Well the Heineken Regatta sure didn’t disappoint. We had heard it was quite an event and it proved out to be so. The entire island gets behind this event and the races are arranged so that there’s a stop, and therefore a party, at three of the main cities on the islands.

It seems though that most of the boats still come back through the bridge at Simpson Bay so our vantage point just outside the Simpson Bay Bridge turned out to be the absolute best. Each morning the boats head out the bridge at 0930 and return through at 1500. With 211 entries that’s a lot of boats coming in and out the bridge at one time and the already slow traffic on the island is ground to a halt the longer the bridge is raised. The fun part for us was to monitor channel 12 on our VHF (the bridge channel) to hear ‘Sam’ the bridge operator yelling at all the boats to “close that gap captains, if I see a gap I’m closing the bridge”, “hey there Tiger Lilly, I don’t see who’s in front of you but run him over if you have to because your holding up everyone behind you...GET MOVIN”, “listen captains I can’t hold this bridge open any longer. If I see a gap I’ll close it and you’ll have to go out on the 1130 bridge.”, “what the heck are you doing captains, you’re going single file in a mile long channel...pass each other...GET MOVIN”. Once he closed the bridge on the last straggler just to prove he would and when the boat tried to gun it too late he yells back at him “you’re an idiot...you’re going to play chicken with the bridge...you’re an idiot...you’re going to loose” at which point, of course, the boat gave up his rush at the closing gate.

Each day we would find ourselves at the St. Martin Yacht Club to see the boats coming into the lagoon at 1500. The regatta organizers have introduced a new award to the best decked out boat as they enter the lagoon and this keeps the crowds entertained.

Several of the race boats and their crews are becoming quite familiar to us and we watch how they do in their respective classes. The boat ‘Zen’ that travelled with us from BVI has won first place in it’s division. There are several ‘Gunboat’ catamarans entered...one named Elvis who we saw back several islands ago.

The final wrap up party on the beach is called the ‘legendary party’ for good reason. Every participating racer, organizer, volunteer, spectator, and vacationer is out to this party. The place is crazy and we stay out way past our usual bed time but still well before the party ends.

This morning it’s off anchor at 0730 t take a dock where we can, once again, have our refrigeration looked at. I feel this time we might be ‘third time lucky’ and with the mechanics name being Mr. FROST (not kidding) we have have high hopes that this time will be the last time we need to stop for this issue as we’re now getting anxious to move on to other parts of the island. After an exhaustive effort on his part it turned out to be a leak that now requires a new evaporator plate. Not sure why it’s gone unfound for so long but it is what it is and now it’s soon to be fixed for good. Parts on order so in the mean time we’ll take a trip around the island.