Sunday

Sunday morning. Rain. And wind. And we were groggy. Now I did what I should have done earlier and looked at the tickets that Normandie had accumulated for us. It was that that I realized that Normandie had bought ferry tickets for the 10:00 ferry, and it was just pulling away. No problem, the tickets only cost $5 so we will buy tickets for the 12:30 ferry. In the rain we learned that nothing can be bought on Sunday, not even bus tokens. Two soggy sailors were beginning to panic. We had grandstand tickets and no way to get there. In desperation we walked in the rain to the ferry terminal at 12:00 to see if we could get tickets. Nobody there. The ferry arrived and other soggy sailing enthusiasts started boarding, tickets in hand. We got in line, showed our 10:00 tickets to the attendant, and I could have kissed him. The ferry was not full, and he welcomed us aboard. Huge soggy sigh of relief. We settled in starboard seats, and realized that the island was on our port, and all we could see was ocean, we could not see the coastline of Bermuda as we traveled. Of course there were comments about the desirability of being POSH: port out, starboard home.
And then we saw them. J Boats. Not 1/4 mile away. Not racing but going through their paces. Hard upwind, heeling at 30 degrees, downwind with huge spinnakers. This display of beauty was worth the hardships. Look them up. J Boats. These were the boats that Sir Thomas Lipton sailed against Cornelius Vanderbilt for the America's Cup in the 30's. This is the first time all existing J Boats have ever sailed against each other. The sight was simply amazing.
We left the magnificent creations of the past in the wake of the high speed ferry, and soon we landed at The America's Cup Village, and the tension and excitement of the international spectators was strong. The races that determined the challenger had been in progress for a few weeks and it was down to two boats, Sweden and New Zealand. We were late arriving so the part of the grandstand seats sheltered from the rain was full and we sat in the dwindling rain, but the wind was still blowing, and the boats were on the course preparing for the start. And they really do look just like on TV, except in real life the speed they are going really is felt. This is a real spectacle. These boats are real, not some computer generated fantasy.
For those of you who did not see it on tv, Sweden won the first of three and New Zealand won the 2nd and 3rd. The races were close, high speed competition. Very exciting. The last race was somewhat of an exception with NZ having an ever lengthening lead. NZ was several hundred meters ahead, sailing up on the foils at 40 mph, 1/4 mile from the finish line heading for a sure victory, when a major mess -up occurred, They almost hit a buoy) and they went dead in the water. Fighting to get back up and foiling again the Sweden boat caught up to them at the finish line. The finish line is right in front of the grandstand, and the grandstand was pandemonium. New Zealand won by 1/3 boat length at 40 mph. Gosh golly.
If NZ had won all three races they would have been the challengers for the cup. But since they lost one of the races the deciding races would be run the next day, Monday.
Will and I happily got on the ferry, for a most enjoyable ride back to St Georges. On the way Will started talking with the couple beside us. The man is a geologist with a local research station. They had a lot to talk about. Small World.
Back on the boat, showers, and Dark 'n Stormy.
Bill Doar
s/v Advent II