TROUBLE IN PARADISE

DESPITE ITS HOLIDAY WEATHER, THE TRADEWIND-POWERED RORC CARIBBEAN 600 IS WELL ESTABLISHED AS A TRUE BLUEWATER CHALLENGE, NIKKI HENDERSON REPORTS

- NIKKI HENDERSON

Our RORC Caribbean 600 delivered everything on the J/122 El Ocaso: an MOB, sail damage, unrelenting seas, broaches, spinnaker wraps, emergency drops, broken tack lines and jib peels. My - largely amateur - crew contended with body slamming seas, seasickness and sunburn, and conditions that refused to go easy on us.

For most of the second half of the race, we had been locked in a battle with Ross Appleby’s Team Scarlet on the Elan 45 Emily of Cowes, and Mojito (Peter Dunlop and Victoria Cox), another J/122. Mile by mile, we pushed, trying to close the gap and climb the podium.

It was the second time in two days that we had approached Redonda, an uninhabited island south of St Kitts & Nevis. Some 40 hours earlier, we'd passed the rock while enduring what can only be described as an upwind assault of body, mind and spirit. While we faced 3m breaking waves and 20 knots, the AIS targets we were monitoring to avoid were Leopard 3 and Pyewacket, rounding Redonda just minutes apart as they chased line honours winner Lucky on their way to the finish - while we still had half the race to go.

Nearing Redonda for the second round, morale on El Ocaso was high! We were charging along under Code 0, staysail and full main. And the best part was we knew we had a chance. We could beat Emily over the water, with just 15 minutes all that was in it between us and Mojito, and 2nd place.

Emily screamed towards the island just in front of us until suddenly, she stopped. We closed in until barely a boat length behind, but could only see her unmoving silhouette. The last of the day's low beams of sunlight were toying with us. Then it was our turn. After days of unrelenting motion, the sea rolled flat. The crashing of the waves on the island shore disappeared. The only sound was the colony of seabirds overhead, some circling our two boats, trapped in stillness.