Fun, Sun and Celebrations!



Here is our crew at the Awards Celebration. I am still
shocked that we placed third. I thought we would be last!

Well our crew cleans up nicely! You should see us during the passage when water is at a premium and showers are a luxury or non-existent! I cheated and washed my hair twice. It was for the sake of those having to look at me! At least that was my excuse. I must say one doesn't ever look pretty on a passage.

The first few nights you sleep in your pajamas, then you just crash in your clothes! Who even cares at that point.Then you realize you have been wearing the same clothes for three days! And you still don't care.You just want to see land and find the showers in the marina.

To humor ourselves, we kept saying we were looking forward to milkshakes at Nanny Cay and mango colattas at Mulligan's. Whenever we were too warm or too tired, one of us would bring up the treats waiting at the other end - including the rum punch handed to us upon arrival before Customs lets us off the boat! It doesn't matter that it might be 6 am when the punch arrives!

We were trying to go east, but you can see how far to
the west we were being set. There was little we could do

Even though our ride was fast on a southbound track, you can see how far off the rhumb line (blue in photo) we were being set to the west (red line). For a while it seemed like we would never get east of Puerto Rico. There was little we could do to make a move to the east with the strong ENE winds continuing so blow hard. When we had a calm day we motored as much easterly as we could while still moving south.

The best part of the Rally experience is meeting new friends
and having good conversations and a lot of laughter!

Many of the men in the Rally supported Tortola's Movember Fund Raiser by growing mustaches. There was a contest for the best one. Dennis did not win - and neither did Antoine from Nexus. Russ, owner of Nexus, and Stuart and Ron on Trillium already wore mustaches regularly so unless they shave them off, they are not qualified in the contest. Of course, they did not shave!


Laurie and Russ will be sailing in the World ARC on their beautiful 60' catamaran, Nexus. However, they will get to each destination days ahead of us! We told them to hold an anchorage for us! HA HA.

Laurie and Russ of Nexus will be sailing in the World ARC too!

Much to our surprise, Laurie grew up in Essexville, MI. Dennis is from Saginaw and I am from Alma. What a small world! The other funny thing that happened was meeting the crew of S/V Andromeda on the dock in Portsmouth. Steve and Joan lived about four blocks from us in Grosse Pointe Farms, but we had never met. All of us sold our homes to go sailing! I had been told that another GPF couple had set sail from Lake St. Clair, but I did not know them. And there they are!