Late Night Message
Saturday night, sometimes finds me in a local watering hole and, it was one of those nights.
DING: A message came through on the iPhone, saying my T-shirt was delivered.
It was placed in the mailbox at the office. It would wait until morning.
It's a good thing the crime rate is low in this part of the world. Nobody, swiped my shirt.
Last month, I traveled to Zamami-jima for my fifth consecutive year to photograph this event.
The Maririn Cup, is a local race in the Kerama Islands.
The big event, is the Sir Peter Blake Memorial Cup Race, from Zamami to Okinawa Island.
A passing typhoon made this the longest of the sailing sabani races, I've ever witnessed.
Only three boats finished, within the six hour time limit. The rest struggled to get home.
Normally, there's a big celebration at the finish, with bands and free beer.
We dragged our exhausted, sunburned bodies to the closing ceremony and got a beer.
Suddenly, rain busted out and closed out the closing ceremonies. After, only one free beer !
Everybody ran for shelter and the bands, dancers and beer kegs, went home.
We were told, the T-shirts would get to us at a later date. It's a pretty busy shirt.
Sir Peter Blake
If, you were a Kiwi (New Zealander) and, didn't know this man, they'd lock you up.
He's the most famous yachting sailor, who ever went out to sea.
Broke every ocean sailing record in the world including sailing around the world.
Peter Blake was the only one, to take the America's Cup from the Americas. Twice !
After 2000 America's Cup win, he retired from yacht racing and, became an environmentalist.
On an expedition to the Amazon in Brazil, he was killed by pirates.
Going after the robbers with a gun, Blake was shot twice and died instantly.
