All but two of the ARC Bahamas boats have now made landfall in Marsh Harbour.
“We’ll take on the task of pulling together something fun for the four boats and remaining crews that are here,” wrote Kristen Berry of J/World Annapolis, our de facto WCC staff on site who sailed down on Libelle. “We’re on for HH this afternoon!”
While Kristen and the crews of Libelle, Traveling Light, Encore II and Blues Traveler enjoy some sundowners at Snappas, Jubilee and Satori are closing in on the Abacos and should arrive sometime tomorrow. At 35 and 37’ respectively, they are some of the smallest boats in the entire fleet this year, and while they’re having good passages, simply can’t keep the pace of the larger boats, especially the multihulls.
Meanwhile, in the Tortola fleet, Moonwave, the Gunboat 60 catamaran, is setting a blistering pace. Now firmly into the easterly trade winds, Moonwave was making over 10 knots boatspeed this morning. Their ETA is now less than 24 hours from now, and we expect their arrival early tomorrow morning.
Most of the rest of the fleet is past the halfway point and should be entering the tradewinds any day now.
“The motor's off and we are sailing again,” wrote Andrea of the Saga 43 Free Spirit. “We are making good time today, having clocked a 9.4kt speed surfing down the back of a wave. Steve is working the sextant again. I stand corrected… yesterday he came within 0.5 miles of our electronic position fix, definitely a "you da man" moment! Alex, our IT expert, helped me set up the solar powered charging device my son gave me for my birthday. Our latest competition is to see who can coax out the greatest amount of speed and stay the closest on course. I can hear my mother now, declaring her infamous ‘you are obviously easily amused’!”
Rally control finally heard from Geronimo this morning, who is back in Rock Hall, Maryland. They had suffered a steering cable failure shortly after leaving Portsmouth and made the very difficult decision to turn back, despite skipper Rich Trout thinking they could have fixed it and carry on. Rich’s email to us was heartfelt and both Mia and I were very disappointed for him, knowing how hard he has worked to get this far. With hard work and a bit of luck, Geronimo will no doubt reach the Caribbean eventually.
At the back of the fleet, Resolution made VHF contact with legendary ocean sailor Yves Gelinas aboard his Alberg 30 Jean du Sud yesterday.
“Yves called us on the VHF and said he could see our sails,” wrote Brian of Resolution. “We couldn’t see him, but had a nice little chat on VHF with him. Nice to hear from them!”
Yves and his mate Kevin are bound for Martinique in the French West Indies. You’ll recall that Yves hosted a screening of his movie ‘Around the World with Jean du Sud,’ which was a highlight of the rally program in Portsmouth. They set out on the same day as the rally fleet.
Avanti has diverted to Bermuda for repairs to their rudder bearing and are safely in port at St. Georges.
Follow the fleet’s blogs and watch them on the YB Tracker page at carib1500.com.