Day 6: A slow downwind sail through the Anguilla Cut and on to CGB to pick up Manpot, proceeded directly to White Bay for Bushwhackers at One Love then stumble down the beach to Soggy Dollar Bar where the crews of Utopia and Blue Moon shared some fun with us. Around the point to Great Harbor and set the hook, had some cold ones at Foxy’s then a big gang headed to Corsairs for dinner, the usual suspects listed above, joined by Nick and Monica from Leverick Bay and Mustang Sally’s Doug and Wendy……Great times but think the just opening kitchen was not quite up to full speed for the season yet, Vinny was a gracious host, he and the Staff tolerated our rowdy group of scoundrels. Back to Foxy’s and registered for the Cat Fight, I got the starting position I was after, #5 and the race packet.
Team Sanctuary at SDB:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/saildoggie/Cat%20Fight%2009/PA300076.jpgNick, Melody and Chris:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/saildoggie/Cat%20Fight%2009/PA300077.jpgDay 7: RACE DAY!!! Dave Norman came in on the ferry and the crew was complete, Provisioned up some extra cold ones and prepped sanctuary for a fast day on the water.
Race 1 found us just a tad late at the start but played the wind shifts and did very well to weather, passing the Catana 40, Radio Flyer and couple “big guys” before the weather mark. The light cat, Wildfire, started one minute behind us was still back at the weather mark but did get past us on the downwind leg by flying her chute, a 3 minute penalty for this race. Wildfire beat us by 1 minute 45 seconds by our calculations in this race.
Between races a couple of the young ladies from Capt. Colin’s Indigo swam over for a beer but we somehow scared them off before race 2 started.
We hit the line with speed and right on the mark on race 2, had a decent weather leg to Sandy Cay but called a “skinny” on the tack rounding to port and just snuck through, leaving Happy Hour almost on the rocks and tacking behind us. We sailed the rhumb line straight to the tip of Great Thatch while many boats took the line closer to Tortola and hit lots of holes, a good downwind leg and held off Wildfire with her chute up all he way to Great Thatch thanks to co-helming by Dave Norman. I played human whisker pole on this leg and we stayed powered up all the way even riding some small waves.
Happy Hour also made up a lot of ground on this leg and we passed a few boats including Radio Flyer.
A few of the big boats in front of us were taking Great Thatch very wide to avoid the lee and the unpublished Dave Norman Doldrums, Happy Hour snuck past us on the back side of great Thatch and Wildfire snuck by while keeping their now 9-minute penalty chute full most of the time.
OK, time to put the Tactician hat on, final weather leg, Dave and I were bouncing course strategies off each other while Capt. Garvey kept his game face on with a little coaching from time to time when his thoughts were obviously elsewhere, maybe thinking about his wonderful Jan at home…….we opted to short tack over to port and sail in more consistent breeze and chase the sheep (whitecaps) while much of the fleet was sailing toward JVD into lighter air.
While our VMG to the weather mark was basically zero on this board, we were chewing up precious course advantage on the fleet. A few more short tacks revealed the strategy was working we had made ground and beyond even with Wildfire that had sprung out quite distance in front after rounding Great Thatch.
We made one final, long port tack and purposely overstood our tack point to allow for headers, current and also allow us to charge down on the mark as we got closer.
Wildfire was toast at this point, we reminded Tom to just sail the boat and NOT look at the mark, keep it in the bank overstanding the mark then coached him down 3, down 5 and rounded the mark just blazing as we eased on the rounding.
We overtook Mustang Sally and exchanged pleasantries……
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/saildoggie/Cat%20Fight%2009/PA310101.jpgWildfire rounded a couple minutes after us and just nosed us by a few seconds at the finish, again, flying her chute for 9-minute penalty in this race.
We had done the math and knew we had clinched first place again, I qued up Queen’s “We are the Champions” on the iPod followed by “Another One Bites The Dust” and celebrated with some cold ones.
The Race Committee calculated a tie for first with Wildfire, stating a tenth of a second difference…uh, it was more like a tenth of an HOUR with spinnaker offsets applied!!!!
There are no ties in yacht racing!!!
The BBQ feast, awards, VISAR/JVDPS Raffle and many cold ones followed making for a really fun event!!!
The people, the costumes, food and drink were all awesome; such a blast to hang out with everyone, met many new faces and had a blast.
A special award should have gone to Colin and his crew of many young ladies aboard Indigo for several reasons, first ever BVI charter, first ever race and great blow up sex toys on the bow pulpets….oh, bumpers were displayed at the finish as well!!!
Day 8: We set out for Sopers Hole and had a great breakfast at Jolly Roger and sent Glenn and Mal on their way back to CRC then continued our final sail up he Drake to return Sanctuary to the conch Charters base.
It was bittersweet tying her up on the dock after the great week aboard, we cleaned up and cabbed back to CGB for a fun final dinner at Elm With the crews from Blue Moon and Utopia…..did I mention Melody LOVES Frogs???
Day 9: up and around, pack up, travel day, we had breakfast at The Pub, very nice indeed and how handy, right off the dock.
Road Town fast Ferry off to STT and enjoyed a few last cold ones and lunch at Emerald Beach Best Western during a torrential rain then walked to the airport.
What a trip, a great pleasure and really a privilege to sail, race and hang out with Tom, Glenn, Mal and Dave on our crew as well as Candace and the huge gang of TTOL peeps that attended!!
Thanks to Foxy’s, SusanZ, WEYC (Marty) and everyone that hosted this event, a job well done and a blast for everybody!!!!
Video and pics link here:
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/saildoggie/Cat%20Fight%2009/?start=0
