Jeff's Log~ Thursday, December 6th 2007

Yesterday was a better day on the race course. We were only about 45 seconds late for the start, but had the boat moving well. When Dave wanted the jib in against the shrouds, I told him to drive the boat, and I’ll trim the jib. We ended up mid-fleet at the end of a twenty seven mile race. I’m pretty sure that we are the only boat in our class that is not using a spinnaker, and I don’t think that our rating is correct. I’m having fun racing anyway; I’ve been spoiled by all of the winning racing programs that I have been in the last few years. The weather has been nice for sailing, and the scenery that we are sailing around sure is beautiful.

Yesterday was the King’s birthday, so before the start of racing, there was a boat parade past a navy warship which had the whole crew on deck saluting as all of the race boats passed by. Dave got everybody on the crew a yellow shirt. Yellow is the official royal color. We all lined up on the side of the boat and returned the navy’s salute as we passed by. It was a pretty impressive sight.

At the party last night, the food was really good again. This time they had pizza, lasagna, sausage, and a pork loin, as well as a few of my Thai favorites. The desserts were scrumptious as usual. They even had blueberry cheesecake! I must admit that I blew my healthy diet last night, as I had several of those sweet
treats.

On Sunday night, they had the opening skipper’s meeting and a great party. After the party, the rest of the crew went to Dave Rucker’s bungalow, and I got in the dingy to return to Pipe Dream. When we had left the boat, it was in the afternoon and the sun was shining. Going back, the wind had shifted ninety degrees, and it was dark, and I had had a few glasses of wine. I wasn’t driving when we left the boat; I was chatting and looking around at all of the different sights. Well, after the party I was driving around the anchorage for an hour, and could not find the boat. The dingy started running poorly from all of the low speed running, so I decided to give up.

The Kata Beach Hotel was full, but the five star Mom’s Boathouse had a room available. At that point, if the room had been a thousand dollars, I probably would have taken it. The fellow behind the desk took pity on me and discounted the room by 350baht, so my mistake only cost me 12,000baht, around $400USD. The room was gorgeous though. The shower had one of those huge rain shower type of shower heads with a stone floor, a seat, and enough hot water to supply the navy. I think I sat in the shower relaxing for about a half an hour. The bellman had also lit a candle under a scented oil burner, so the aroma was kind of spicy and relaxing too. After my shower the doorbell rang, and another bellman brought a plate of chilled fresh fruit. I enjoyed that little snack while watching TV for the second time since leaving home. It sure was worth the price to sleep in a comfortable bed with the air conditioning turned very cold, without the motion of the ocean for a change.

In the morning, I got up and took another nice, long shower and then went to the restaurant for my free breakfast which was included with the room. They had everything imaginable out to eat. I had some smoked salmon and caviar, along with a lot of fruit, and an extra large espresso. Then I went out to the dingy, and put in the water and quickly found Pipe Dream and began preparing the boat for the day. I did not tell the other guys about losing the boat, so if any of them reads this, hopefully they’ll be gone and I won’t have to deal with the embarrassment, even though it turned into a pleasant experience, costly, but pleasant.