86 deg 73% hum. Sunny
November 27, 2011, 6:46 am, Marina Cay BVI

Here is a picture of At Last from the top of Marina Cay. She is the beautiful blue hulled boat behind the white behemoth of a catamaran that would not move out of the way for the picture. By the way, the word Cay, is pronounced "Key" when in the BVI.

We are leaving Marina Cay Today. I think we will be heading to Anegada, an island about a four hour sail northeast of Tortola. The highest point on the island is only 28ft above sea level. Eleven years ago on Anegada, I had the best lobster I have ever tasted. When you call ahead for reservations at the restaurant on the VHF radio, they ask you what you would like to have for dinner. I told them lobster and I saw them pull my lobster out of the trap about 30 yards off the beach just before dinner. I hope the same lobster family is still there.



The beach at Marina Cay is nice but you have to put up with the occasional bum lying around.

The BVI

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Cloudy and threats of thunder storms and rainbows
November 24, 2011, 3:02 pm, Marina Cay BVI

Just a quick note to wish everyone Happy Thanksgiving. We left Nanny Cay this morning after saying good bye to all the new friends we made. We arrived at Marina Cay this afternoon. Marina Cay is a very small island off the northeast side of Tortola. It is one of our favorite places in the world. We spent a few days here eleven years ago on our first learn to sail charter. There is not much on the island, a small restaurant, bar, library, and store. Very quite and relaxing.



Janet is fixing Cornish game hens, corn bread stuff and all the traditional sides. A storm just passed as she was slaving over the stove. Notice the rainbow in the background. Life is good and we are very thankful for all of our blessings on this Turkey Day. We hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.

The BVI

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Mark
November 22, 2011, 1:20 pm, Tortola BVI

Check out the photo gallery titled "Carib 1500" for some of the out take photos of the trip that hit the cutting room floor.

The BVI

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Mark
November 22, 2011, 12:00 pm, Nanny Cay Marina Tortola BVI

I finally found time to update the blog. Since arriving Saturday afternoon, we have been cleaning the boat, doing laundry and tending to much needed personal hygiene and grooming issues. The crew was still able to make time to celebrate the accomplishment with the other boats in the rally having pain killers (a very yummy rum drink) on the beach in the evening.

Let me tell you about the fantastic crew of At Last. We were the eighth boat out of sixty to arrive in Tortola. The boats that arrived ahead of us were much larger (10 - 30 feet) and so they were able to travel much faster than At Last. As of now, there are still twelve boats yet to arrive. The team feels very proud to have sailed so well, especially when you consider the fact that two of the crew had never been sailing off shore before and two had never sailed non-stop overnight. My brother, Chris, had been sailing only a couple of times with us in Narragansett Bay so this was an incredible accomplishment for him to have completed a Caribbean 1500. Janet had never been sailing off shore or overnight and she handled everything very well. Many of you posted comments on the blog asking about Andy our other crew member. Andy Baker, is our good friend, an experienced sailor, commodore of the Cruising Club of New England, and yacht broker for Springline Yacht Sales in Mystic CT. He, by far, has the most sailing experience of all of us and was invaluable in so many ways on the trip. Thanks Andy for all your help.

Andy and Chris left Monday morning for the airport to return to their normal lives. They take with them the satisfaction of successfully completing a 1500 mile passage on a 49 foot sail boat; an accomplishment shared by relatively few sailors. It was a tearful moment for us to see them leave.

The crew felt that it was important to do something together to demonstrate our team work. So we all decided to grow goatees on the trip. Janet decided to shave hers off before the picture was taken. I don't think there will be any confusion regarding which one is my brother and which one is Andy. Apparently there is a family resemblance except for the hair.

Now Janet and I have six weeks to see the islands. We have to be in St Lucia by December 26th. We start the trip around the world on January 8th. We will stay in the BVI for a few days. Next stop? Who knows? We are on "island time" now. We will be updating the blog at least weekly though with plenty of pictures of the islands as we make our way to St Lucia. Stay tuned.

One last note... I can't tell you how much it meant to me and Janet to see the comments posted to the blog and the emails you sent to us. Thank you very much. We can receive email while on the passage if sent via the web site but could not read the comments on the blog till we arrived in Tortola and found internet access. Now that we have some time on our hands, we will be responding to your emails and posts. Thank you all for the wonderful support.

The Caribbean 1500

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Mark
November 19, 2011, 2:57 pm, 18 23.867'N:64 38.16'W, Saturday 9 am eastern, 35 miles to Tortola, ETA 2 pm eastern

At Last has arrived at Nanny Cay marina. The place is beautiful. The diffinition of a good passage.... no one injured, no one sick, nothing broken on At Last. All this is the case for us. We are all taking showers as I write this and none too soon. More to come tomorrow but for now I have to treat the crew to dinner.

The Caribbean 1500

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Mark
November 19, 2011, 8:09 am, 19 30'N:65 04'W, Saturday 9 am eastern, 35 miles to Tortola, ETA 2 pm eastern

We have not seen a sail boat or even a cargo vessel for the last six days. Finally, we spy a sail boat on radar 12 miles in front of us early this morning. We were beginning to wonder if they called off the Rally and everyone went back home but forgot to tell us. We are nearing Tortola and there is a bit of competition to see who can claim right to be the first to say �"Land Ho�". Since we left, each of the crew has completed 25 watches lasting four hours. Needless to say, we can�'t wait to land at the dock with the Rally staff greeting us with a bottle of champagne.

Mark's brother Chris, wins the contest for the �"saltiest dog�" look after 8 days at sea. I have hair envy.

The Caribbean 1500

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Mark
November 19, 2011, 7:49 am, 19 30'N:65 04'W, Saturday 3am eastern

We dodged a number of squalls over the past two evenings. The skies are clear in the morning. Then the afternoon heat creates the clouds and they stir up the wind and waves in the evening. We try our best to steer around the bigger squalls which are more than six square miles. Then they dissipate in the night and the cycle starts up again the next day.

The Caribbean 1500

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