St Maarten Regatta
Purple Mist
Skipper: Kate Cope
Sat 4 Mar 2023 11:48
St Maarten Regatta
We have arrived in St Maarten for the Heineken Regatta.
After the C600 race we spent a couple of days relaxing in Antigua. We had a lovely lunch at Catherine’s Cafe on the beach where we listened to some great live music and chilled on the beach. It was clearly the place to be as the RORC committee were also there so a good chance to catch up with the commodore about his new boat.
Claire’s daughter Emily joined us for the trip up to St Maarten then another friend Suzie joined us in St Maarten
The first day was windward leeward which for the non sailors is basically going up and down a course as fast as you can . Spinnaker up Spinnaker down, repack it and off you go again. It’s very hectic and not at all our specialty…..neither are we practised as a team. Our class is CSA7 with 9 boats and includes 2x J105 , J109 , Figaro 1 and Dehler 30 and a J70. After Day 1 we had an 8th a 9th and a joint 8th which made us dead last
Second day was a coastal race along the shore which is much more our thing . We had a real dual with the Dehler with them trying to get past and me coming up and down to stop them. It looks good covered in sponsorship and clearly French and I was really pleased at the end of the day we have beaten the Dehler and the Figaro….7th. We are now 8th overall
Interestingly this is now the third race where we are bumping along the bottom which is a bit disappointing as normally now I can do better. However this has not stopped the press interest in our all girls team. We were invited to the official press conference to be interviewed and today we have an onboard reporter from yachting world joining us for the whole race. It’s off round the island today so again hopefully more suites to Purple Mist
Finally last night we treated ourselves to a 5lb Lobster. We picked it from a tank and it was pretty feisty ….until it was cooked then is was pretty tasty
