The Regatta

Amador

Pablo

Guizmo was painted yesterday and needs to dry out. So no launch today; I cannot even climb into Guizmo as I would have to touch the paint and that would ruin it. Two local sailors, Amador and Pablo, invited me to race with them on their 38-footer in a regatta off of Alcudia (next bay over from Pollenca), as they were short-handed. I had nothing to do and had not yet been to Alcudia, so naturally I jumped at the opportunity.




Amador is a pro sailor who has done 3 transatlantic crossings, one of them solo. Pablo operates a large hotel in Alcudia and has crossed the Atlantic with Amador. It was great to sail with people who know what they're doing and speak good English to boot.

Pto Pollenca Bay, calm in the morning

The sail out to Alcudia was in very choppy seas. I had to go down to the cabin to get clothing and equipment, and ended up getting very queasy for half the voyage. I was beginning to question whether I was ready to embark on the Med crossing with Guizmo, but apparently everyone else, including Per Antonio in his boat and Amador and Pablo on ours, were also affected. Luckily, I kept my breakfast down and managed to do things around the boat, but I had major tunnel-vision and felt pretty awful. The panorama below, although unintentional, accurately reflects how I felt and saw the world.

Alcudia Bay, after a wavy, bumpy passage

Once we got to Alcudia, we pulled into port and had lunch at the yacht club, followed, of course, by a siesta. The siesta fixed me up and I felt great for the rest of the afternoon, throughout the regatta.

View at the pier in front of the Alcudia yacht club

Amador's very young girlfriend and a friend of hers joined us as well. They didn't speak English, weren't involved in sailing at all and just hung out on the rail. I told them that this is known in the US as being "railmeat," whose Spanish translation, "carnetas de barca," seemed to amuse them.

It turns out that most Spanish sailing terms are exactly identical in Italian and Turkish. Pasarella, foc and iskota are the few that I can remember right now, but for the most part, I was able to follow fairly easily even when Amador and Pablo spoke to each other in Catalan. The one new term I learned is "tangon," which means "spinnaker pole" and apparently has other uses in slang as well.

After a double up-and-down course with two well-executed spinnaker sets, we crossed the finish line in fourth or fifth position, practically side by side with another boat. On corrected time, we were fourth, so we did not get a trophy or a mention at the award ceremony. But the award ceremony had open-buffet Spanish food accompanied by a giant vat of mojito, so no complaints.