Sailing races is my first love, but on a very close second place I love doing deliveries, especially at night.
Right now I am on my way back from Tortola to Antigua up on deck of the mothership Charisma of team Taz. We did 2 weeks of racing. First the St Thomas International regatta and straight after the BVI Spring Regatta.
I am on watch staring into the oblis hoping we will catch our dinner again like we did on our way down here.
Unfortunately we did not.
Instead we had a very bumpy ride, with big waves and strong winds right on our nose. So bumpy that during my second watch at 3.30am the entire captain chair came off the deck with bolts and all and smacked me against the mast. My head missed the pole by an inch, instead my shoulder took the blow.
Another injured limp because last week somebody forgot to lock the traveler during a gybe and I got thrown around the boat by the main sheet hurting my both legs (badly!) in the process.. In any other circumstances I would not have continued sailing but there were a couple of other crew issues/injuries which would have left TAZ very short-handed.
But I did not know the chair thing was going to happen when I saw the BVIs growing smaller in the distance. I am enjoying my solitairy time with my legs up to take the pressure off the now 6 days old swelling.
The last 2 weeks were hard work, painful and fun. We did not do extremely well on rating but our boat speed improved and I learned a great deal in my role as a navigator. I really got forced out of my comfort zone and must admit that I enjoyed this position a lot, albeit it a dangerous one considering my physical position around the traveler.
The races were a mix of round island(s) and upwind/downwind courses with mostly a small island or rock operating as a mark. The social itenary on St Thomas was already very damaging to my liver, but that was before I had been to Tortola. Damn, they really know how to create hangovers down there!
Funny thing was that there were also 4 Dutch teams in Tortola and with 2 boats I got to spend a great deal of my time with. It is maybe hard to imagine but I really had to get used to speaking Dutch that much again; an international life style apparently does that to you.
Being a racer means you sometimes have to make tough decisions though and during the course of last week I decided to not continue sailing with team Taz.
So here I am going from having the end of the caribbean season worked out to having 3 big question marks for St Barths, the Antigua Racing Week and the Antigua-Bermuda race. But I am not stressed out about it.
Instead I am staring across the Caribbean Sea and can’t help thinking that eventhough it is a very uncertain life, thus far my ‘plan B’ has been the best thing I could have ever done for myself. Bruises and all..
Do what you can’t.
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