Tuesday, November 13 — Tortola, B.V.I.
November 13th, 2007
We did it!
We made it! We arrived yesterday mid-day at the Village Cay Marina in Road Town and were greeted at the dock by Rally organizers who handed us a bottle of champagne and reclaimed the satellite tracking device and by Joe’s wife Nancy and my friend Matt.
Cindy, Bill, Nancy, Joe — Tortola Dock
Joe and Nancy left this morning for St. Thomas and I return to Dog Beach on Thursday. Bill will stay here for the closing ceremonies of the rally and then he’ll be off to take advantage of his 30 day B.V.I. tourist visa and await Lauren’s arrival next week.
Monday’s last few hours on the water were remarkable because we were sailing. At about 2 o’clock in the morning Bill and I put up the sails using the anchor light and the bow and foredeck lights to see what we were doing. We switched off the anchor light and the foredeck light once we were underway and trimmed by using the foredeck light. It worked well. There were about 15-20 knots of wind and Bill had the boat doing nearly 9 knots from time to time. It was excellent to quietly sail into the dawn. We crossed the finish line as expected about 10:30 and arrived at the marina in Road Town. A few other boats were already in and the place is full of excitement.
We had an Inspector Clouseau moment at H.M. Immigration when the Inspector Lady asked Bill, “Where’s your boat from?”
Bill: “It’s from the United States.”
I.L.: “Where is your boat from?”
Bill: “Annapolis, Maryland.”
I.L.: “Where is your boat from?”
Bill: “The Annapolis Landing Marina.” WTFO?
What she was really saying was, “Where is your boat form.” FORM not FROM. But we’re in and we each were issued a 30-day visa, which is the discretionary max so I guess they did not hold against us the assertion that Bill had left his B.V.I. Immigration Boat Form in Annapolis.
Today we’ll finish cleaning up the boat and spend some time greeting incoming ralliers.
Thanks for all your emails and comments and support. This was a really fun thing to do.
Here are the posts I would have made while we were at sea:
Sunday, November 11: We are almost there! We are 142 miles from our final waypoint, which is about two miles from the finish line and about 10 miles from the marina. I’m really looking forward to getting the hell off this boat! Yesterday, Saturday, was excellent because we finally sailed. There were about 15 knots of wind from the northeast which made for a very zippy beam reach for most of the day. It was fantastic. It’s such a shame that for seven days on the ocean, we’ve been able to sail for only part of one of them. Bill’s boat really needs about 12 knots of wind to get going and there’s not been that except for yesterday. We are motoring again now and we estimate that we will arrive at the finish line mid-morning tomorrow and at the marina about 90 minutes later.
Yesterday’s sail was not without mini-disaster and the disaster was caused, of course, by our attempt to fly the spinnaker. In fairness there was probably too much wind for the spinnaker, but it is a beautiful sail and we had it up for about five minutes before the quick-release bowline gave way from the clew and the sail went flapping around and fouled itself around the furled foresail. Bill’s boat has a couple really miniscule winches; these are so small as to be decorative only but we had the spinnaker sheet wrapped around one and when the spinnaker started to ship water (really!) I tried to ease it from the little winch without losing a finger or worse. Thankfully the quick-release bowline prevented injury and our harnesses prevented us from slipping off the foredeck while Bill and I stowed the sail, chagrined.
We avoided this.
Friday, November 9: Still no wind and so we are motoring at about 7 knots again. The computer estimates that we have 60 more hours of sailing to go before we get to the channel on the NE side of Tortola. Once we get there we’ve got probably another 5 hours to get to the finish line and marina. We expect that we will be first across the finish line for our class but we have been motoring the whole way and have logged the most engine time of all the boats in the fleet, I think. (We give an engine log report via radio each day.) There had been three other boats nearby: Club Car, Crazy Horse, and Destiny. We can see their lights at night and we’ve chatted with them on the radio. Some of them are getting nervous about fuel. Bill is not nervous. Bill is frustrated and bored but he is not nervous about fuel. Given all the alternatives and different ways this voyage could have gone, bored is a good result.
And it is pretty boring! I’m almost done with Great Expectations. There were dolphins playing in our bow wake this morning. Also, early this morning we were at the same latitude as Dog Beach, Florida. Hello Dog Beach and Briny!
Thursday, November 8: The ocean is a strange color blue, almost purple. I’m sure that I could not take a photo that would accurately capture its oddness. We are still motoring, today at just under 7 knots. And I think we’ve passed the halfway point. It is hot both out in the cockpit and down below. The sun is pretty brutal but better sun than nasty weather. Yesterday Joe saw two seagulls sitting in the water; today an egret landed on the boat and stayed a while and Bill saw a Monarch butterfly. It’s hard to imagine what these winged things could be doing this far off shore. I’m enjoying the night watches and I’m happy that we have such fair weather. In our twice daily radio chats we hear reports of the rest of the fleet getting banged up behind us. I hope our nice weather lasts a few more days but brings just a bit of wind too. Arrival time is still scheduled for Monday, November 12.
It’s blue and purple.
The ocean is a big place and we are crawling across part of it…slowly. I’m reading Great Expectations, which was on board in a very nautical looking leather-bound gold-leafed edition. No doubt I’ll finish it and A Tale of Two Cities next.
Reading Great Expectations
Wednesday, November 7: The GPS shows that we are about 780 miles away from our last waypoint. We’ve changed our course from the longer course recommended by the weather people, who suggested that route to avoid getting socked by easterly tradewinds once we reach the Caribbean, to a straight bee-line to our destination. We are motoring anyway so
we might as well just get there.
Yesterday was bouncy and calm more or less but in the afternoon the winds built to 15-20, exactly as predicted by the weather people, and we sailed for four or so hours, close hauled and terrifically overpowered but Bill was just so psyched to be sailing. The boat was way up on its side and although I do prefer sailing to motoring, I really don’t like heeling very much. I know, yes I know, that it will take a lot more than a 12 or 20 or even 30 knot wind to capsize this 20-ton sailboat, but on something like a cellular level I very much feel like I am in an FJ with Peter Eastman on the Thames in Connecticut or elsewhere in New England, or in a Dyer Dhow on Great Pond in Belgrade, Maine, or in a Cape Cod Mercury on the Charles, and I just want to dump the wind and flatten things out. It’s just not how this boat works and I know it. Maybe a few more days of it and I’ll relax again.
Last night was sort of cloudy so not that many stars. There was a lot of heat lightening ahead of us but we did not experience any bad weather or any drama. The rest of the fleet was not so lucky; I guess they were pretty beaten up by some squally weather that was behind us. Bill’s plan to just get there ASAP is really smart. We have the fuel; there will be time to hang out and sail and goof off later. I guess that the other boats don’t have enough fuel on board or have smaller
engines or are suffering from the sailor’s pinch-a-penny disease. What this means is that we still anticipate a Monday morning arrival at Tortola. Good!
We just had a couple dolphins off our starboard bow. It would be nice to see some more.
The ocean is a big place.
Tuesday, November 6: We are now heading southeast rather than mostly east as we were yesterday. There is no wind to speak of and we are motoring about just over 6 kn. If we don’t get a decent day or two of sailing in our ETA will certainly have to be amended to next Tuesday. The weather is dry, overcast today but not wet, so that’s good. Very little else to report. My watch last night was from midnight to 3 a.m. — the ocean was dark and kind of lonely. Zillions of stars, some shooting ones. Tonight is my night to do a double watch: 9 pm to midnight then 6 am to 9 am in the morning.
