Alpha 1 Day 8: Strong Winds Carried Us To Anegada!
July 2, 2016
Nothing like the sound of the links of an anchor chain being fed back into the bow first thing in the morning! As the anchor swam up to the surface, we turned our bow to point towards the exit of Savanah Bay. An intricate course lay ahead of us that weaves a specific path above a strip of sandy ocean bottom along side a long limb of healthy and shallow reef that protects the bay.
As we exited the channel, we pointed our bow into the wind and hauled our sails up and out, falling away from the wind to a beam reach. We rode this point of sail out into the seemingly endless horizon, embarking on our longest sail to a destination we could not visibly see from our starting point.
Strong winds carried us quickly all the way to Anegada, a long, shallow island that once was a giant coral reef! Upon our arrival on the shore of ancient zooxanthele, we shuttled in a taxi that took us to the opposite side of an island to a bay that goes by the name of Loblolly.
Here we spent an hour paying our dues to the conservation of the ocean by picking up trash along the beach. After contributing our part to keeping our oceans beautiful, we began the Olympics – a Sail Caribbean tradition that encourages healthy competition between both boats on fleet. Each boat participated in a dizzy fender relay, a bury your captain art gallery, synchronized swimming performance, and a final tug-of-war face down! The results of the competitions are still pending – to be announced for our awards night on the last night of program!
