The morning of the race it blew hard, and we sailed out to the leeward mark-boat half under water, the 'Cara' having only about 14 in. freeboard, and on board there were six hands, a big spinnaker boom, and some two dozen so-called sandbags for shifting. These had been apparently filled with mud, not sand, and as they rapidly got soaked, we looked more like navvies fresh from a clay-pit than boat sailers. There are many gradations of dirt and various degrees of saturation from salt water, but this combination is unapproachable. We caught a line from the mark-boat and shifted jib, owner going out on the bowsprit for this function, and getting a couple of green seas well in the small of his back--it didn't matter. We were well soaked already, so more or less was quite immaterial to us. We were hanging on to the stake-boat some time, waiting for the other craft to arrive, with nothing particular to do but bale out and try to dodge the things kicking about in the bottom of the boat. I had no shoes on, and there was one baler. I thought I had put it into a locker three times, and was watching the wretched thing edge out again and prepare to fall on my toes, sharp edge down of course, when the owner sung out lustily, 'Boat bearing down to hang on!' She was a regular Bermudian with 'fitted' gear, enormous spars, and her big sail up, a crew of coloured gentlemen crowded up to windward, and foaming through it like a tugboat after a homeward-bounder. She had to gybe under our stern and run lip alongside the mark-boat, and--Swish, over came the boom again; swish, went the end of it into the water. She heeled over tremendously, and did not seem to right, as she ought to have done. We guessed at once what had happened: her ballast was to leeward--those mud bags--it had not been shifted in time as she came round, and of course kept her on her beam ends; she gradually settled down and sank in about four minutes. The water was full of yelling niggers, who mostly swam for us; there seemed to be some hundred of them--anyway they yelled like it. They nearly swamped us scrambling in; finally we got rid of them on to the mark-boat, and very glad we were, as a few dozen damp niggers all asking at the same time for drinks are not much fun in a small boat with a bit of a sea on. At the time it was not enjoyable; still it is an episode in yachting experiences which grows more pleasant to refer to as it looms astern and becomes ancient history. When one starts for a day's sport, it is weak to allow a trifling incident like this to mar the even tenor of its way, and at Bermuda one dries so soon. A great deal of dinghy racing is done at St. George's, and it will be well to notice here the peculiarity of these boats and their gear. The normal dimensions of the dinghy are as follows:-- Length 14 ft. Beam 4 ft. 6 in. Draught 2 ft. Mast 25 ft. to 30 ft. Boom 25 ft. Bowsprit 15 ft.