Wednesday Morning. The AGM day. 28c.

We misread the itinerary. It says breakfast at 7am. So we set the alarm for 6.15 to allow time for Roger to S, S & S. Macca has reiterated that time is of the essence as the day is full on but when Roger arrives back at our room at 7.45 having been only one of two members at breakfast we realised 7am was the starting time of the hotel restaurant service for breakfast! The meeting wasn’t starting until til 9.30. Partners are to meet the boys from their meeting for our first surprise outing of the day. Anyway I’m ready early so take my breakfast and am joined by Dawn Urry. We decide to stroll along the seafront and grab a coffee on the way to meet the boys. Sue Johns joins up with us and we try and find the venue we are told is at the end of the seafront. This is proving difficult not only for us but for Ian Scott who parades up and down the seafront in what seems to be a bit of a haze having missed the start of the meeting…. I had remarked the day before we hadn’t seen Ian all day Tuesday even at supper time, we just assumed he had had a late night and had been sleeping in. We discovered the poor chap had over done the clubbing , tripped over and damaged his face, lost his wallet and phone and spent the night at the police station! Aptly now named Faceoff! We eventually find the boys meeting venue thanks to the Find Friends app and join them for coffee and our first little jolly which is called Boat shoes & Suncream. We see all the fabulous yachts in the harbour and are delighted when we are called to a safety briefing and realise we are going on the high seas. Several partners drop out but as I love water and the skippers for each yacht seemed rather yum I was very excited. We are all split into teams of 7 on eight boats each with our own skipper and are told we are going to race each other. Roger and I are in the first boat named Alpha with our skipper being Fernado an athletic bronzed looking chap around 45 ish with blond locks. Then I discover I am the lone femail on the boat along with Nick DeAth, Stuart from Coors, Philip Cutter & Andy from PG Wines. I have no idea how to sail and don’t know one end of the boat from the other. I only know port is on the left as I was taught to pass the port to the left! Nick has sailed a bit and so has Roger but not to be able to man the boat as we are told we have to. We are all given jobs except me thank God. I am wishing I had stayed on shore when I see the rough sea and wind. As the Genoa sail was raised our boat tipped to the side and I decide to grab a life jacket. The boys each had a beer, I joined for one but needed to keep my hands firmly on the bars….. we had the largest boat which the captain said he hadn’t sailed on before but didn’t seem at all worried until about 1/2 mile out of the harbour the rope snapped on the sail due to the high wind as the boat tipped to one side. I thought we had had it and think I made a slight screaming sound… this was completely ingnored of course by everyone who were trying to keep us upright…. Fenando radioed for help and the team organisers and race judges were soon along side to assist with the temporary repair. As soon as we set sail again the rope went again and again. Eventually it held and the delayed race started. We speed at the rate of knots with me still holding on for dear life, by now I didn’t care what I looked like and I can assure you readers I was not a pretty sight with my dress tucked in my knickers so it didn’t blow over my head…Just as we were to round the first obstacle which our skipper took very closely another boat got blown into us & there was a loud crash. Fenando was not happy… the race was then abandoned. A few beers on the way back to port, I was relieved when we turned the corner and the wind appeared to drop. Imagine my dismay when we pulled along side the other boats only to see everyone on wine, G nTs and so on. Nothing like that offered to me, maybe I would have been a little more chilled with a sedative of vino! Some of the boys asked the skipper if they could go out again as we were booked until 5 pm so a few swapped boats, ours I thought was staying in port so I refilled my wine and sat down to relax. Until the boat moved away and I discovered to my horror we were the boat going back out. Fortunately the wind had dropped and the sea was relatively calm around the coast and I relaxed and ate the fabulous picnic provided by the organisers. Fernado points out part of the large white swing bridge which can cross the port and was used for a formula one race a while back. Also the port was built for the Americas cup which it has hosted twice.