The fleet heads out for the first day of racing.

“Ting!” My best friend exclaimed when I told her I was going to St. Maarten for the Heineken Regatta. “Bring back lots of Ting!” She digs the grapefruit soda after she spent two summers working in the Caribbean.

I’m not too excited to figure out to get a case of this into my suitcase at the end of the trip, but it was good to get a bit of local guidance from her. This trip is my first one to the Caribbean, and after talking to her and others who were familiar with the place, it wasn’t too hard to leave gray, sub-freezing Newport yesterday morning.

I’m trying to figure out what I think about the fact that Sarah Hebert, a highly accomplished windsurfer who happens to have a defibrillator implanted in her chest, is currently windsurfing across the Atlantic.
 

 

© Max Bulger

Team Oman Air is ready to go.

- Find talented and experienced boat captain to spend month of January working with Omani shore crew to re-fit boat
- Assemble five crew members from England, Oregon, Massachusetts, a boat off the coast of Panama, and Muscat in Mussanah, Oman
- Train for 7 days out of Marina Bandar Al Rowdha (one Brit and one Omani have a week to teach three Americans how to sail Extreme 40s)
- Greet boatbuilders, who have just stepped off a 12-hour flight, with the news that they have three days to fix brand-new giant hole in transom

My last dispatch from the airport was less than a week ago, but I feel like I’ve been in Oman for ages. Not in a bad way—the days are slipping by distressingly fast, actually— it’s just that Team Oman Air has become completely immersed in our little satellite world in the desert.