VENUSIANS ON MARCHIONESS!

by Jessica Statham on 24 Aug 2000 How could we turn it down, a chance to spend a day on a luxury eighty-foot Maxi racing yacht? We were welcomed on board by a crew of Martians, who insisted we wore the appropriate 'Marchioness caps and tattoos'. What an amazing yacht, spacious and exciting.

The start gun blows, after a delay, and the true colors of the crew start to show, the tension begins to build, and the facial expressions become intense. 'Forward leeward', we scramble to the port side, and begin to understand why 'three quarters' (Michele Caroline) is covered in bruises. MC has been 'nicknamed' three quarters, due to the fact that she is half pint sized, and finds it difficult to finish her bottles of Hahn!

After rounding the windward mark, the breeze crapped out, we began to chill out, the jelly babies were passed around and the Irish jokes began to flow. We eventually bobbed over the finish line, directed our interests into the high light of the week - The Beach Party.

Spectacular, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and for one afternoon completely taken over by yachties. As we anchored at Whitehaven Beach we could see that some of the crew on 'shockwave' had decided to dive off the second spreader,(as if they didn't have enough adrenaline pumping around there bodies), naturally enough some of our crew want to dive from the third.

Thanks to the 'Fantasea' tender we made it onto the beach, I was speechless, pure white silicon sand that squeaked! The party was in full swing, the weather perfect and a xxxx tent!

What more could you ask for…as we say in Ireland the 'craic was mighty'!

Jessica Statham
Sail-world.com