Figured a longer update was in order - the schedule has been very anti-bajan to date and the time available for updating the blog has been limited to evenings which it was decided were better suited to drinking creative cocktails than writing creative blogs. Anyhow...

...So the flight over was pretty uneventful, Steve and I made full use of the complimentary bar in the BA lounge and on the flight over - to the extent that we were next to useless for most of day one. A training sail was eventful with some reacher related issues largely attributable to lack of experience on the boat (and overall in many cases!). All in all things went OK, lessons were learned and confidence was growing. After a nice few beers in the Cruising Club and the upholding of the time honored Happy Morning tradition of being the last out of the bar every night we awoke to the Two Restaurants race.

We started at full pelt, screaming over the line a full minute before anyone else and a full minute before the gun....oops. Cue much action on-board as we swung around the re-crossed after the starter had begun the race. Some frantic tacking down the opening stretch saw us move in front of Dragon Magic and before long we were tracking the OnDeck 40 footer down the beautiful Barbados coast. Having kept up with her pretty well to the first mark, we attempted to learn from our mistakes and fly the reacher again. We cocked it up again. OnDeck got away and we lost valuable ground on the leading boat in our class, the stunning Blue Peter. Having rescued the situation we made some good pace to the second mark off Needhams point and crossed the line second in class. A solid start to the racing weekend and cause for some celebration. Once again, we upheld the proud and time honored tradition of being the last in the bar (see the trend?).

Sunday was a pretty lazy day for everyone so the Mount Gay girls kindly arranged a tour of the island for us. We hopped onto the back of what I can only describe as a flatbed with seats on the back and a roof to keep the sun off and whizzed off to explore. The tour guide kept everyone entertained and shortly after leaving produced abotu a gallon and a half of Rum Punch - lovely. Then the heavens opened - an absolute downpour ensured. Sitting on the back of a flat bed truck, drinking rum punch in the pouring rain whilst trying to enjoy the scenery, keep dry, listening to the tour guide and avoid covering the rest of the van with my punch was not how I envisaged my day progressing but it was hugely enjoyable anyhow! Then we went to the bar - you know the rest - last in, merryness, dodgy trip back to Happy Morning in the pitch black in a patched up Dinghy. We didn't go mad, but could probably have been a touch more reserved!

So to Sunday, the big day. The 5:45 alarm went off and everyone fell out of their bunks and tried to bring themselves to get underway. Graham, Ashley and Belinda turned up on shore and were ferried out to meet us, the full compliment of crew onboard:

David Onyons - Skipper & Slavedriver
Mike Duckmanton - Foredeck & wearer of pole across the head!
Duncan Gray - Mast & Everything else!
Simon Onyons - Winch (or wench?)
Tom Duckmanton - Winch and Reacher trimmer extraordinaire
Frank Burgess - Helm & Singer/Entertainment
Graham Cresswell - Navigator, preparer of lunch & depth monitor!
Steve Benns - Ballast and secret weapon
Ashley Thornton - Rail & Camera Girl
Belinda Adams - Rail & bringer of fine rolls

So we rigged up, set off and hit the line 2 seconds after the gun, the radio crackled into life "BEST START OF THE DAY". Great morale boost to the team made better when we caught and passed the first boat of the day. The Round the Island Race is a pursuit race and so catching others quickly was great for everyone as we worked the boat well. Steve & the girls copped their fair share of bruises swinging the weight from side to side and the race was progressing well. We made the top of the island having passed a lot of others and only been caught by the faster OnDeck boat. Passing the top of the island the seas began to chop up and we were honking along through squalls and 3m waves, catching and passing our main rival immigrant along the way before disaster struck - a wind hole. We watched helpless as the speed dropped to less than 1 knot on occasions, our only blessing was seeing immigrant further offshore and a larger 45 foot + competitor onshore wallowing around in the same predicament. An hour of playing with the sails followed as we tried in vain to garner some sort of response before a blissful breeze was felt and we started up again.

Before long the wind was up and we were shifting again, the skipper called for the Reacher again and with baited breath we watched it get loaded on and winched up - success! Trucking along at 8 knots we were eventually caught by the monsters in the fleet and passed - not as bad as it sounds as the handicap system ensures we are still well placed. We then passed the old nemesis Fancy Sailor as we entered the last 5 miles. Immigrant came into shore as we all made good pace into Needhams point for the finish. Fancy Sailor fell the the greater speed of Immigrant and ourselves and eventually HM won the game of "depth chicken" the skipper insisted we played. We steamed clear and crossed the line in 9 Hours 45 Minutes - at 18:30pm. 30 seconds after the official end of the race.

So we sit here waiting to see a) will the race comittee waive the 18:00 finish time as over half the fleet missed it and b) Have we won the class (or better!?)

Part Two - The Results

Wow - what a night. The crew rocked up at the beautiful Beach House in anticipation of a good night, some good food and large quantities of alcohol. The wine and rum started flowing and soon everyone was in good spirits. The excellent band departed and the prize giving began, with the skipper from Happy Morning picking up a membership to the BCC for the second place in the Two Restaurants race. Then the serious stuff started with the class announcements for the big one, the Mount gay Rum Round Barbados Race 2013. The smaller classes were announced and then the 35-40 foot class - First Place!!! Simon went up to accept the award from the Barbados minister for tourism, an engraved bottle of 1703 from Mount Gay. The wine and rum started flowing in even larger quantities and the crew all arrived back at the boat at 04:00 much the worse for wear, dripping wet after some fun getting the inflatable dinghy back to the boat completely bladdered and extremely tired!
A great night had by all.

So, First in class, fourth overall behind some monsters in places 1 to 3 and a great time had by all. I now sit in anticipation of the flight home, sub zero temperatures and snow! Its been a great trip, again!

19/1/2013
The morning started slowly due to the amount of pre race rum consumed in the extended crew briefing.
Simon and Steve came clean about the amount of drink they consumed during the flight, which would explain why they were on fire when they arrived in Barbados.
Breakfast was again a low calorie affair to make sure that we were in the best trim for the race.
We made a few last minute fixes to the boat before we weighed anchor and made for the start line, everything was ready, the five minute signal was issued, and then graham then announced that the one minute countdown had started, confusion reigned as this was one minute before we expected it. We suddenly we realised they we counting down to the one minute time. We arrived at the start to earlier resulting in a quick tack to avoid any penalties.
The run out down the coast went extremely well, we quickly passed green dragon, cutting across the rear of the boat, which led to a number of calls from green dragon.
We made good time to the half way point, then we decided to raise the kite, this ended up wrapped around itself. David had to hand over the helm to help sort out the mess.
The rest of the journey went well and we ended up taking second place out of a field of ten.
20/1/2013
The morning of the jeep adventure around the island, the weather is a bit overcast. Things soon started to improve as the driver pulled out two big jugs of rum punch; this quickly put everybody in good spirit.
Luckily the jeep was fitted with lap seat belt as the of road experience had all of use pitching and rolling about in our seats; evening during this rough ride we managed to keep drinking the punch without any spillages. Great skills showed by all concerned.
Time for lunch and a few beers, having filled our belies we concluded the trip.
Time for a late afternoon nap and swim.

Simon and Steve woke early, however they were running a little slow due to the excess drinking on the flight, which continued in dippers bar, and was rounded off with a carryout back to the boat.
The motley crew departed in search of a shower and some breakfast.
The shower gave Steve & Simon a new lease of life, after the showers and shaves, focus quickly shifted to breakfast, however the food wagon had a different agenda 
Frank donned the chef’s apron and provided a heather breakfast of bran or weetabix, whilst welcome it was no substitute for an egg cutter.
With breakfast dispensed with, it was time to hone the Happy Morning.
Simon and David used their sock mending skills and made running repairs to the sails.
Tom worked his magic mending the ropes, whilst newbie Steve was allocated the role of swabbing the decks.
The boat and crew are at last ready to hoist they sails and go for a practice run, before tomorrow’s two restaurants race.
The practice went well the only casualty being one hat lost overboard.
After all off the hard work it was time for a swim before making our way to the bar to discuss tactics before the race.
Enough of this time for another beer 

We only bloody won the thing!

3 minutes clear of Ribbit!!! Many rums are yet to come.

Quote of the day - everyone: "GET IN!!!! WR DID IT!!!!"

Day dawned on day Three of the Mount Gay Rum Regatta 2012 with the top three boats in class being separated by only a single point. Jemstar was leading with Ribbit and your intrepid heroes one point behind. This basically meant that we had to win the longest race of the regatta to have a chance of a victory.

The previous day had seen a strong performance from HM and we were hopeful of more of the same. The nights festivities were cut short at the 'slightly' drunk stage to ensure we were only a bit hungover for today's race. We took breakfast on shore in wether conditions that saw a breeze that was broadly the same as the previous days. Bill again stayed ashore to enjoy the view on the beach and avoid any danger whilst we welcomes two new additional crew members in Ashley and Tiffany, the Mount Gay girls. We had 8 on board and looked a bit healthier in the water.

As we rounded onto the start, Dave an Stuart agreed on a change and we approached the mark away from the fleet - crossing the line first and building a 100yd lead in seconds....FINALLY a flying start in the race we needed it most! We stayed ahead of Ribbit for 20 minutes before her raw speed caught us and attempts to drop in whims nd steal some wind to slow her failed. After a Looooong leg into the wind we turned to head for home 6.5 minutes behind according to our rough calculations which put us second on handicap by a small margin. The downwind leg saw us maintain the gap and by our own rough calculations we gained on her around the last mark and into the finish.

We sit on the beach awaiting the results, knowing that we have at least a Secos in class. Did we win outright? Fingers crossed......

So, after yesterdays disappointment and the two third in class finishes, we decided to take it easy and be rested for todays races. However one thing led to another and we were the last crew left in the bar, merrily singing along to the songs the DJ was belting out, nine sheets to the wind and happy for it!

Today saw five bleary eyes sailors emerge from their pits an hour late for breakfast and clearly showing the damage of last nights exploits. The seas were again choppy with a good wind and some strong swells. Bill again stayed ashore with mobility an issue, but Ian joined the crew to give us a much needed additional pair of hands! HM was the last out of her berth but we got the main up and sailed over to the start point where we tried to improve on yesterdays 'wobbly' starts.

Race One saw us out of the blocks with the fleet and we soon passed Fancy Sailor to move into third. Some fine sailing and some tough tactics saw us up into second on the water (despite being the slowest boat on paper) and we finished an entertaining race second, winning on handicap. What a great way to banish yesterdays disappointments and put us back in contention. A win in race two would probably see us lead the class overall going into the evenings festivities.

Race Two and some remiss lookout saw Ribbit get between us and the start boat and saw us having to spin 360 degrees in the water before setting off. This put us at the back but again we slowly gained places and were vying for position with Jemstar in second place for much of the short course. We managed to pass them on the third from last buoy and matched them tack for tack on the return leg. Ribbit had long since gained an unassailable lead but we were hopeful that our handicap rating would see us close! A last minute tack on the line however slowed us considerably and we finished second on the water and on corrected time, missing out on a clean sweep for the day by 6 (yes, six) seconds. Tough to take after everyone put so much in.

So, with one race left tomorrow, a long one along the coast of the island, we sit second in class overall and only a single point off Jemstar in first place. Beating them tomorrow would see us stand a very good shout at an overall first in class which would be a fantastic achievement for everyone given that we have been woefully under-crewed for the four races to date and had such a steep learning curve on day one.

Fingers Crossed for a strong finish to a hugely enjoyable regatta...