2013 Katyklysmos Musings & Results

Katyklysmos Musings.
I am moved to muse, Mary my long suffering editor-in-chief rolled her eyes and said the usual Mantra:
Keep it clean. Don’t ramble on. And who wants to listen to your thoughts anyway? I thought you had got over this!

Well undeterred I lit up the computer and put fingers to the keyboard. The weekend had started well Andreas and Demetra, top F18 team (in their own eyes of course) had got married, suitably scrubbed up and polished Andreas waited nervously for his bride. Well she did not disappoint and arrived (Lucky man!) looking beautiful as all brides do and the ceremony went ahead. Now this was quite a transformation from the Demetra we all knew, typically throwing the glare while hanging from the trapeze, usually as they pull away into the distance. A good night followed including a dancing demonstration from a talented Uncle, and some uncoordinated semi-rhythmical jerky movements from the Irishman and Black John. The DJ refused to play Pink Floyd so my dancing slippers were unused.

A days rest and then Katyklysmos, would it be lasers would it be Cats….Black John clutching the semi-legal mainsail and a smile answered my question. A short delay while we desperately tried to remember how to rig the boat, a final warning from the OOD….”Stay away from my optimists!!!” and there we were 3 18’s a Condor and Mikis in his Newcat with Adonis on the strings…Force 3 to 4 this could be good.

At this point your favourite finely honed team aboard “Ora Kali” had forgotten all they knew about racing the big cat, mistakes heaped upon mistake but we were still in the running and chasing the newlyweds with expectant hopes. It was at this point that Antonis with his novice crew passed us on the inside and at one point Antonis was moving faster than the boat, much to the dismay of his crew as her fear threshold rose with the amount of time it took Antonis to get back on the boat, the trapeze held so did Antonis and he finished 2nd . The crew however had had enough and Antonis was out of the race – Phew! Brian, Pavlina, Minos & Marios plus a donkey carrying the evenings barbecue came in 4th on the Condor with Mikis and Adonis not finishing but suffice it to say we did not know the Newcat could go that fast!

The wind however had wrecked the optimist racing and proceedings were halted while “Mother Goose – Vassilis” gathered his chicks in safely and returned them to shore. Pavlina bravely attempted to sail an optimist to shore but soon discovered the difficulties of righting an optimist when you are an adult, you can get the boat upright but getting in without it filling up again is not an easy task!

There followed a small intermission while the racing re-organised. Transporting 2 of the optimist pilots to their campsite on the good ship “Ora Kali” had the 2 young sailors screaming and hanging on as the boat went up on one hull and the crew chanting the fabled cry of “More Speed!!”

The final 2 races were to be a simple duel. Andreas had sacked his new wife and enlisted the “Irish One” (I am just as confused, dear reader) against “Ora Kali”. Black John looked me in the eye and said no-problem….we only have to remember what to do and then do it at a slightly faster rate…should be no problem! All I can say is it was a huge problem, we were beaten, we were downhearted and then as a true Englishman I reminded Black John – “Don’t worry, I do the scoring!” As the slow smile of understanding spread across his face we neared shore – “I have a cunning Plan!”

The Fatboy….