Bravo 1 & Charlie 1 Day 13: Raised Anchor & Set Sail For Virgin Gorda

written by Bravo/Charlie mate, Luka Walshe
July 6, 2017

We awoke on anchor off the shore of Peter Island, a beautiful rugged coastline dotted with palm trees and sandy shores — a sight for sore eyes in the morning. After breakfast, we said goodbye to the divers who headed off to explore the Rhone, a famous ship wreck. The rest of us headed to shore to explore the island, meandering down trails and beaches. After exploring the island, we headed back to the boats for lunch. We prepared for our voyage with a lesson in navigation, followed by pre departure checks.

We raised anchor and set sail for Virgin Gorda. The sail to Virgin gorda was long and exciting, with high winds and gusts keeping the crew on their toes constantly. We got some great tacking practice in, and the upwind sailing was a great opportunity to work on sail trim and course maintaining. In preparation for Race day, we learned some racing techniques and practiced making our maneuvers more efficient.

Once we got to Virgin Gorda, we held off in the channel until we thought up and delivered a game plan for docking together. Once everything was prepared, we docked our boats in Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbor, a tricky docking which was quite the challenge. Thankfully, all of our crew pulled together to make the docking go off without a hitch, well, except for a few cleat hitches and clove hitches that needed some refinement.

Once we were on docks, we made dinner and cleaned the boats for our cleaning inspection. We all passed and were awarded our phones to call home to loved ones and check in. After phone time, we had showers and boat meetings, followed by some free time to relax and enjoy our freshly cleaned boats. We turned in and got a good night’s sleep, ready for another long day ahead.

Photos to accompany this trip update will be collected and added to this post tomorrow!