Pinch me, I must be dreaming, aboard Marie…

It’s Saturday morning and I can’t stop thinking about our sail yesterday aboard Marie.  We were competing against other superyachts in the Newport Bucket Regatta.  And, what a day it was. The wind was just enough to be interesting and yet not too much to have things get hairy.  Well, to be true, I expect that the 20+ crew members on hand would have made about anything look easy.   I took loads of photos and a few great videos which I will share in the coming days. For now, I’ll just put up a few choice pieces.  This is a shot of Marie making her way as we left the dock.  With both stern and bow thrusters, she can be maneuvered sideways into impossibly small areas.  Well small by Marie standards at least.  Marie is berthed, for the series, in Newport Shipyard, home of most of the superyachts visiting Newport.    Marie was the biggest of the lot at 181′.    The owner, Ed, likes to make a statement with his antique cannons as we leave port.  Actually, he likes to make a statement of some kind with them at most any opportunity.  However, he’s very considerate of guests who are issued earplugs and warned of the impending “salute”.    We did just that as Marie left her berth for the races.   The “charges” for the cannon are made up specially for these cannons as they are antiques and not your normal type that shoot blank shotgun shells.  What a BOOM!There are plenty of crew hired to run the boat with 8 on board full time and perhaps 20 more brought in for the races.  It’s quite a production and amazingly well choreographed.   And, it has to be as they are racing against other massive yachts.  A collision wouldn’t go over well.  Here’s Meteor crossing Marie’s bow.  Meteor is about 160′ long and a real icon.  Happily, she’s not nearly as fast as Marie. The racing crew kept the stewards pretty busy in the galley making lunches and snacks.  Between sail changes, and there were plenty to keep the crew busy, food was passed up on deck and served to the crew.  Stewards, Georgia, Christen and Jen were everywhere making sure that everyone was well fed.   It was an amazing production.  Here are Georgia and Christen delivering snacks on the foredeck ,between sail changes,as we blasted along at 11kts.  They make it all look so easy.  Filet of beef sandwiches on fresh baguettes anyone?   And save room for the gooey brownies that will come after lunch for desert. Speaking of sail changes, Marie has a spinnaker that’s 16,000 sq ft.  It’s massive.  To see them jibe the chute is amazing.  On Friday evening we were treated to a “yacht hop” meaning that we could go, or hop from boat to boat and be served drinks and food.  EVERYTHING about super yachts is competitive, especially the chefs.  And compete they did.   What great fun.   The food was fab.  We were treated to lobster rolls, lobster in the shell and shrimp that could easily pass as little lobster tails.  One yacht had this amazing raw bar.  Mmm…As twilight progressed the setting was magical.  And everyone enjoyed walking the docks saying “Did you try the amazing pulled pork?  Or the fab sushi on Marie?”   Yes, yes and yes. Plenty of that an more. What a fabulous day it was.  I can’t wait for day two, and three… I hope it never ends.  And yes, it does seem like a dream in a good way, a very good way.