I was hoping to at this stage tell you about all the incredible racing we have been having out here in Bermuda. But unfortunately that isn’t the case, in fact far from it. After a handling error by the shipping company, where having been unloaded in Bermuda, the container with 10 phantoms (majority of the fleet) was then reloaded on to the ship and sent to New York, the decision was taken to abandon the event, based of a number of factors. I have to say, we weren’t personally involved in the meeting, and the so didn’t have any say in the decision. My thoughts were to race, even if we had started late and only had a couple of days, but that was that and there was no changing it.
Because Nikki and I are flying on from here to our event in Rio it made no sense to return to the UK and thus we have been left with a number of days here in Bermuda. Ordinarily one would be quite excited at the prospect of a week relaxing on a tropical Island, however given my inability to sit still for more than 5 minutes at a time, and the alternate phantom sailing missed opportunity, we have been force to be a little creative with our time.
There have been a few highlights over the last couple of days, Before Jon left to get back to the UK we managed to find our way to a snorkelling beach, however when we arrived it had been closed and fenced off for the winter. Nothing stops these intrepid explorers, after a slight reroute through the crazy golf course we found our way in. It was incredible swimming around the artificial reef, the fish were so bright and strangely friendly. In one particularly power bust of speed underwater i managed to swim so fast that both my contact lenses were washed out my eyes. After a short futile attempt to locate them somewhere in the atlantic ocean we gave up, and everything remained a blurry mess for the rest of the day. Bar mistaking a lump of foam for a swan i think i did ok.
Another good day was yesterday when we asked if we would like to join the race committee on board the start boat for the racing on the remaining Phantoms. It was great to be up and close with the boats even if i wasn’t sailing them. I actually learned quite a lot, and the Artemis boys aren’t the worst example of how to do it.
Outside of that i have been practicing my sitting still, its getting better but every now and then i can’t resist running off to do a bomb into the pool. Fortunately there is a gym in the hotel, so Nikki and I have used our time to keep up to speed, and it gives me something else to do when the sun lounger is becoming tedious.
We have a couple of days left here now before we leave for Rio. Stand by for more antics and the next trip!
Cheers TP