Sounds like the opening line of a bad joke, but alas it is not. A list of the crew on the first yacht I raced on.
After my first sailing course, I put my name up on the notice board -
Competent sailor in need of boat to crew on for beer can races - call .....
It was not long before I got a call and a spot on a boat for the coming Wednesday's Twilight Race. I jotted down the details and heard what I should bring -
Jacket, Sunscreen, Beer and other alcohol. So off I went to the club that Wednesday with a sunscreen, a jacket and a ice cold pack of beer.
Got there, found the boat, but no one on-board -
wash board still up, jib stowed, etc. It was an old 30ft Miura that needed a few buckets of paint and a good scrubbing down
. A few minutes past (20min) and finally a
random bunch of people came.
The crew was a mixed bunch, almost like the A-Team and had nothing in common except sailing:
- The French man, who raced in the med on luxury yachts, but was working in South Africa now
- An English woman, who was a skipper, but played waitress on-board
- A Elderly man that was deaf and played the role of Bowman and line man - can you believe
- Me, an Afrikaans 24 year old - grinder, shark bait and all things wet and dangerous
- The Skipper - still not there
- Crew no6 - still not there
