- Local News for Southern Sailors - June 2002 Next Story
Women, wind, and the race to Mexico
By Anne Wister
What are the words to La Bamba? It's 0500 and we're floating...drifting, watching the full moon and five planets in alignment. Talking in quiet voices to allow those not on watch to sleep.
The swells started from the southeast. We knew the wind was coming so we got ready, and by the end of our watch at 0800 we were steadily making our way west by southwest at 9.5 knots. The wind built. We flew genoa, staysail, and main. Then mizzen, staysail, and mizzen—calling trim, telling tales, bearing off even more westerly.
The crew is watching the water temperature. Seventy-nine degrees is good...80...81...82 brings us into .5 to 1.5 knots of current so we go back west, around the warm eddies bubbling off the Gulf Stream, seeking the kick of helpful current. Other boats take off south, and we wonder if we have made the right choice.
Hot pork roast and pineapple rice from the crock pot. The watch changes and some are slightly seasick in the six-foot swells. The dolphin greet us at dawn, 15 small spotted friends jumping and playing in the bow wake. The sun rises, the moon sets.
There are no boats anywhere in sight. Our competition went south. We bear west still, slightly anxious but stalwart in our decision. A big ship crosses on the horizon, goes on by, then turns directly towards us. In hailing, we find it to be a British warship interested in our crew of five blonde women in bikinis (and three men). We chat. We have a scheduled radio check-in at 0800 and 2000, which turns out to be another racer, reporting positions to race committee via e-mail, plotting everyone's position and keeping watch over the flock by night. We record position, current, water temperature, and hear the news from the rest of the fleet. Winds are steady at 19-23 knots. The current carries us around the warm eddy to our destination, southeast to Isla Mujeres.
We have a contest to see who spots land first. Jeff Grossman, our fearless leader and navigator on the helm, wins the beer. John takes a series of sextant readings and jokingly claims to see land first via radar. The wind lies down, and we're down to 10 knots approaching the finish line. The Mexican navy is on patrol, and we pass between them and the white flag on Punta Norte at Isla Mujeres. We cross the finish line showered, well fed, knots rubbed out of backs and shoulders, rested, in bikinis, with guitar, drum, tambourine and shakers, dancing a conga line around the deck singing La Bomba, or our own version of the song, "La, la, la Polyphonic."
It is 1420 Monday afternoon, and the Mexican navy is not quite sure what to make of us. They guide us into the marina where we dock bow-to and scramble ashore. The 70-foot ocean racers are already there, anchored out with their 12-foot draft. We meet the crews of Trader, Fazisi and Renegade with shots of tequila all around and party into the night.
The next morning we decide to dock stern-to due to dock height and anchor (and drunken sailor) peril. How many hungover captains does it take to turn a 51-foot boat around? We had five captains with five ideas, and we all had a good laugh and got the job done eventually.
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Boats start trickling in, happy to join the festivities. They keep arriving till Thursday night, some caught in the four-knot current, some broken, some under power, some becalmed.
We swim, shop, walk all around town, golf cart, scooter, eat, party, lose horribly in basketball to the local hotshots, meet and greet and celebrate, enjoying the atmosphere of the island of women and the spirit and company of the regatta. The tequila and Corona flow freely. We tour the boats, dive the reef, and dance until dawn. At the delicious and delightful awards banquet, our three gentlemen captains are each escorted by two ladies in black proudly accepting the first place trophy and lighting up the dance floor on the beach. It was a memorable time of much camaraderie and friendship, new and old.
Thank you to the town of Isla Mujeres and all who worked to make this 34th annual regatta such a great success.XXXIV Regata del Sol al Sol April 26 St. Petersburg to Isla Mujeres, Mexico Spinnaker PHRF El Time Cor Time Cl Fl Trader Fred Detwiler Andrews 70 -81 50:32:00 61:47:00 1 1 Fazisi Bogdan Stojkowski Custom 78 -63 53:04:34 61:49:34 2 2 Renegade Steve Gagne/Ken Meade SC 68 -96 48:32:00 61:52:00 3 3 Tripp Tease Bob Armstrong Tripp 33 78 73:10:05 62:20:50 4 4 Midnite Rider Forrest Banks Tartan 4100 96 78:30:51 65:10:51 5 5 Jackal Allen E. Davidson Morgan 30 189 92:27:18 66:12:18 6 6 Critical Path Bill & Mike Dooley Beneteau 51 66 78:20:50 69:10:50 7 7 Shearwater Robert Johnson C & C 38 117 87:14:58 70:59:58 8 8 Halleluja William M. Senske Morgan 45 93 91:01:00 78:06:00 9 10 Jose Frio Joseph Martin Catalina 34 138 113:32:00 94:22:00 10 14 Non Spinnaker Sinisterre Bill Tait S & S 40 189 98:31:42 72:16:42 1 9 Little Feat Robert Fox Cal 31 159 105:28:38 83:23:38 2 11 Maciejka Maciej Rosochowicz Roberts 46 204 114:14:41 85:54:41 3 12 Splendor Gerald Haskins Sloop 38 147 110:49:35 90:24:35 4 13 True Cruising Polyphonic Jeff Grossman Skye 51 114 74:24:38 58:34:38 1 Mi Vida Loca Mike Boom Beneteau 40 150 85:30:40 64:46:40 2 Mirage John Bell Gulfstar 47 156 102:15:04 80:35:04 3 The Puffin Doug Mensing Seafarer 38 213 131:39:48 102:04:48 4 Wanderer Michael Kirshner O'Day 37 162 134:12:13 111:42:13 5 DNF - Callahan, Glorious Daze, Infini, Anthie, Luan Two, After Hours, Seraphim Captains Jeff Grossman and Jean Levine own the 51-foot Skye Polyphonic. Captain Anne Wister sails at the charter boat center at Dolphin Landings on St. Pete Beach (www.dolphinlandings.com) and races as often as possible in the Tampa Bay area. |