Location: Great Harbor, Peter Island
Day 17 was one of the biggest sailing days for Bella Vita’s crew. As skipper, I started as everybody did, with a cereal and oatmeal breakfast. Then, everybody else cleared up the boat and readied themselves for the race. I attending a skipper’s meeting on know how the race would be: the destination, our place on the line, and what we should do afterwards. We then each drew a random number from 1 to 8. The one who had the number one was on the windward side of the starting line, and was advantaged compared to the others. Bella Vita was placed in four but it did not handicap us that much. After the meeting we then all raced from Sandy Cay to West End on Tortola, exactly where we had started the session 17 days go, and where Bella proudly arrived first due to an excellent steering and handling of the sails by its crew. After a nice, relaxing shore time on West End, where everybody had lunch and I attended another skipper’s meeting. For the second race, this time we didn’t stay on one tack as the morning. Instead, we beat upwind toward Peter Island. As for the morning, Bella was randomly placed in 4th position, and its crew wore their PFDs inside out once more- except the skipper of the day, since we need a special detail to recognize the captain. The second race was a lot more complex and a lot longer than the first one: going in close haul, tacking through the wind, making the boat heel much… Thanks to Bella’s crew racing was a real joy and we arrived third, but had led the racing during a long time. Then Bella’s crew rested and ate in front of a beautiful sunset, preparing for day 18.