13
Location: Great Harbor, Peter Island
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING HOPE! IT’S RACE DAY!!!!!!! We woke up at around 7 to the smell of fresh cereal 🥣. Then it was time for cleanup; meanwhile, Joey and I headed over to Harbor House (another boat) for the skippers’ race meeting, briefing us on things like the course of the race, what order we were lining up in, and where the finish was. I drew number 4 in line, which Joey said was the best spot due to its angle 📐. After that, we headed back to Hope. When we got back Stella, Addie, Reese, and Maeve were putting on Zinc (colored face paint sunscreen.) Then it was time to raise the sails. We had Grey, Addie, and Chase sweating the halyard with Kiaan tailing on the winch and Charlie easing on the main sheet. Then it was time for sequence (long countdown) 10 min………5 min……………3 min………….1 min………..10……9…….8………7………6…….5……..4……….3…….2……….1……..GO GO GO!
We then began on our drag race, Gray was on sheets the whole race and was very good at it due to his nightly work outs 💪💪💪🪢🪢🪢🪢🏋️🏋️🏋️🏋️🏋️. We started well, but then lagged behind Nacho. At the end of the practice race, it was neck and neck, but in the end, Nacho pulled away. We then headed onto the dock in West End for some much-needed shore time. People enjoyed lunch, brief shopping, and snack provisioning (Addie and Stella). After three hours of shore time, it was time for the real skippers’ meeting. Like earlier, we got briefed on positions, the course, and the finish line of the real race, and once we got that down, boats slowly started to leave the dock. We then got lined up between St. John and a very big house that marked the starting line. Same as earlier sequenced started, 10 minutes, five minutes, three minutes, one minute, 10 seconds, five seconds, one second go go go!
At the beginning, Nacho pulled away, and we were neck and neck with the two monohulls. While monohulls are much more practical for sailing and can point at better angles and are quicker at turns, they are simply not as fast as catamarans, so we pretty quickly got in front of them. We tacked back and forth between the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands. During this time, when only two active sailors were needed, Kiaan and Gray talked about business, and Reese, Stella, Maeve, Charlie, Chase, and I played trivia. We sailed until we lined up with our destination, Great Harbor, Peter Island. The two boats that we were closest to, Nacho Dinghy and Harbor House, tacked onto a new course, but we decided to stay on our course and tack later, which made it look like we were behind the others, but in reality, we were setting ourselves up for a much better angle to the finish line. There we were again: neck and neck with Nacho, but this time the tables had turned! We were the ones who pulled away, and WE were the ones WHO WON!!! We then pulled into the anchorage with the triumph basically flowing through our veins. We then anchored and hopped in the water for ocean showers, which included a mini free diving lesson from Chase. We then got ready for dinner: Mexican night. Then we did cleanup and are currently prepping for sail chat, which is review for the test tomorrow!! However, the advanced sailors (Chase and I) are going to work on Chase’s VHF Cert. tomorrow is Rhone day, which is always awesome, and I’m sure you will think the same after the incredible blog Charlie will write tomorrow!!!
– Henry