Races and Olympics

(NB should have been updated June 20th)

Day 12 and our sailors had a busy day of activity ahead of them.

Today was Race Day. All four boats had to up anchor at 0915 and at 0945 we were expected to turn our motors off, raise both sails to race to Long Bay.

Our monohull and another catamaran were neck and neck, it was tight. The wind was fierce. Our skipper kept her nerve the other kids gave her bursts of encouragement. We veered off chasing the wind hoping to edge ahead. For a while I thought we might actually clinch first place. But we jybed too late and our sails luffed.

From nine knots we screeched to just five knots. It was mortifying to see the sail go from tight out to loose. The girls started screaming. We watched with horror as the clouds rolled in and the rain fell hard, then fast. More screaming from the girls as we got drenched.

Our mate was out in the elements on the bow pulling hard on the line trying to keep the jib out , hoping the wind would catch. It felt like a life time before we picked up speed again.

The winner was decided by first past the first cardinal marker. As we gained speed we saw a yellow buoy with two black arrows.

More screaming. It’s the most animated I’ve seen the boat. We were so close but the catamaran just edged in frontier us. It was such a tight race.

Disappointed but thrilled by the last twenty minutes, the atmosphere quietened as we pulled into Long Bay. The kids were exhausted from the excitement.

The rain eased but it didn’t leave us all day. Next up was lunch on the boat and then the Olympics: Dizzy Fender – a relay race in fins where competitors run to the fender, spin around with their forehead on the top of the fender and try to run back in a straight line to tag the next person. Other games included, tug of war against the different boats, a synchronised swimming sequence and sand art.

For the sand art my captain, my mate and myself were all buried by our teenagers in the sand to create a sand story. The kids came up with making us into a Mayonnaise bottle in the form of an Andy Warhol art piece like the famous Campbell’s soup. They got bonus points for using rubbish collected from a beach clean.

The day ended with a bbq on the beach. Everyone was wet through and cold but in good spirits. One more day left and then our kids would be heading home to their families and we’d be gearing up for the next lot arriving.