Calvin goes racing

Hello everyone!

We've been spending the last few weeks in the USVI/BVI again, enjoying the protection of these Virgin Islands. The first week in April we were witnesses in our friend Dan Dickison's wedding to Cindy Hope at the Bitter End in Virgin Gorda. That was a fun week and we felt honored to be there to share it with them.

We spent a lot of time in St. John, which we all decided is definately the nicest of all the islands we've been to. We cruised all the way around the island. In the past, we've spent most of our time on the north side, where you find all of the spectacular beaches. We found that the south side is almost as beautiful and a lot less crowded. There are plenty of very well maintained hiking trails throughout the island which we frequented. We all walked them together and sometimes Dan ran them. I still can't imagine how he does it. The trails are so steep that we get out of breath just walking. Stupendous Man.

We decided to enter the Rolex Regatta in St. Thomas, which was last weekend (Easter weekend) on Calvin, with just the four of us as crew. We were going to enter one of the racing classes but wanted to avoid the hassle of having the boat measured for the CYA rule. Not to mention taking all of our stuff off the boat and putting it...Where? So we entered the Jib and Main class because we didn't have to be measured. And we left almost everything on the boat. Friday's race was light air but a long course so we won the race that day. Saturday we had two short courses and got a third and another first. After those two days of racing, we were so psyched because the kids were really into it. The boat is so fast and easy to sail. And there is that first place thing that made it fun too.

Well...Sunday was not our lucky day. The course for the day was a great course around the Pillsbury Sound area. There was a nice breeze and we figured all we had to do to win our class and a nice Rolex watch was basically finish the race in 4th place or better. Dani tried to tighten our hydraulic backstay just before the sequence began and nothing happened. A roll pin had broken inside the panel. I took the wheel so Dan could fix it before the start. So... I'm driving along, happy as a pig in shit, sort if paralleling the starting line on port about 3 boat lengths to leeward. We were getting down towards the committee boat end when I noticed Donnybrook ( a seventy-something foot boat for those of you who haven't seen it ) motoring to leeward of us. They were motoring at a higher angle than we were sailing. As they came closer and closer I thought to myself, "I've got to get out of here". There was a boat to weather of us from Puerto Rico and another boat to weather of them. I couldn't bail out in either direction without hitting Donnybrook or the Puerto Rican boat. Then, along comes a starboard tacker that caused the PR boat to bear off and Donnybrook to head up even more. So poor Calvin was squished in between the two boats. We got a large hole in our starboard side, just above the waterline about 12 feet back from the bow, from where Donnybrook finally turned away and kicked their transom into us (Dan had a few choice words directed at Mr. Donnybrook). The bow and port side are not too bad but need some patching. So we had to drop out of the race before it even started. Donnybrook dropped out too. We went into the yacht club after finding a Marina to dock Calvin, and filed for redress and protested Donnybrook. I found the skipper of the PR boat and he agreed to witness for us, saying that he agreed that we had no where to go and Donnybrook was at fault. Sounds promising, doesn't it? Well, Donnybrook came in and said that we came in from behind and hit their transom, therefore we were overtaking and at fault. Our star witness, who was in our class, changed his story once he was in the room because he had done well enough that race to win our class if we did not get redress. So the committee found us at fault. No redress. The final dagger is that Donnybrook got redress. We thought they dropped out because they felt guilty for causing the collision! Their only damage was a scratch just below their rail. I must say that this is the most disappointing regatta I've been to. I'm writing this e-mail as therapy, trying to make myself feel better for smashing our fine yacht and home. It's one of those things that I just wish I could do over so much. But, life goes on. Slowly. We had balsa core shipped down and the repair begins tomorrow.

Once repaired, we hope to spend our final days enjoying this spectacular place. I plan on spending as much time in the water as possible. Dan's therapy has been studying to be a weather man so we can get to Bermuda safely. The kid's social calendars are booked; they've met so many friends on St. Thomas. They are in heaven. We'll look for weather to head to Bermuda in a week or so.

Calvin bandaged and out.