Grenada - 28 January
Dearloves
Tue 31 Jan 2006 20:12
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We went to Grand Anse beach on Grenada to watch the
work boat racing. These are boats which are all owned and sailed by local
people, and as part of the annual Grenada Sailing Festival regatta, there are
nine races for them, held in heats of five or six boats each, spread over two
days.
The boats are very heavy and the launch requires
plenty of muscle power:
 The boats are held in the surf for the start,
which is a "le Mans" style start:
  Le Mans start
 The boats' sails are often second hand. It
may not be visible from this but if you look closely at the turquoise boat
in the foreground of the picture immediately above, a single star can be seen at
the top of her mainsail, which has been cut down to fit the
boat. Could it have been a Stella sail in a former
life?
We met up with lots of people from boats we knew at
the beach, which made it quite an event.
Two of the workboats capsized (a slow "death
roll" downwind being the cause in each case). This was quite problematic
because once they were over they sank, having no extra
buoyancy. Luckily the organisers had a rescue boat out there in
no time, to tow them back into the shore.
The finish is very exciting as it requires one
person from each boat to jump out and run over the finish line, just as the boat
is beached. Twice we saw two boats coming in together, fighting it
out for first place and sometimes the runner would jump too early and then
almost be mowed down by the boat, with a second runner jumping from the bow when
the boat was truely in the shallows. Needless to say there was lots of
shouting and encouragement from the spectators, fuelled by large amounts of
rum.
The event had a stage with music, bars, food and
market stalls. At one point they were giving out umbrellas, and the
compere asked for "anyone from overseas" to come up onto the stage to win an
umbrella. The first person onto the stage was Alice,
closely followed by Eddie, Anna and Pip. Alice happily chatted away
over the microphone, and came back with an umbrella. One of
Charlie's list of least useful things to have on a boat (ranking with
a lawnmower) particularly in the Caribbean! Needless to say it has gone
into deep storage on Keoma.
 Alice on the mike
We are now in Tobago, around 75 miles south east of
Grenada. Another update will follow...
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