2002
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Paradise Found.
Apr. 6, 2002
Saturday morning, April 6, 2002
Position: 17 00.83W 61 46.22W – Paradise
(The Falmouth Harbor Marina Dock)
Greg and George left Wednesday and Serge left yesterday, leaving me solo in paradise. Ever since we arrived I’ve been feeling drowsy and drained, so in spite of the long work list I’ve created, I spent much of the day yesterday snoozing, reading, and plunking on the guitar. Sent some e-mails from the boat, walked to town and bought groceries, and tried to find the guy who the Sailing Week organizers say is supposed to measure the boat for her Caribbean rating (no luck, and his phone just rings away unanswered). After that, I was a vegetable. Perhaps the past year of working so hard on the boat and fundraising is finally catching up with me, but I just couldn’t move once I sat still. Or maybe it was the two days of partying when we arrived….?
In either case, I went to bed early in spite of the pulsing reggae music (and I LOVE reggae) coming from the town below. It was my last night off the boat, and I’m moving back on today until more of our team arrives in a couple weeks. Time to get cranking on the work list again.
We are kind of on our own at the dock. The big boats immediately next to us left for other ports. However, to OP’s right is the famous J-Boat Endeavor, and to our left is another J, Valsheda, and a giant schooner named Windrose. A third J, Shamrock V was here a couple nights ago but left in a flurry (which included the crushing of a rental car beneath their massive mainsail) for a regatta this weekend in St. Barts. It’s hard to say which J is most overwhelming. Endeavor holds the most allure as a pure sailing machine, with her cleaner deck layout and enormous reputation. Valsheda exudes luxury and gleams with gobs of dark varnished mahogany, while Shamrock V possibly surpasses both with an astounding display of copper(?) plated metal (and I mean EVERY peice of metal visible from lifelines to winches, to cleats, to you name it). The amount of money spent on any one of these awesome boats in a single year would keep Ocean Planet going her whole life!
It’s three weeks before Sailing Week starts on the 28th, and on the 18th the spectacular Classic Regatta begins. Some of the huge beauties actually do both regattas! Which is crazy, since Sailing Week boasts around 300 boats, not exactly the safest scene for a 140 ft. classic.
And the huge schooner Windrose:
On the 16th, our friends and supporters start arriving to help on the boat. We hope to go out and view at least the last race of the classic regatta, that will be WAY cool. Then the rest of our gang pulls into town for Sailing Week (we have practice sails scheduled on the 26th and the 27th). This is going to be some serious racing, against boats like Roy Disney’s Pyewacket (who boasts several SF Bay Area rock star sailors on the crew). Ocean Planet is not a bouy racer, but we’ll take advantage of the tradewinds here to put on a real show (20+ kts?) on the reaches and runs. It is still not too late to join our supporting crew . . . and I hope more do or we may have trouble paying the bills for this regatta! Let me know if you are interested by calling me on my cell phone (which sometimes actually works here!): 510-866-6582.
Workin hard to escape paradise,
Bruce