The day I had been waiting for - Mount Gay Rum Party Night, this year at Zanzibar! 2nd training day for our crews and some more hardcore shakedowns before tomorrow's racing.
Jet lag forgotten and a little more used to the climate, the guys all slap on the sunscreen ready for some more practice and familiarisation. Our individuals' boat has crew from all over the world with two girls from Austrailia, one from Ireland, several from the UK, a Brazillian skipper and one from Arizona. We erect a signpost in front of the hospitality tent where our crew can nail on a hand painted sign with the direction and nautical mileage to their homes using my hand held GPS.
The merchandise tent is constantly busy and we are seriously running out of our Line 7 technical range even before the racing starts! Pri is busy branding up yacht names on the kit that is going on yachts from around the globe. We deliver all the kit that we supplied to our friends at Coram Watches who are fellow sponsors and also the skippers' bags and T-shirts to all the race committee and helpers (WE ALSO DO SAILING YOU KNOW!).
I am looking at my watch knowing that the free rum stops at the Mount Gay party at 8pm I have half an hour to get there. We close up the tents in record time and my truck is full of eager party goers including our Photographer Dave and a couple of our guest crews plus our rigger Neil. I’m sure there is a speed limit on the Island, but I think that Jenson Button would have had trouble catching up with me tonight (on note of caution, please always drive carefully).
We get there and the music is pumping out, the BBQ’s are smoking and the rum is being poured in liberal quantities to the revelers. Music from the fantastic band Itchy Feet goes on throughout the night and I manage to down a few just to be polite and not appear out of place.
I think I may have danced like ‘a dad at a wedding’ for a while the guys at the office have seen this and believe me it aint pretty but then, when in the Caribbean! As well as the band, the stage is taken over at one point by an all girl crew who have obviously been practicing their routine for several months and then on to a fire eater/juggler.
The end of the night comes far too soon and Dave and I agree that this was a top, top night that we will remember for some time to come.
