Musket Madness!

Bamboozle
Jamie and Lucy Telfer
Mon 1 Oct 2012 06:33
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017:46.339S 177:11.324E
The view down over Musket Cove from the top of Malolo with the yachts beginning to gather in the anchorage for the 29th Annual Fiji Regatta.
The Pirates Day "Race" is an any anything goes charge to Beachcomber Island using all means necessary.  We employed water balloons, a powerful deckwash hose and our large diesel engine to muscle our way into first place.  I even resorted to using my swimming goggles and diving fins to make sure of my place as "first skipper on the beach" when we arrived.
Relaxing on the beach in the Pirates graveyard with Chris from the Yacht Kiwi.  The reception at Beachcomber was fantastic with everyone in fancy dress and rum shots as a "vaccination" when you arrived on shore.
Lucy and Robin deep into the party spirit.
Bamboozle's winning crew at the prize giving. Grahame and Lynne off Adamite, Rick and Robin from Endangered Species and Chris, Debbie, Connor and Stephanie from Kiwi with our Cava Bowl Trophy and two large bottles of over-proof Bounty Rum.  The really funny thing is that the Fiji Times reported the race as if it was the real thing with an article on their Sunday Sports Pages commencing "All the way from the United Kingdom Bamboozle made sure her presence was felt at the 29th Fiji Regatta Week winning the race from Musket Cove to Beachcomber in the Mamanucas yesterday"....not a mention of the fact we had motored all the way. 
The victorious buccaneers make their way home with their loot.  
The competition gets a bit more serious.  We chose not to "race our house" in the real thing and were pleased to be asked to crew on Adamite for the "Sandbank Race" and the "Around Malolo Classic".  Here is Adamite just after the start and already at the front, racing in the most perfect conditions.  Grahame and Lynne are not only an excellent sailors but are also very experienced racers and managed to sail their fully laden home to two highly creditable second places behind a brand new empty race boat and ahead of some much bigger and supposedly quicker yachts. 
Ghosting down the back of the sandbank towards the finish.   Racing around here requires goods eyes and strong nerves as there are many uncharted coral heads littering the course.  Fortunately the water is crystal clear and in good conditions like this you should be able to see the reefs before you hit them.
Not a bad place to finish a yacht race.  This beautiful white sandbank emerges from the water for just a few hours either side of low tide and the fantastic Musket Cove Staff set up some shade and made the preparations for the post race party. 
 
 
"The Sausage Sizzle" migrates to the sandbank for the day.
No afternoon of Musket week would be complete without plenty of silly games.  Here Team New Zealand are preparing to take on the Rest of the World in the Tug of War.
There is plenty of opportunity to display your sailing skills (or lack of them).  The competitors were a lot more focused when it comes to the match racing in identical small Merlin keelboats.  Sadly Lucy and I did not progress beyond the first round where we were eliminated by the losing finalist.  The eventual winners, the couple off a Canadian Yacht called Quickstar were the only boat in the competition to helmed by a female who comprehensively out-sailed quite a few guys who thought they really knew their stuff.
Another day...another sport.  Sunday morning and we were on to the golf course.  Here is Lucy in a fetching lime green outfit belting another four iron down the middle of the fairway.  Whilst we failed to make it on to the podium on this occasion our sporting perseverance was rewarded when Lucy won the Ladies section of the Malolo Marathon (which was actually only four kilometres). Her steely determination was fueled by the knowledge that first prize was a $180 treatment at the Resort Spa and no-one was going to deprive her of that little luxury.  
The Hobie knock out is another fiercely contested competition.  The light airs of the first day (above) proved tricky but the return of the full throated trades provided some very exciting racing with a couple of entertaining capsizes and nosedives proving the old adage it is never over until it is over.  Our friends off Ivory Quays won in the end despite flipping the boat in spectacular fashion in the second race of the best of three final.
The "S" party called for fancy dress starting with the letter S.  I'm not quite sure how we came up with the idea of "Surrogate Mother" but my outfit was disturbing enough to secure the prize for "humour". 
Bamboozle ready for a party and dressed overall with every flag on board dragged out of the locker. 
Our entry to the live figure head competition. Jamie as the "The Spirit of Bula"....we tried to buy our way into contention by bribing the judges with "cava", the traditional Fijian gift of narcotic roots.

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