TPRX2013

Proteus has been entered into the annual Tahiti Pearl Regatta! Preparations have been made, new spinnaker, dinghy gone from the foredeck, second anchor and 100m of chain gone, a bit more muscle in the borrowed form of Jack on holiday from Sulana and off from Tahiti to Raiatea over 100 miles away where the regatta is actually taking place! I've seen so much traditional Polynesian dancing that I don't want to see anymore for at least a year but the evenings entertainment at whichever nearby island we finished the day at was excellent even if it didn't necessarily improve my performance the next day. Proteus excelled herself in all ranges of weather much to everyone's surprise after many comments like 'we'll be waiting in the bar for you' and we brought in a couple of first placed results. I feel like we could have done better overall after some of the race fleet missed marks and used their engines without declaring but the race commity seemed more occupied in the parties than the racing. Nether the less we had a great time, learnt a lot about what we can do with the boat out of normal cruising circumstances and got some awesome photographs of us underway. The fun and success we had has opened up a whole new world for Proteus unbeknowingly and now a new genoa is being ordered and Denise and Chris are very keen to do the Hamilton Island race week in Australia which will certainly be stepping it up a notch.