Consistent – For all the races except one we were in 3rd. So 3 out of 4 for the regatta. Check out the video by Cowes TV on which I was interviewed.  The result was a lot of stick from the guys and their new knickname for me is Gwenth (as in Paltrow)!

Photo by Ingrid Abery

The crew are slowly dispersing and today we only had 9 people on the boat as 4 had to go home. Needless to say there was a lot of running around and people doing multiple jobs. Luckily we were able to pick up Rob from Latitude 38 to sail with us for the two races today as grinder. Now it is time to pack up the boat and take her out of the water while I head off back to the bay until the 18th. Looking forward to seeing my nephew and nieces – roll on wednesday.

We raced up to Virgin Gorda around Virgin Gorda and back on tuesday, wednesday and thursday. Our results were a mixed bag. Today we did four races in Francis Drake Channel and were 3rd in all 4 races.

We are staying up at Breeze Haven again which has a view of the race course it is a great place to stay the kitchen has the best view of anyone I have every been in. Across the water is Deadmans chest, Salt Island, Norman Island and in the distance St Croix. Today the boys helped create a feast of salmon cakes with wasabi, ginger mayonnaise sauce for starters, a ceasar salad with homemade dressing and croutons, french fries, pork loin on the bbq marinaded in rosemary, lemon, garlic and olive oil. Dessert was brownies again with chocolate ice cream. The boys are stuffed and partied so much last night they have decided to stay in.

Tomorrow another 4 races so early to bed as I have to dive the boat first thing.

11:30pm last night I was on my back under the bulb of Yeoman with a long board sanding down the fairing job after a very long day.

Up early to load the boat and leave by 8:30 from St Thomas. 3 hour transit to Nanny Cay Marina where we unloaded at the dock and cleaned the boat inside cleared customs and immigration registered to race and moved to the haul out slip all by 1:30pm. 

Getting into the haul out requires everyone out on the end of the boom and a rib to haul us over with the halyard. Once we are past C dock we then have to moved a powerboat off the dock and walk ourselves along the dock, we then have a foot and half of water under us to get to the haul out slip.  

By 4pm we had undone the bolts  holding the bulb on the fin and had the keel off checked for damage and then rebedded the bolts and tightened the nuts back on. We needed some expanding foam to put around the nuts so that we could then fair over the bolts. Finding  a can of spray foam was not possible so we ended up with a two pack solution which was messy to say the least!

Some grinding and two fills later it was time to leave for dinner and let the epoxy harden. Then back for some fun on my back with a longboard and a quick paint with the 545 primer before putting her back in the water in time for racing this morning.

I am now in Leverick Bay after an upwind slog in the rain but the location is worth it – we are at the poorer mans Bitter End. I was even able to have an afternoon nap as I had a storming headache. Time for bed and up again early for a race around Virgin Gorda.

Rolex is over and we are moving onto BVI tomorrow with a large job list.  Again the conditions were beautiful and challenging. Within one short leg there were three different ”races”. We were consistently in 4th so unsurprisingly ended up in 4th.

Photo by Ingrid Abery

As an aside I just learned while typing this post that my mid bow in the below picture who is  a Sergent in the RAF regiment sailed around Cape Horn 8 years ago. Pretty cool.

No breakages today but the results weren’t what we hoped for. On the positive side it was blowing 15-22knots pretty flat water and it was 80F. I was still feeling like a truck ran over me and lost my voice which amused everyone.

Photo by Ingrid Abery the Rolex photographer.

Tonight I made Chilean Sea Bass cooked with parsley, asparagus, olive oil, lemon juice, scallions, tarragon and white wine in parchmont paper. Served it on a bed of rice with a feta, tomatoe and red onion salad. Dessert was just chocolate ice cream. The guys have gone off partying and I had a great time talking to my nephew on skype and watching him on the video dancing around the living room. Bed time for me as I am up at 7:30am to dive the bottom of the boat before racing.

Today dawned with me being sick. I have had a cold this whole week but I was physically sick – not something you want to know about. The RAF regiment boys who are racing on the boat tried to be helpful and fed me diralyte which worked the opposite of how it is meant to due to my reaction to it! I think it is child abuse to be giving that to kids it really is rank. I basically crawled down to the boat and announced I wasn’t going to be cleaning it everyone was sympathetic and offered various potions and pills.

The first race we were 30 seconds late to the line – not a great start. We managed to kill the A2 in the first drop and then proceeded around the top mark where we hit a rock which wasn’t charted – hard. On monday we will hoist out to repair the damage. However, we ended up 2nd in the race. Seeing as I was not feeling flash Ian jumped over the side to survey the damage to the keel bulb. I called to organise a lift out at a marina in Charlotte Amolie but it was decided that we could continue racing.

The second race we were again late across the start line. It was a long race 23 miles race with lots of sail changes the TP52 and the Cookson were able to stretch their legs on the course and we ended up with a 4th. Putting us in 3rd overall after the first two races out of 5.

So quite a bit of boat damage to repair…..

I am in the condo the view from the couch is shown above…

It is late we arrived this afternoon in St Thomas. On Sunday night I arrive in St Maarten and worked on the boat for a few hours before exhaustion over took me and the sun went down. Monday was a day of work on the boat and overnight delivery to Tortola then another work day tuesday and today moving the boat to st thomas. We luckily got a mooring so I don’t have to sleep on the boat at anchor. I dove using my scuba gear to check that the mooring was in good condition. It is getting a test tonight as it is raining and windy out there tonight. Bed time for me the crew have been asleep for several hours already after I fed them ny strip steaks, spagetti with blue cheese sauce and arugula salad. Check out how we do this week at http://www.rolexcupregatta.com/index2.php 

I am on Yeoman XXXII again as boat captain and it should be a fun three days of racing. I will try to keep the site updated.

The guys on the rail….

I jumped on the Quest 33 for the lightship race on Saturday before heading for the red eye to take me back to Yeoman in St Maarten. Wayne the owner wrote about the race. It started in light air that got lighter right next to the mark so we carried our number one. Then a front came through and the sunny blue skies went away with gusts up to 26 knots making the downwind a fun affair. We ended up peeling the kite but as we only have one spin halyard this involved jib up and kite down and then kite up and jib down. It was a fun race all in all.

For a brief post-mortem — We had a poor start (my fault) but got onto
the right side and wind immediately.  Made the right choices up wind and
sailed well to the lightship, hitting the shifts, keeping in good
pressure and steering well.  (Passing Deception which indeed is a Santa
Cruz 50 was fun.) We also made the right last minute decision to go
south after rounding (notwithstanding the forecast shift to the north,
which never materialized).  We probably should have gone even farther
south for relief from the current, but damn fast boat speed (and fast,
hold on to the boat steering by Ashley) more than made up for the ebb.
(17+ knots!  Loved the spray.)

I raced on the Quest 33 at the Big Daddy regatta out of Richmond YC at the weekend. It was a shock to the system as the temperature was a ‘touch’ lower than St Maarten!

We had three inshore windward leewards on the saturday and a pursuit race on the sunday. The Quest 33 is a hard boat to sail inshore as it really isn’t set up for 1 mile windward leewards. We had a new crew onboard who was learning the ropes and did a good job of it. We also had Rob who is living in Idaho who was very excited about not being in the frozen tundra for the weekend. The results were mid fleet and we only blew up a clutch. The wind steadily rose to the low 20s and we were down to the number 3 by the end of the day.

I always enjoy the pursuit races the most. The course is RYC alcatraz, angel back to RYC in either direction. We went the opposite way to 80% of the fleet. There was a lift on the way to alcatraz and although we got passed by a few of the big boats coming from the other direction in the last 1/2 mile I think it was the right way to go for sure.

I rushed off after racing on Sunday to go and look in on a boat that had a large collision on Saturday and needs to be put back together for this coming weekend. It never stops in my business!

Photo by Tim Wright of photoaction.com

It was only a 4 race series due to high swells and winds but we had a great time despite the 5:30am wake up calls to get through the 7:30am bridge! We were tied last night with the guys on Storm for 2nd with the cookson 50 untouchable. The race today was up to the NE side of the island and back it started in about 23 knots of wind so we carried our number 4 however, it moderated to a consistent 17 knots on the east side of the island so we struggled with the number 4 to keep speed but decided not to do a change down to the 3.

At the top mark we hoisted the A2 and stormed down the run until we had an unfortunate explosion of the sail in only 19 knots of wind… not good… we quickly hoisted the A4 and at the bottom mark we put up the 3 and reached into the finish. On the downwind leg we pulled away from Storm. The Chance crew from San Francisco who chartered the boat I think had a good time and did a good job of sailing an unfamiliar boat. I will now organise repairs and fly home to San Francisco for 9 days.