Antigua Race Week

Well you don't expect to find your race boat without a mast! Russ and Lisa had come to Antigua to race but also they had come to repair their standing rigging. They have a Beneteau first 42s7 and it has rod rigging, which is less common and hence less available than wire rigging like Moosetracks has. With this in mind they did a lot of research before getting their rigging replaced. While we were in Martinique around new year they had scheduled to have it done there by a French firm that does a lot of Beneteau work. As you guessed it didn't work out to well and after a number of delays they decided to try somewhere else. So here they were in Antigua getting replacement rigging just day before the race. 

Russ and asked a number of friends to help crew for the Club class race which was 5 races over 6 days. John of Out of Africa, Jo and Gregg of Serenade and Mike of Nauti Dog as well as Devin had signed up as crew for Russ and Lisa. So we showed up while they were at the dock to put the finishing touches to the rig and tune the rigging. We had it done by the morning but felt the round island raced would be too much so although entered, Russ had not recalled actually entering though, we were not ready. Instead we took Tumultuous Uproar out for a shake down. We found a few tweaks were needed and adjusted the rig accordingly, Russ and Lisa also patched the headsail as a bit of sun was getting through (yes it was an old race sail). 

The ladies and crew wives got to thinking about team work and decided to see if we could get a form of crew short organized. They put heads together & them realized many of us got free shirts from Island Waterworld when we were all the St Martin. They did a quick count and we indeed had just the right number, although sizes would be a challenge. We pooled shirts and got it close enough, so we looked like a sponsored team on our first race.

A real race team

The first race was very exciting probably because we had no idea what we were up against. There were 7 boats enrolled in our Club Class, when we looked at the ratings it appeared only 5 had got rated meaning 2 probably wouldn't start. We went out on the course expecting to be a class of 5 boats. At the 5 minute mark we could only see 4 boats and wondered, sure enough when the horn blew we were 4. 

I should mention that Russ and Lisa have done a lot of racing and are not unused to being placed well, therefore they are competitive sailors with a pretty fast boat. We had witnessed them win the Carriacou regatta last year with a large margin so we knew there might be a chance of some wins. However there was a very fast and expensive looking X-Yachts X50 on the sheet and she definitely rated a fast boat. 

So race one was off to a good start Russ taking the start line and leading and our first tack and first mark. We were very happy but it the X50 took the lead soon after on the downwind leg. We knew we had to compete so on the downwind leg Russ discussed changing our jib for a large genoa and knowing it was a now or never decision we quickly made the choice. So we were the only boat in any of the races we saw make a sail change! Of course we were mostly amount the bareboat fleet when on the course so we didn't know if the racier classes did or didn't change sails mid race. It was a beautiful change and we did it in plenty of time before the downwind mark. We rounded the mark and beat up to the finish line, it was going to be close.  We took the horn and had no idea if we had done enough, Russ confessed he couldn't tell if the Genoa change had been the right one as we were a little over powered and light have had a tighter course with the jib, well we had to wait until the results came in.

We sat drinking rum and beers while Lisa got online to check results, you could tell from the shouts below decks we had made it! We had won our first race. We kept the IWW shirts on for our podium appearance and looked like a real crew for our first photos. At the party that night Jo asked the Budget guys if the wanted to give us shirts to wear as we were doing so well, they said they would see if they had any.

1st place race 1

So the next day Jo and Lisa chased down the Budget guys, sorry we don't have any shirts. Ah well nothing ventured nothing gained. We again hit the start line very well, Russ appeared  to have a good start line strategy and it was working, we won the second start in a row. The race again was very tight and we were not sure if we had the X50 but it looked like we did as they had messed up the course and had spent too long going to the wrong mark. We were a little slow downwind as our whisker pole was jammed and we couldn't extend it fully, so we were not quite sure We got in and it was confirmed another first and another bottle of Rum.

1st place race 2

Meanwhile Jo and Liz feeling they needed the exercise had taken the bicycles out for the day to watch the race from the hills surrounding  the course. It was a great day out with a good work out including a stop off to the horses at the stables and nice to be off the boat too.

A sweet horse

Who's there?

The third race started the same way with Russ dominating the start line. We again got overtaken by the X50 and they really started to show us their stern. After the two downwind legs it was an long upwind bet back to the finish line. Uproar stayed outside and the X50 took the nearshore route, turns out the local knowledge was dead right and the inshore gave a good lift the other boat. We knew it at the finish they had us. So in the 3rd race we took second place and missed out on a nice bottle of Johnny Walker whiskey, a shame a few of the crew really wanted some of that!

2nd place race 3

Before the fourth race we decided to play with the pole to see if we could improve our downwind performance. We found a trapped line and cut it out but it still was jammed inside. We then managed to get about 18" more pole extension and though we wouldn't push our luck much further, it might be all we needed. Russ again nailed the start, which was much tricker as the current was forcing folks over the line and a few races were restarted for infringements and other racers were penalized for early starts. We fought really hard this time as we knew we needed only one more win for the series and only two more races to go. We sailed a great race and did nothing wrong. We had now worked out the handicap which they adjusted every day based on previous day's results and had a clear idea of the on course time difference we needed. Coming down the last windward leg we watched carefully as the X50 crossed the line, we had them!

The "Uproar" cheer again

1st place race 4

The last race was for us going to be easier, we just had to get 2nd or 3rd to win, the other boats, besides the X50, were nowhere near us but did improve every race so we just had to keep it together. Russ nailed the last start of the regatta and had 5 straight start wins, very impressive. The course was very crowded with the 2 of the 4 bareboat classes in front sharing the same course and the others 2 getting in the fray at points as well. The X50 was up for sale and the skipper obviously felt he couldn't win the class so didn't push it on the crowded course, he was actually squeezed out by a couple of bare boats racing each other on one leg. So with their heart not in it we took them easily and looking behind saw the Peterson 44 and Bavaria 42 come in close to the X50. Well another first for Uproar and the X50 actually was 4th on handicap.

Ready to gybe

catching up....

Downwind relaxing

Close hauled and fast

1st place race 5

We had done it, we won 4 out of 5 races and won our class! The party that night was just bliss. We had lots of photos and lots of prizes, you can see they joy on our faces from the photos!

1st in Class

Absolutely a blast, I think I might be addicted.... well certainly we'll do it again.

Antigua Classics Regatta

The Antigua Classics regatta is one of our favorite events of the cruising year and this will be our third year of volunteering. We love the classic boats and it's nice to be helping not just watching. It's 6 days of racing this year with round island, single handed and 4 races. There are some really stunning yachts as usual and the 30th year anniversary has drawn a lot of competitors and being based in Nelson dockyard it feels very special. However we can't help feel it's a shame the 6 J-boats between the two harbors here don't compete in the races anymore.

Well we hadn't exactly expected so much work for classics but Liz has been given 3 days work, one pre-race and then the round Island and Single handed races. It was a lot of admin and chasing skippers for paperwork as well as making sure hospitality was living up to its name and keeping drinks and snacks flowing. 

Liz working the docks

Liz heard at registration that one or two boats needed crew, so knowing our friends race and a would love to get on a boat she helped put them in touch. It ended up that Russ from Uproar and David from Sans Cles got on Iris-J and David's wife Sue got on Petrana. They all seem very excited to be able to get a ride.

Iris-J

Iris-J returning from races

Petrana at the parade of boats

Devin had an unexpected call to the single handed race for dinghy wranglers to help move boats into slips, they normally don't need us, but a lot of boats in a tight harbor lead to a call for help. 

Dinghy warnglers in action

Well that kind of set the tone for the week, Liz was asked to do a bit more and readily volunteered for a few mores days helping out. Devin being already over on the dockyard side decided to stay over to cover boats needing help or dropping out of the race early. So both we ended up with almost 10 hour days for 5 days, it felt a bit like w**k by the end.

A lot of waiting over lunch time

There were lots of events during the week in the evenings but after such long days we didn't stay to late to anything and just crashed when we got back. 

A classics start line

A loely setting for classics

Beautiful

What people come to see

The week went very quickly as we were so busy and before you know it it was prize giving. We had had a wonderful week and enjoyed every minute of it, we finally got a Braii in on the beach too. We missed our usual noodling in the mornings so we were feeling a bit lethargic and in need of some exercise. We took the offer with John and Jo to walk on the hills behind Falmouth harbor and had a nice day with Jo from Serenade and Sue from San Cles joining us too.

Wrangler buddies

Well all that racing had us juiced. Russ had approached Devin to ask if he wanted to race in Antigua race week, he decided it was time to accept as it was also a banner year and the 50th Antigua race week and should be something really special. So no more play we have a boat to get ready!

Stay tuned for part two!

St Martin - not all play

We're are still in St Martin for quite a bit longer due to ordering a new 130% Genoa and getting a few other things sorted. First though we have to put the mast back on Out of Africa, so John, Jo, Mark and Devin set about fitting the new compression post John and Mark managed to find and this leads to fiberglassing in a new cabin roof support for the mast. Devin joined in as he has never used fiberglass and wanted to learn, very interesting and informative and a lot easier than I had imagined to work with, or perhaps Mark makes it look easy? Well the post is in and the cabin roof is repaired and sanded ready to fit the mast back on. John and Jo work on getting the the mast itself ready with new wires and routine maintenance on the sheaves and other rigging points. All is set and we return to the travel lift and have the mast placed back on the boat. All goes well and we are off the dock and back at anchor the same morning, hooray!

Back over the boat

Setting it down

Letting it go

Well we had to take advantage of the duty free status of St Martin and so we had ordered a lot of new gear for Moosetracks to be shipped into Phillipsburg, so it's a day out to go get it. We did this one on our own as it was a lot of running around then out of the way to go fetch our shipment from the freight forwarder. We did a little shopping which included a few Indian and Chinese stores for some specialty items we like in cooking then in town for lunch. After lunch we walked out to pick up our shipment, it look enormous when it came out in huge packages and we both looked at each other and hoped it was all packaging. Well they allowed us to un-box it all and indeed it was mostly cardboard and packing materials and thankfully fit into our bags and was not too heavy to carry back to the bus stop. We had a new water maker pump and EPIRB battery and several other items which seemed heavy but they were not too bad. 

We then hunkered down to repairs while John and Jo painted their decks. We also managed a few more Braii or BBQ nights on the beach and a few more visits to other boats for happy hour to make sure it was not all work. Before you know it we had the email telling us our sail had shipped so we tracked it to arrival and dinghies over to pick it up. Well it thought we could carry it and John's new mainsail but boy was I wrong, John and I paid the guys to drop back the 1/4 mile walk and were glad we did. We managed to get both sails in the dinghy and back to the boats between us.

So that's the last of the fixes or so we thought. The water maker was still not doing any better and since we hand not anticipated a new membrane we did not not have one shipped in. Ouch, that was a a mistake, the US price is around $200 and locally they are well over $350 , add to that we can't wait on another shipment. We were discussing this with Dave & Mary on Wandering Rose when Dave asked what size our membrane was, I said 2540 and he looked at Mary, then said "I just replaced two this morning in my system, They were not working great but they replaced them under warranty, they might work". Dave said he would put them back in water immediately he got back and I could come try them the next day. I went out of course the next morning and brought them back to Moosetracks, it was a few hours work to fit one but it went fairly smoothly. The replacement membrane was much better but again not really low enough in salt PPM but it was well inside drinking quality. We decided it might last mother year and since we have missed our window we would take the chance until ordering duty free next year. So fingers crossed and thank you Dave and Mary.

Well all our jobs are done and we need to look for a weather window to cross to Antigua, one looks like it might just come before Classics so we wait it out. We leave on April 15 for the bridge opening intending to stop overnight in Ile Fourchue before heading on. Unfortunately while waiting at the first bridge John and Jo get an overheating problem, John thinks he can fix it but will miss the bridge. We decide to make the bridge and meet them at Ile Fourchue later. We have an easy sail down and come across Ocean Angel already on a ball and we take a free ball too.  We even arrived with a 3ft Spanish Mackerel for dinner and the freezer! A few hours later John and Jo arrive having fixed their overheating issue that seems to plague them this year.

A last trip to the Iguana

We all set off just. Before daylight for the crossing to Antigua, it is a long passage and requires a full 12 hour window for us. We make good time and arrive just before dark with John and Jo arriving just after dark. It is easy anchoring in 5 Islands so we both settle in for check in tomorrow. We are due to be at Classics tomorrow too so it up early, check in and on our way before noon, we are late for the volunteer briefing but we get caught up by our team leaders. We start work tomorrow!

So here we are back for racing in Antigua, fun times ahead we're sure. We hope everyone else has them too.

Antigua, St Barth's and St Martin

We arrived in Antigua with Out of Africa on 16th February after a wonderful sail up in light winds on the beam, just perfect for full sails and a great photo shot from by Jo of Moosetracks under full sail.

Moosetracks with full sail up

We are only here for a short stop in Jolly Harbour on our way north as we will be back in Antigua for the Classics Regatta in Late April. We check in and get a little shopping done at the marina and grocery store. Our friends Bill and Maureen on Kalunamoo are in the marina so we stop by their boat for a cup of tea.

The anchorage at Five Islands is one of our favorites as it's less crowed and the resort has good open internet so we can catch up on our communications too. Since we have to file our US taxes this week we love good internet to download all our necessary stuff before filing. We get it all done over a few days and can relax again, no more work for a while.

The lads of to explore

We have a few walks into the marina again and try snorkeling but the wind has turned from the west so the water is not clear enough to snorkel, oh shame maybe another time. We have a couple of BBQ's on the beach with other boats here before deciding we have a window to go north.

We arrived in St Bart's on 4th March after leaving on a down wind sail in 20-25 knots of wind. Now since we are down wind the wind we feel aboard is much less as we are running at 7-8 knots with the wind on our backs, so we feel about 15 knots on our back. Just like riding a bike really. So it was a huge surprise when the clew on the headsail exploded, this means the lines controlling the sail are in the water and the sail is flogging itself to death. We furl the sail quickly and get it under control and assess the damage. The clew is a stainless steel ring sewn to the corner of the sail with webbing straps so you can tie the lines to the sail. Well the webbing gets degraded in the UV and eventually it broke. Devin had to stand on the front bow sprit in 25 knots with 8' seas to try to wrap a sail tie on it to prevent the sail corner flogging. We tell our buddies on Out of Africa of our break and John suggest wrapping our spare spinnaker halyard around the sail to make sure can't unravel. So Devin goes forward again to do this, Liz holds her breath all this time as we don't want "Man Over Board"drills in this sea. All is now secure and we set the staysail to help balance the boat a little more, not much else to do unless we change to our spare sail. We have lost 1-2 knots boat speed but since we are nearly half way we figure we will be OK and still get in well before dark, which we did.

Anse Columbier

The anchorage at Anse Columbier has a few mooring balls for free to protect the sea grass for the turtles that feed in the bay. So we take a ball ball and wait for John and Jo. Well they have engine issues with it overheating so they tack in as close as possible and then motor for just a few minutes to set the anchor, they mange to do this just as the sun sets. So we both have had a pretty rough day.

We decide the next day as the wind is too strong to address dropping the sail in the harbor so we dinghy around to Gustavia to check in and walk around the shops.

Checking in

We do get a slight wind drop so we remove the headsail while we can and measure it. Then we have to get it folded on the side deck and stowed on the forward head, it's awfully big to wrestle the thing but eventually we get it all put away. We then take a day off to walk the west coast of teh island and see if we can find a little internet.

West coast beach

A great day for a walk

We dinghy over to Wind Pony next to us as they are flying their SSCA burgee and we introduce ourselves. A very nice couple called Dick and Lynn who have a friend, Molly on board for a few weeks. We ask them to join us for a walk to Gustavia and they jump at the chance to stretch their legs. John wants to see the airplanes landing at the airport on St Bart's as its one of the most difficult landings in the world for pilots. So we take the roads to the hill above the airport, stopping on the way to by baguettes at the bakery.

A tortoise on the path

The airport runway

We have lunch whilst watching the planes come in to land. It's very thrilling as you are almost at eye level with the pilot as he comes over the hill and drops to the runway. We are there about an hour before the local police arrive and tell us it too dangerous and we have to stand by the road. We apologize as there are no signs to this affect and they tell us it's for safety as a girl slipped on the ascent to the hill a few days earlier.

We the walk down into Gustavia for a look at the shops again and to have a cold beer and Internet before returning to the moorings.

Gustavia

On 4th March we set sail for St Martin, the forecast is light winds and calm seas and it's only 2-3 hours across but we time it for the Simpson bay bridge opening at 3pm. We get there a little early as the wind and seas were a little higher than forecast and suddenly find the Heineken regatta is on and boats are sailing around the island right in front of us. We keep out of their way as we have plenty of time and just watch the spectacle. When we arrive in the anchorage it's a little busy because of the race and we wait for the bridge. As we are waiting the whole race fleets comes around the corner! We are now in amongst almost 100 boats  waiting for the bridge, oh so not good. We hang back to let the aggressive sailors through but find out to our dismay several late finishers are rushing for the bridge too! We get really really close in the confinement of the bridge passage but manage to keep the other boats from hitting us even despite one boat doing a U-turn a couple of boat lengths ahead of us. We wait for the bridge tender to cycle on his bike to the inner swing bridge and make it safely through into the French side of the Lagoon and anchor. 

Race boat antics at Simpson Bay bridge

Waiting for the swing bridge

We are going to be here a while as we need to do a lot of boat work, Out of Africa wants to remove the mast and paint their decks whilst we want to repair our water maker and do lots of sewing and other projects. We both have new sails to order as well and that's going to take 3 weeks to have made in Cape Town and shipped by air here. It still works out at half the price of the same brand here!

So here we are working on the boat in exotic places, well nearly so, it's nothing really strenuous so we get in plenty of social time visiting friends like; Steve & Joy of Ocean Angel, Ken & Lori of Reality Check, Greg & Jo of Serenade, Keith and Linda of Euan Mara, Rene & Stacey of Pipe Muh Bligh, Ully of Andrea Helena, Chris and Karen of Skabanga and many others.... Lots of cruisers come to St Martin just for duty free prices and great service from the yachting industry here. 

Dancing on the Pink Iguana

The band is awesome

Not your ordinary bar

St Patrick's day at the Pink Iguana

Of course a Braii on the beach

Meeting up with lots of friends like Chris from Skabanga

A great dinghy raft up - bring your dog too

A fantastic time for all

Out of Africa go in to have the mast taken down for repair work.

In the slip for the mast removal

Preparation before lifting

Up and away

Laying the mast in a carrier, for transport

Something is missing?

 We hope everyone else is shipshape and warming up in spring.