Location: Great Harbor, Peter Island
Early this morning, at the ripe time of 4 am, Celeste woke up to the sound of an enemy boat scavenging Iles Et Ailes, trying to steal our bean bag. Enya from “Meow or Never” was wearing a mask and snooping around. Luckily, Celeste fought off the opposing boat by telling them to “get off our boat.” This one gesture started our official race day. After breakfast, while the rest of the boat situated themselves, Will and I (Maren) attended a skipper’s meeting for the two races that were planned that day. During this meeting, the skipper and the boat that they represented gathered and went over the route, and the order in the boats would line up from the windward and leeward sides. Frenchie drew number 3. So essentially, we were the third boat closest to the wind. Will and I came back to the boat, and I began to debrief the meeting. First everyone needed to check all of our lines and the sail bag for any potential pranks that other boats might have pulled on us.
Thankfully, B was a few steps ahead of me and had already checked everything surrounding the sail. Then, I assigned everyone a role. Claire and Celeste took over helming. Houston and Noah worked on the Jib. Nadiya helped sweat the halyard while Sariah and Julia watched the lazy jacks. During this race we ended up passing several boats with our speed but mostly beating them with our good vibes. We ended up placing 4th. The finish line of the race marked the entrance to West End, where we first started our trip. We docked and began our three-hour long shore time, where we could shop, eat, and stock up on snacks for the last four days of our trip.
Since we were more familiar with the place, everyone split off into groups instead of staying together. My group, Julia, Celeste, and Claire, first went to the souvenir shops, where we purchased items for ourselves and for others. For lunch, Ella, Noah, Houston, Aidan, Sadie, Sariah, Nadiya, B, and Freddy (from Odyssey) went to Pussers. At Pussers, Noah, Aidan, B, and Freddy ordered a Great Dog. This deep-fried foot-long hotdog was marked as each of their appreciations for the day. Meanwhile, the rest of the boat went to a cafe and had more of a brunch. I ordered the Eggs Benedict, and Celeste, Julia, and Claire all ordered a breakfast bagel.
As a drink, we all ordered a smoothie except for Claire, who ordered her beloved Biscoff latte. As someone who has been hearing about Claire’s love for Biscoff for these past few weeks, I was so proud of her. After another skippers meeting, we left West End to start our second race. This time I drew number 7, the worst possible position to start in. Our second race was much more difficult since we were downwind. We switched up the roles and had Aidan and Houston helm. This race was very laid back as we were tired from our time on shore. During the race, the staff decided to lay back and let us do all of the tacking. Although we ended up wrapping the prop with our dingy line and having to drop the sail and motor at the anchorage, all of us had a good time listening to music and looking around. We ended up finishing last but in the extra time we took, we learned from our mistakes and started preparing for the upcoming final race. We arrived at Great Harbor, Peter, took an ocean shower, had breakfast for dinner, and ended our night with a sail chat.