(English Harbour, Antigua)- It was a record fleet that took off from
English Harbour a fortnight ago. The weather models predicting 14 knots
of wind from the southeast and freshening to 20 knots for the balance
of the race was not too far off. In such winter Caribbean sailing
weather, it generally never is less than spectacular! While the weather was amazing, the enormous breaking seas and premium on boat-handling and sail changes put some crews under pressure. Sadly, that led to the retirement of Jonty Layfield’s J/11S SLEEPER (an early leader in the race) and to David Ballantyne’s J/133 JINGS- - we hope everyone is well.
Meanwhile, sailing the full 600nm in IRC Doublehanded class was the duo of Elin Haf Davies and Chris Frost on the J/120 NUNATAK. This highly experienced offshore team managed to hang tough and sailed a good race. In fact, the most unfortunate part of their passage around the spectacular islands was noted by Elin when they were sailing amongst the IRC Two yachts passing south of Guadeloupe at 1600 on Day 3; she commented on the competitor’s race blog: “Devastated to have to report that most of my chocolate supply has melted! Frosty will be a hero if he is to survive another 48 hours with me without chocolate! And, if he survives the fury that is Elin without chocolate, he should be made a Saint of Sailing!” Well, turns out he may have been “sainted” by now since they not only survived without chocolate for another day, but won the IRC Doublehanded class! For more RORC Caribbean 600 race sailing information
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