When you look at this photo, do you think to yourself "Gee, they're having their Cake and Eating It Too?" You might be partly right, but we DID,
wink wink, work hard to get to that Cake. A story that, as it unfolds hereunder, is detailed with Clear Blue Skies, Gusty Squally Winds, Racing Adventures that come with Prizes and Thrillable Moments, many high-fives with and lots of Face the Fear Moments on
Team Banyan.
****
The
spectacular Capt'N, and I, were but a few days ago, sitting down at The Lazy Turtle (Tyrell Bay, Carriacou), enjoying a most fine and quite free feast, and Celebrating.
Free as we'd presented them with this, and
celebrating because this was one of
Banyan's Prizes.
First this wonderful feast of a meal: we chose the Fish Balls, a new item on the menu that arrived plated with steamed veggies and roasted potatoes wedges. We chose a nice bottle of red to accompany this, and of course, some amazingly delicious, moist and very Chocolatey Cake to celebrate it all with. Delicious !! Each and every single bite. Kudos to the Chefs at Lazy Turtle, and as always, fun to see Sue and Shane again, the renovations a nice added touch to their establishment.
Let's jump back in time, to early August to be precise. Amongst the Cruising Community there was excited talk circulating.
"The Carriacou Regatta is on next weekend, are you going?" were the queries being tossed around in some conversations. As it happens, we'd just recently changed Insurance Providers and
Banyan was now fully eligible to "Race for Fun",
"Race? Fun?" I asked the Capt'N.
"Sure" he replied "Why not? We'll get a team together... " he said, quite happily hatching a Plan.
Not being, by nature, a Speed Demon of a Queen, racing to me meant Speed on Purpose, which meant heeling over at precariously awful angles,
followed by being in way-too-close-to be comfortable proximity to other boats, much closer than I like to be when all of us are vying for the best starting position, relying on nothing but the Rules of the Road and the wind gusts to get you out of the way. Some people thrive on this type of Adrenaline. Me? Not so much.
Thank Goodness that the
spectacular Capt'N, having raced many times before, knows his stuff !!
All of the above though were my Personal Demons to face and if ever there was a time to deal, it was now, in rather calm forecasted weather conditions, and during a race (where you have no choice), and with other crew on board. All this, I calculated would help me feel less, hmm, scared! Face the Fear and Do It Anyways, right?
Besides, if the Capt'N was excited and smiling and all eager like, and the crew was more or less excited and smiling and acting all eager like, then it couldn't be all that bad, right?
The Regatta weekend began with a potluck, a Meet and Greet type of event, followed the next day by the Capt'N's briefing where everyone participating attended,
and the welcome packages included the Race Rules and Charts were distributed. And where it was confirmed that the first race of the Regatta was strictly a
Two Handed race.** (Note, that this little tidbit of a rule will be of paramount importance later)
Team Banyan was a team consisting of Dalynn & Glenn (
SV Amoray), Sue & Mal (
SV Team Kool Kat) and ourselves.
Just Out Having some fun in pre-racing drills and trials.
The rest of
Team Banyan had to stay behind on the day and the start of Race 1, which was, we remind you, a Double-Handed Race. The Capt'N and I were ready, the Capt'N had been studying the weather, the race marks, the buoys, the tacks and developing a few strategies.
"Okay then, The Sisters to Starboard, the town of Hillsborough to Starboard..." he muttered to himself as the Weather page was loading.
And soon, on a beautiful blue skied type of day, the winds were light., a mere 10-15 knots, which was perfect for racing
Banyan. With only minutes left to go, the anticipation running high, my hands sweating in their gloves as the other boats came precariously way-too-close-for-my-liking and Dave said,
"Don't worry, we got 'em beat".
Banyan was strategically placed given the start line and the winds and the other boats and the rules, to play not so nice, and sure enough,
SV Yellowbird, had to do a complete 360 and get out of our way. Score !
"Did you see that Dave?" I pointed "There's at least three people onboard?" and then the start gun went off and
Banyan having the wind in her favour, screamed across the the start line, towards The Sisters.
Past Hillsborough, around the Northern tip of Carriacou
where, "Oh My God, Dave... look..." I squeaked as I stared in apprehension to what was clearly a very dark and very grey and very ugly looking squall approaching. Straight for Us. The seas already starting to white cap their increasing agitation.
The Capt'N, quite non-plussed, said,
"Just wait..."
"But, but, but... we need to reef" I stuttered.
"Just wait..." he said, looking around, and looking at the chart plotter. "Let's ride this wind shift. Just a bit more... it'll propel us along the Northern Coast and then we'll get a nice downwind push"
"Oh Shit" I thought. "And Oh Shure, why not?" And sure enough, the winds came and gusted to 35+ knots, and we heeled over,
"... wait for it... wait... just a bit more" he said and then, "Now !" and I, with a huge sigh of relief and with great difficultly reefed the jib to just a sliver. And just like predicted, the winds did indeed propel us along on a perfect speedy reach across the Northern Tip of the Island.
There's no time to think or analyze or imagine the worst of the worst happening. There's no time to Breathe really. You just clench your teeth, feel the wind, feel the boat move beneath your feet, hear the whoosh of the water as Banyan sliced through the waves, feel your knees shaking and your legs wobbly, and you kind of hang on for dear life, and when things settle down again, you kind of exhale, and kind of smile, and assume you survived, and just keep on going. These were the demons I was in it for.
The Capt'N himself, well he just smiled, excited and happy and loving every minute of it.
And as with all things, the menacing skies having reared their ugly head, now started to clear, the squall passed, and life on our race tack continued. Now, we were going almost dead downwind and we struggled a little to keep our sails filled with wind. And on the Southern tip of Carriacou, we came to Face the Opposite.
Not even 2 nautical miles from the Finish Line, perhaps a measly fifteen minute sail across the Finish Line?
That's when the Winds Died. Done. Us swearing at the lack of breeze was creating more wind in our sails than anything Mother Nature could give us.
"Look, we're drifting. Backwards!" I moaned. "From 35+ knots of wind to Absolutely Nothing". And with that we drifted, sort of sideways, sometimes backwards, definitely motionless swaying in Nothingness for a good 45 minutes. The only consolation was the knowledge that all the other boats behind us would face the same fate.
Some small whisper of a breath of wind could be seen approaching on the water, and we slowly, and I mean slowly, crossed the finish line with Whoops of Joy !!
Once anchored and just as the lines were put away, and the sailing gloves came off, the rest of Team Banyan approached carrying treats and a Bottle of Champagne!! The next hour was spent chatting about The Race as we kept a close eye on the next boat to cross the Finish Line, and it was well over an hour before one did.
What followed were more Whoops of Joy as we were pretty confident that
Banyan had just come in First Place!! Besides, the only other boat given the handicaps that might compete with us, had more people on board than the allowable two, and would surely be disqualified, non?
The Second Day of Racing had all of Team Banyan onboard (minus Sue) and we followed the directions for the South Coast Race, this time, starting in Hillsborough.
There was initially some confusion over the Start Buoy,
and with the Capt'N momentarily distracted we somehow lost our positional advantage and this time it was our turn to bow our bow to
SV Yellowbird as we were now forced to do a 360 to avoid collision. Oh well, what goes around, comes around, right?
And so we started Race 2 a tad behind, but we slowly started to catch up. The winds were a tad more boisterous that day, making it a bit of a faster ride. We raced from Hillsborough to JackADan through the pass
and out towards the Sisters,
to Frigate Island where life got a little rough
with the incoming currents churning up the seas. And then back to The Sisters and crossing the finish in Tyrell Bay. Banyan placed 3rd that day.
Race 3 was more of the same. The winds a little quieter, which suited Banyan perfectly and gave us a bit of an advantage,
The sloops out having fun that day,
making for some pretty photo-ops.
The Rail-Bait doing their job perfectly,
and Dalynn, the photographer, climbing around getting the best photo-ops.
and the Capt'N, every now and then, would check the sail trim, and then in a loud and booming voice, acting the part,
would yell "C'mon man, Winch it in, harder, harder! Is that all you've got?"
As we neared the Finish Line we were witness to a bit of a scuffle between two competing boats,
that were so preoccupied with having the positional advantage that they lost track of where they were, and came perilously close to land and as a result lost the wind, which then in turn, gave us the advantage and we smiled as we raced by them. This time we placed second.
That evening, the Race Results were announced at The SlipWay. Thanks to a great Team, some great weather, knowledge and skills and laughter and all that,
Banyan had placed second overall in her class.
Unfortunately, as the prizes were handed out, someone else accepted the First Place Prize of Race One, when they knew, and we knew, and everyone there knew, that they shouldn't have. Even when confronted by a mutual friend, they shrugged their shoulders and quickly walked away.
We enjoyed the festivities that evening. We sailed away from Carriacou having had a Wonderful Time of It.
The Capt'N has since been beaming as
THIS ARTICLE describes
him all of us, as SPECTACULAR.
And I, well I am beaming at The Experience.
The Having Faced my Fear, and Done it Anyways. And it had been a Blast.
Banyan and her Capt'N had indeed been Spectacular. Who would'a Thought?
And best of all, we had Cake !!
Credit: Thanks to Dalynn&Glenn (SV Amoray) for some of the photos.