Day 6: Regatta

After a late night in Panarea at club Raya, crews were slow to wake up. The skippers gradually convened at Hotel Lisca Bianca for the morning meeting and regatta briefing where we agreed on a time and route for the regatta. Nearly all of the twenty boats were at the starting line by 2 p.m. for the start of the race. The 10-minute sequence started as the entire fleet circled the crew boat, which created the start line with the island of Lisca Bianca. When the horn blasted the boats were off to Basiluzzo where they began an up-wind leg around the north side of Panarea.  The Cyclades 50.4 along with most of the other 47+ footers tore away from the fleet while the Lagoon 38 catamaran motor sailed across the fleet in classic Yacht Week form. The finish was around the south side of the island where we once again rafted 20 boats in a single line-up side by side. Boats that finished early had time for some rope swings and gang-plank surfing before we got together for the raft. Once we rafted, some of us headed around the point to scout out some cliffs for cliff jumping.  Once returning from some 10 meter jumps we hosted a traditional dinghy joust to put on a show for the 20 boats in the line-up.  The raft lasted until 7pm at which point boats peeled off in single file and cruised back to Panarea for one more night of celebration before making the journey back to mainland Sicily.