The Bucket Bash, held last night at the Collectivité across the harbor, gave the 1500 or more sailors here a chance to swap sea stories from the regatta’s first two days and catch up with old friends from far corners of the world. After a buffet barbecue dinner that included island fare, Bucketeers, their families and friends also dusted off their flip-flops with some dancing to the cool tunes of the Evan Goodrow Band on the giant stage that will be used for the awards presentation this evening. The Evan Goodrow Band is familiar to many as the go-to beat on the waterfront when they play at the Baz Bar downtown.

Between last year’s and this year’s Bucket, the 56m Perini Navi ketch Rosehearty covered a mind-blowing 27,000 nautical miles, highlighted by a trip to the Antarctic Circle, where her owner, crew and guests braved extreme conditions to observe the rarest of wildlife and the most spectacular of landscapes. Lucky socks This was not Rosehearty’s first Polar cruise, however; her first was in 2016 when she navigated the Northwest Passage (also with her current owner who is only her second after Rupert Murdoch, who launched her in 2006). For that trip, the flybridge was enclosed so the helm station could be heated; a reinforced roof was installed that couldn’t be penetrated by ice falling from the rigging; and comprehensive night vision equipment and powerful lights (for spotting icebergs) were added.

Despite all the hard work required to pull off the year-long roundtrip journey to Antarctica from St. Barths (with a few charters thrown in along the way), Rosehearty’s crew of 12 remained ever upbeat and grateful for their places in this superyacht life. Something other superyacht crews might want to know: one of the keys to their happiness is lucky socks, which they always are sure to wear on race days.