Antigua Round the Island Race on NIMROD

Last Saturday morning we proudly put on our team “Mad Mongoose” T-shirts that the local bar had sponsored us with and climbed aboard Nimrod for the Round the Island race. Simon, our captain had been briefed the night before and the eight crew were each given a position on deck. In the cruiser racer class there was only three yachts; we were by far the biggest. I was on the Yankee sheets tailing for Jessie and Nick who manned the electric winches. Everything was electric so, as it was, I had the most frantic task of all. The tacking duel to the start line was fun then we steadily opened the gap loosing sight of our opponents after about three hours. The wind picked up to 25-30 knots on the nose. As Nick and Steve went forward to recoil the main halyard they became buried under a rush of cart-wheeling water and I lost sight of them. We all got saturated at some point. The finish line for Saturday was off Jolly Harbour, however we had to anchor in Five Islands bay on the other side of the isthmus because Nimrod draws 4 metres which is about 2 metres too much for Jolly harbour. The eastern side of the island was being pounded by a mounting swell than nearly dinghy wrecked the forward party going to shore for the Miss Antigua competition and BBQ with free rum. Doug, Ben, Steve and Jessie damaged the propeller during the landing, could not get the motor going and decided it would be unwise to attempt dingeying back out through the beach break anyway so they left Nick, Simon, George, Anna and myself on board. Nick swam ashore, got the dinghy going and returned to Nimrod without drama. Anna phoned a mate and arranged a windy ride around the headland to the party. That left four of us. I cooked a big meal in the ultra modern galley and we drank rum and Riocca till the roll wouldn’t inhibit our sleep. Nick and I were allocated the master cabin finished in superb varnished teak joinery and rich soft furnishings, lounge, bathroom etc. Unbeknownst to us the race was called off the next day due to bad weather; the VHF radio announcement not reaching us we gallantly raced on Sunday smashing the race record. The prize was awarded to us anyway at the Antiguan Yacht Club presentation night on Sunday evening. It was all in fun (now that we’d one).

Tomorrow Nick and I will be sailing to Guadeloupe. If we don’t extract ourselves now its only going to become more difficult and we can always check our sadness by the plan to return for Classics week and Antigua Race week in May before meeting up with Graeme.