8.19

Today I went sailing in St. Maartin. It was a crew tour that I had signed up for a few days earlier hoping I would have time in my schedule to get off the ship. Luckily, I did some extra work the days prior and had enough time to leave the ship for a few hours and man was it worth it!

We stepped of the ship and were greeted by a man on the pier who took us to a small dock where he gave us some information. We were going to be racing sailboats that competed in the Americas Cup. He asked us if there was anyone in our group from Canada (there was) and he made her team captain of the Canadian boat Canada II (KC-2). Then he asked if there was anyone from the United States (there were a few) and he made Allison a team captain of Stars & Stripes (US-55). He then had each of the captains pick crew members for their boat. The captains picked back and forth until every person was assigned a boat. I was picked for the Stars & Strips team (of course).

A tripoon with 40 or so plastic lawn chairs bolted to the deck came up to the dock and we hopped on, each team sitting on one side of the boat. As we putted out away from shore, each person was assigned a position on the boat. There were main grinders, primary grinders, back stay somethingerothers and a few other positions that I can't remember their exact title. I was assigned to be a primary grinder. My job, along with three others, was to crank these winches to move the jib (more on this later).

As we motored along we could see Canada II and Stars and Stripes sailing towards us. We slowed down and Cananda II came up right along side and tied onto our boat. The Canadian team boarded and then we waited for Stars & Stripes to come along side and then we boarded as well. The boat was amazing looking! It had the two wheel cockpit setup and just looked like it was built to race (I know, it was). US-55 had three "real" crew members: Captain Morgan (yes, that was his real name) and two other mates. After we separated from the taxi boat they began to tell us each about our job positions and how the race would work.

Essentially it was a four (or three?) leg race, following Americas Cup rules which means the race begins with a running start, which was really cool. There was a judge in a motor boat who was monitoring the race. He held up a green flag meaning that the race was about to begin, then as soon as a white flag went up, we had exactly 6 minutes before we could cross the starting line. This means we had to tac back and forth at just the right speed so we could cross the starting line in front of KC-2, but not a second before the 6 minutes elapsed. We were battling back and forth with KC-2 and timed it just right so we were on our starboard tac and she had to yield to us as we crossed the starting line.

The best part about this race was that it was really a race and everyone really wanted to win. It wasn't just a generic leisurely touristy sail excursion, it was a let's go as fast as possible to beat these guys race. You could tell the captains of each ship really wanted to win too and were determined to do so. As soon as we were under way everyone was really put to work with their jobs. The captain would command the main grinders as they controlled the mainsail and depending on what tac we were on, the first or second mate (they were in pits on the port and starboard sides) would command the primary grinders. This explanation may not make sense, but the winch we were controlling as primary grinders was essentially a big steel shaft that came out of the deck. Out of the main shaft, extending to the port and starboard sides were 4 handles. Two people stood on the port and starboard side facing forward and two people stood on the port and starboard side facing aft. Imagine 4 people shoulder to shoulder but every other person is facing the opposite direction and there are handles in front of us. Now that I have you thoroughly confused I will move on. The first mate would yell things like, "standby grinders, second gear" and then "grind!" At that point we'd crank our handles as fast as we could in the desired direction (depicted by the gears) which would pull the jib until we were told to stop.

The race was so much fun but by the last leg we were probably 6 boat lengths behind Canada II. We gave it everything we had and as we neared the finish line we actually passed Canada II and were leading by about a foot. Unfortunately at the last minute Canada II crept past us and won by literally 2 or 3 inches. We were devastated.

Despite the loss, everyone had a great time. On our way inland the Captain let people drive the boat which was really cool. We then moored the boats about 300 feet from the shore and were told we were allowed to jump off the boat and swim while we waited for the water taxi to come get us. So we all hurled ourselves off the deck into the water and swam around for a while. The taxi picked us up about 20 minutes later and took us to the ships' office where we were given free rum and, more importantly, FREE T-SHIRTS! Nothing gets me more excited than a free t-shirt! I also bought a picture that was taken from the judges boat as we began the race [see photo of a photo].