I have never sailed on a laser or a small catamaran so, instead I was prepared to join Mark on his yacht to be part of the support crew. The race started at 4pm Friday afternoon and went through to 4pm on Saturday.
Claire was the manager of the Green Dragons race team and she had lined up a host of good and not so good sailors to do one-hour legs around a triangular course in the bay.
Mark’s yacht saw participants coming and going, jumping onto and out of the small boats. There was a party atmosphere with beer and food and music. I didn’t fancy a night on the boat so went home and returned the next day with fresh croissants for the stalwarts.
It came to about noon and someone had let Claire down – she would have to do an hour’s turn herself again. She asked if I’d like to join her and because I couldn’t think of a good excuse, I said Yes. I already had my swimming costume on so I was prepared.
Fortunately I didn’t have to do any of the sailing – I just sat on the bow and kept the boat balanced. But the ride was enough to earn me a Green Dragons team t shirt. I felt like a real sailor.
After a few more hours I could hear lots of shouting and whooping and laughing coming from the next boat – Valencia – and as one of them had rowed across to us in a dingy, I though I would return with him to that boat for a visit.
It was extremely hard going for the tow of us to row against the tide and wind to get to Valencia. At one stage the yacht club dingy was sent to help us but although I was happy to accept a tow, the other rower was adamant that we should continue to kill ourselves to get there under our own power (that’s men for you).
When we got Valencia the crew wouldn’t allow me on board wearing the t shirt of an competitor team so I was forced to change it for a yellow shirt instead. The green one was promptly taken from me and chucked over board.
It was all very good-natured banter but I did feel pretty guilty as we returned to the yacht club and I was wearing the t shirt of a team for whom I did not race and my original team asking me where my green t shirt was. I decided to go home, shower and change into a grey t shirt so nobody would get upset but I fear it was already too late for the Green Dragons – I don’t think they will ever forgive me for defecting.
It was a great day out – although I left in a very compromising position. And I had my first experience of lasers and that was great. And the beer of course – that was good. And I met a lot of new people on the Green Dragon team.