It’s hard to describe how amazing it is as I am writing this. Words like epic and spiritual come to mind. Let me see if I can paint the scene for you, the sight, the movement and sounds of a sailboat traveling at night.
We are twenty miles offshore, heading towards Antigua. It’s just gone midnight and alchemy is powering us through gentle swell with an eleven knot following wind.
Five days ago Alchemy made landfall in Nanny Cay, Tortola. After 1,464 miles and (roughly) 11d 13h 0m 1s at sea, we came into Tortola at 11:45pm at night. As I think the oldest boat in the fleet (Alchemy is 40 years old), we started 4-5 hours late and managed to run through the fleet to finish second in class. A big thank you to Scott, Rick, Jere and Jim, my friends and crew who managed to install five chainplates hours before departure, and to be a great crew beating to weather for 8 straight days!
Why do a rally and why the Caribbean 1500? I was recently asked this by the website All At Sea Southeast magazine (www.allatsea.net). Here is what I came up with!
While preparing for an extended cruise or passage, one important consideration is going to be what sails you are going to decide to take. Being away from home for so long, and making sure you have room to stuff in all the oreos and legos, you aren’t going to be able to take lots of sails. As the bulkiest item you’ll carry, you need to carefully consider what you’ll be taking.
Sailing With Kids 