After 11 days, all but two yachts have arrived into Nanny Cay with the 1500 after their 1,400-mile passage. The most recent, ‘Barbara Jean’, who arrived just this morning, sailed all the way into the marina.
“That was great!” said Bob & Lorie Brothers as they ghosted into the dock. “Much easier than getting towed in with that little wind and swell!”
‘Barbara Jean’ had lost their engine three days ago and have been under sail ever since. They actually crossed the finish line yesterday evening, but anchored out overnight so as to make their approach under sail in daylight this morning.
“We suspect it’s a blown injector pump,” explained Bob. “I can get fuel to the pump, but not past it. Hopefully it’ll be an easy fix.”
“Once we realized the engine wasn’t going to come back on, we started being very conservative with our power consumption,” added Lorie. “We shut down the freezer and the fridge, kept on all the critical instruments. We have a gen-set, but it’s brand new and not fully connected yet. We lowered the Watt & Sea hydrogenerator, and that kept up with our power consumption for the last three days.”
Bob & Lorie skillfully sailed ‘Barbara Jean,’ their Island Packet 37, straight through the cut at Nanny Cay and were picked up by the marina RIB and towed the last hundred yards into the dock, making a perfect, soft landing. Yellowshirts were on the dock with the requisite rum punch and the rest of the crews in the marina cheered their arrival!
---
The Tortola program of events saw a highlight yesterday with the annual Island Tour. Sam from BVI 360 picked up some 20 participants in his open-air jitney for a 4-hour circumnavigation of Tortola and it’s myriad beach bars along the way.
“Highlights were West End and the Callwood Rum distillery,” said Jake Albano, the Yellowshirt team who escorted the gang. “People had a blast!”
The jitney returned to Nanny Cay just in time for last night’s happy hour and BBQ on the beach. A DJ pumped island music from big speakers on the pool deck and nearly all the participants crowded around the beach bar to continue celebrating their arrival.
Two yachts remain at sea, ‘Resolution’ and ‘Big Frisky,’ both of whom will be in port by early tomorrow morning and in time for Monday evening’s prizegiving dinner.