Cat Fight Week 2012
Thank you for the hospitality Mal and Candace at CRC! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />

The Cat: FreeWill, Voyage 440 S
The all TTOL crew:
Saildoggie
Manpot
GlennA
Warlock
Normandies (Bonnie)
Tom Garvey and Randi
Tradewinds
IslandJim

A rather longwinded recap of a 9-day trip with a gang of good friends at CRC and aboard FreeWill.

Great start, the Midnight redeye on AA from LAX was right on time, ahhh..First Class seat, easy connect at DFW and on to MIA.
Bloody Mary’s with Tom Garvey and Tradewinds and again, AA right on time to STT!!

We all met up with GlennA at the CA ferry terminal for cold ones and boarded the ferry, again, right on time. C&I at West End uneventful as usual, off to CRC to settle in.

Had a great time and dinner with the gang at Elm BBQ and much needed sleep at the downstairs unit at CRC, love this place, very private and a killer view!
Breakfast at Sebastians was great, a kick back day followed at Cane Garden Bay with lunch at Myett’s and beers on the beach at Stanley’s.

Another much needed sleep at CRC and special bloody Mary’s made by Candace, whoa, home made hot sauce in there and no skimping on the fuel rations… these will be remembered!

Off to Voyage in the afternoon to drop beer and gear for a sleep-aboard then happy hour at The Clubhouse, really nice hanging with Bartender Karen, visiting with Paul and even Suzan from JVDPS! Voyage had stowed our gear aboard for us since we did mot make it back before they went home, cool! Tradewinds and I dinghied over to Jolly Roger for dinner, the rest of the crew hit The Clubhouse.

GREAT breakfast at D Best Cup, a little provisions shopping at Harbor Market and check in with Voyage for FreeWill, the rest of the crew arrived and we were off to Leverick Bay via Kingfish Banks! Hooked a nice Mahi after just setting the trolling lines off Steel Point, we was a quick one, almost to the boat and a final jump and he threw the hook!!
Tradewinds followed with two nicely boated Mahi’s, wow, red-hot fishing action; I think the Sargasso weed in the water was really keeping the Mahi’s around.
Long upwind slog to Leverick, plenty of waves, current and wind…started to engines to motor through Anguilla Cut and after a bit heard an RPM change and vibration in the starboard engine, we spun a prop almost off the shaft, bummer!

Garvey docked FreeWill up nicely on port engine only in my regular slip, #9 at Leverick Bay, Nick, Monica and the whole gang greeted us at Jumbies Bar, the night was a blur from there for some reason.

Water top off and off to Anegada! Very nice, uneventful sail, we saw Free Spirit II and talked on the radio on the way…Anchored up in front of Neptune’s and off to Cow Wreck! Well, almost, both crews were loaded up on Mitch’s cattle wagon but she did not wanna start…eventually we were on our way.
Met up with Doug and Melissa of Galeaux and had a great, relaxing day at the beach, Belle and Lauren took very good care of the group!!

Back to FreeWill for some sundowners then off to a wonderful dinner at Neptune’s Treasure, followed BillH’s advise and ordered the short ribs, really tender and good with an awesome gravy to boot!
Up early, Bloody Marys and breakfast aboard, a quick scoot to Anegada Reef to pick up a raffle dinner for two from Loraine then a nice reach on down to cane Garden Bay to pick up the rest of the crew, I boated a really nice Mahi as we approached Tortola and also a Bonito that was released. Nick and Monica also joined us, off to JVD!

Rane from Voyage met us at Great Harbor and installed a new Starboard prop; his SCUBA regulator was acting up so he free dove the installation, thanks Rane!!!

We radioed in and brought my Mahi into Corsairs and made dinner reservations, Ghee and Roger took great care of us!

Race Day!

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Skipper’s meeting at Foxy’s and off for a fun day on the water!
Tom Garvey helmed the first race; Catatonic edged us out after quite a few windward crossings with them and other cats.
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Race 2 was qued up, I took the helm and we did well at putting some distance on our competition, we purposely overstood our tack to round Sandy Cay and avoid Dawg Rock, Imolia was ahead and painfully close to Sandy cay and pinching very hard, cannot believe they made it around, Warlock took the helm for the downwind leg, beers all around….Jumped back on the helm for the final windward leg, Catatonic and Imolia had snuck in front by the time we rounded the tip of Great Thatch, we gave the tip a wide berth to avoid the Dave Norman Doldrums then pointed up hard on a Starboard tack into a really nicely lifted wind line and rode it all the way to the windward mark, Imolia and Catatonic fell low and were forced to tack. We had to “shoot the mark” at the rounding and made it without touching, on to a really quick downwind to the finish…it was going to be close on the final cumulative ET’s but appeared Catatonic still had us even though we finished over two minutes ahead in the second race.
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Sure enough, WEYC scored Catatonic 1st. FreeWill 2nd. Seat Trek 3rd. and Imolia 4th.
Big congrats to catatonic for well sailed races!
Great job Foxy’s and Marty of WEYC!
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Very fun awards, party and dinner at Foxy’s!

A rest day at White Bay was in order, we anchored up early AM and enjoyed drinks from Soggy Dollar Bar and great lunch, Mic was smiling and jovial as ever!
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Several of the crew had flights the next day so we decided to motor up to Sopers and take a dock for the night, we had the starboard Cone Clutch on the transmission acting up anyway making getting in and out of gear very difficult. Voyage replaced the clutch the next morning. Great dinner at Jolly Roger followed by yet another great breakfast at D Best Cup!

A bit of provisioning and off to a VERY spirited sail up the Drake to Cooper Island, we saw winds up to 28 knots, we had full mainsail and reefed headsail and simply feathered up in the gusts, a fun but wet ride!!

A rare shot of mono Capt. GlennA at the helm of a cat!
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We settled into a nice mooring near the prime beach point snorkeling and chilled for the afternoon, whoa, a week aboard a 440 with no electric primary winch provided a full upper body workout!

We made reservations for dinner at Cooper Island Beach Club then went in for happy hour, super surroundings once the jackhammer stopped, best deal on drinks, 2 for $6.00 and the Rum Punches carried quite a punch, they are not shy about pouring that rum! The bartender was fantastic and very accommodation and the staff very friendly.

Dinner was very good and the service quite professional, GlennA was surprised they made a funny face when asked about their traditional Rum Custard; I guess the Aussie staff had never heard of it!

Last full day aboard, we took off for the Bight via the outside route over the drop in hopes of more Mahi, not a bite and light winds…when rounding to Norman under power between Peter and Norman my trolling leader was sheared by something big, never even set off the drag!

The Bight was almost deserted, 3 or 4 boats on balls…hung out and went in to Pirates for some wings and cold ones.

Off to Willy T for dinner, many changes, very spruced up, they added higher varnished railings and posts, expanded the bar, spiral staircase to upstairs and even made the head a thing of beauty, tiled floor, clean and a REAL toilet!

Dinner was good as always, the fish and chips are my favorite.

Up early and off to the Voyage base for an uneventful check out, we took on 15 gallons of fuel for the week, not bad….

Caught the 10:00 AM ferry for a 4:15 PM flight hoping I may get in on the 2:15 flight, no go, would have been bumped down to economy and stand by, not gonna happen.

Taxied back to Emerald Beach Best Western for a great afternoon with bartenders Craig and Zach, Red Stripes, hot wings and finally Rum Punches to properly medicate for my flights. The entertainment in people watching was at it’s top, there were 5 cruise ships in port, the bartenders were taking these people in stride yet always were sure I had a cold one in front of me.

AA impressed me yet again with on time departures, fantastic service and food in First Class and an overall experience in travel that I have not seen in a long time.

Great times hanging out with all the TTOL’ers along the way!<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/pirate.gif" alt="" />

Cat Fight 2012 is on the calendar! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />