Friday, February 25, 2011
The horizon was a blast of crimson lights - the most brilliant dramatic skyline as the sun set over Falmouth Harbour as Hydrocarbon Logic approached the finish line. They were greeted by the most dramatic gorgeous sky. I was in the Antigua Yacht Club as cameras flashed to capture the scene. What a dramatic end to the race.
Half an hour later they slid into Falmouth Harbour in the dark. It was a wonderful sight to see their smiling faces. They did indeed have cold bottles of the finest Carib beer waiting on the pontoon. The crew were much relieved to be back after their long, hot exhausting race. The sun tans were indeed a few shades deeper. Their spirits were high as they posed for the official RORC photo and then dashed around retrieving the gear stashed on a nearby yacht. They were longing for showers and the ones sharing a house thinking of their cumfy beds. Beside Hydrocarbon was the very sad looking demasted High Tension. That was the only completely owned Antiguan boat apparently. My companion on the pontoon had formerly raced on that boat and said the skipper would have been devastated by their bad luck.
There is a RORC prize giving on Friday with a BBQ party. RORC seems to have an amazingly well organised team. It is completely different to Madeira where it was Ian and his megaphone! The yacht club yachtie's committee are organising the parties and prizegiving and the meet and greet people and the myriad of things that need to be done for this event. They have a 24 hour watch at Charlotte Fort complete with generator and portaloo! Even The generator has a security guard. In fact they have a fair bit of security in place at the Yacht Club. Which is hardly surprising as there are so many huge yachts. One of them is The Maltese Falcon that is sleek shining black with a futuristic looking set of masts within which the sails are furled. Apparently the mast design was made some years ago but it needed the right type of sail material to be invented. It is worth a google. It is worth a fortune. It takes up a whole pontoon. How the other half live!
