head to the hotel for some relaxation. Alas, by 10.30 our bags have still not turned up and I have excruciating pins and needles down my arm. I’ve had to walk around all day in thongs (all my other shoes are in my bag) and I also have blisters on my feet. By midnight our bags had finally turned up, whew. One bonus was that when arguing with American Airlines, we decided to check lost luggage and Linda found her reading glasses…
Day 14 – Linda and I don’t venture far from the hotel… we’re feeling a little jinxed. We relax by the wonderful pool at the Raleigh Hotel. I go for a swim in the ocean. And then we go our separate ways. Linda assures me she had a ‘great’ time and will do sailing again, though perhaps not racing…. But I wonder if she’s game enough to holiday with me ever again?
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