Location: Falmouth Harbour, Antigua
Today I woke the crew up at 7:00 AM, much to their chagrin. The plan today was this: finally set sail and leave English Harbour. The goal of today was to learn how to sail and get comfortable before our long passage to St. Kitts. Upon finishing breakfast and completing the dishes, we made the appropriate preparations aboard the ship, namely raising the anchor and sails. Afterward, we left the harbor and headed out for the deep sea on a beam reach. A beam reach is one of the points of sail where the wind hits the beam or side of the vessel. Many crew members got sick along the way, namely Kelsay. The crew was taught how to raise and lower the sails as well as the different terminology for the boat. The Ian’s were very excited to be out sailing on such a nice day. And thrilled to watch some of the professional racing crews out drilling and practicing for the Royal Ocean Racing Club 600 regatta scheduled to kick off on Monday. These crews from around the world sail some of the most advanced racing vessels around several of the Caribbean Islands until they complete the 600-mile circuit back in Antigua. We had some close passes from some of the vessels who wanted to say hello, and we even saw an Action Quest sponsored race boat.
Once we had sailed for a few hours out on the open sea, the crew set a course for where we would be anchoring for the night. We arrived at around 1400 hours and were given ample free time, used up mostly by the crew members performing flips off of the boat and challenging each other to boys vs. girls’ planking competition. Once the boys secured the dub, we vibed to some music below deck until dinner.
Love,
Duncan
P.S. Hi Ian’s Mom