Our home for a week - MV Integrity, owned by old friends, Bill & Lindsay Speedy.
Integrity's berth was situated right opposite the Team NZ base. This saw Integrity lead the fog horn-blowing frenzy that accompanied the departure of the two NZ yachts at 1:00 pm each day.
A regular guest on board Integrity was Ray Barker, father of some guy in the NZ team.
Ray is a lovely guy who always had the time to explain the intricacies of Americas Cup racing to us novices. He did get into trouble when he had to watch what everybody expected to be the last race (with NZ positioned at 4-1) from the NZ Team support vessel where Ray was pressed into entertaining some VIPs.
This proved an untimely move when the Spanish sailed a perfect race to win their second race.
As it turned out, the win by the Spanish turned out to be one of the highlights of the Cup. Dozens of Spanish boats jockeyed to escort the winning yacht back to base.
The response from the 100,000 strong crowd just had to be seen to be believed.
After fulfilling his official responsibilities, Ray slipped aboard Integrity for a quick beer. Naturally he got plenty of stick from all the Kiwis about him putting a jinx on Team NZ by not being on Integrity to watch the racing. Bill's invitation to be on Integrity to watch the next race was accepted with alacrity by Ray. This move proved very smart as Team NZ won comfortably in testing conditions. This saw Ray winning the honour of giving a prolonged blast on the horns as the victorious Team NZ returned to base.
