Europe & Dubai

Staying another night in a not-so-cheap cheap hotel, we drove back and managed to find a park right in the middle of the yacht club (we have problems with all underground carparking as the van is over 2.6m tall, so we can never fit – parking in all big cities always proves to be difficult but its nice to be able to stand up in the van)!

The second day proved to be even less wind than the first (which is fine the first day when you’re learning the ropes (so to speak) but the second day it was looking to be a little less exciting as we never really got the wind in our hair. We started the race, and it must have been a fantasic specticle watching from the land, all these magnificent J class, and down to our size yachts, mostly gaff rigged and all done up to the nines. Many had fantastic crew outfits – one J class, had huge black and white stripped long sleeved T shirts on all their crew and baggy linen looking pants. They looked like a cross between prison uniforms and roaring 20’s rowing teams! Another boat had a huge A3 size number 8 on the back of all their shirts. And the Yacht Club Monaco’s entrant has all the Red White and Blue they could muster, including all matching red caps. It was a fantastic sight.

So given the lack of wind, and the fact that the owners sister and niece had joined the boat for a few days break, the captain pulled out of the race 5 minutes into it, and launched the dingy after the crew managed to turn 3 huge fenders into a human boogie board and dragged anyone willing to jump into the cold med autumn water around until they got rope burns or bouched off. The chef served lunch and everyone lazed around the decks and watched the race unfold. For the skiff owner there was a joyous day of sailing and we returned via the popular beach and dropped the sails (quite a spectalar site in itself) to the onlooking public and then returned to port.

That night Prince Albert hosted a huge cocktail party on his “yacht” and there were police and security guards everywhere. Steve thought he saw him arrive and walk along his red carpet. There was a naval type uniformed guard standing to attention outside the boat at the ladder for the entire event!

We decided it was time to move on. We were invited to sail again the next day, but with no real increase in wind due the next day, we decided to continue on to Italy…

Monaco being Monaco, we couldn’t even afford a grotty *** hotel without a view (over E285/night)! So we drove to the next town (the next bay around the bend – 5 minutes drive) and found a still expensive old hotel room.

We eagerly arrived the next morning and discovered the amazing history surrounding the America we were about to sail on. It was an exact replica of the original “America” that was built in 1850 and won the first America’s cup yacht race. It was built in 1967 (a good year), at the same shipbuilding yard as the original. It was purchased by a wealthy (filthy rich) Italian, who apparently had the choice of either buying a Picaso or a yacht, and he chose the yacht. There was a permanent staff of 8; a Chef, cook and bottle washer, Skipper, First Mate and 4 crew. Apparently the owner hadnt been seen aboard the boat all season, but basically raced “the season” along the Med from April to October each year. Showing up at all the events, even though it generally needed 20 knots of wind to be competative, they just enjoyed turning up. Most of the staff were Australian and New Zealanders and were all classic boat lovers. The entire boat’s sails were hoisted the old fashioned way with winches only used to assist in docking the boat. It was fabulous fun and we both learned a lot along the way from some incredibly knowledable crew.

Enjoyed a great post sailing drink-a-thon with the crew at the Stars and Bars bar. Rushing to get as many drinks in as possible before happy hour ended!