December 31 2021- January 9 2022
Gail and I return to Antigua to celebrate NewYears and spend a week preparing for the start of the Oyster World Rally ,OWR, and our adventure. Having just left Tahoe with a record setting snow fall the warmth of Antigua is welcome.
The OWR, is a world rally sponsored by Oyster Yachts dating back to 2013 . This year’s rally starts in Antigua January 9 2022 and finishes 16 months later in Antigua April 2023 . A total of 25 Oysters are entering the 2022-2023 rally, the models range from a 54 to a 725, new to 15 years vintage.
For a detailed understanding of our adventure see the following link.
https://oysteryachts.com/oyster-world-rally/
To learn more about the rally and track all the participants progress live visit.
Go to the App ” YB Races” and select Oyster World Rally . It is free.
Oyster has a full service team in Antigua for over 2 weeks helping us all get ready. Infinity has a number of service requirements after crossing the Atlantic that keep us busy for the week. While the service team is busy tackling our “punch list” we have time to explore English Harbour and beautiful historic site that is filled with history and wonderful sites to visit.
Courses: During the week we attend many courses and briefings arranged by Oyster. Among these:
-Sea Survival training: a required 1 day sea survival course that all of us attend. This focuses primarily on life raft deployment and procedures for various ocean crossing emergencies. We spend the afternoon with in water life raft training including righting a upside down raft . All good practical information.
-Nicole’s Cooking School: Gail and Daniela took a 1 day cooking class focusing on local ingredients. Gail made a wonderful dinner with her new found skills .
Briefings included :
-A weather briefing by Chris Tibbs, focusing on the first passage to Panama.
Chris will be providing weather advice and reports throughout the rally.
-A meeting with the “Sea Mercy” group . Many of us will provide eye exams and eyeglasses to inhabitants of remote islands that don’t have access to these services. We also bring them small solar lights , a prized gift as many don’t have basic power or lighting.
-Skippers meeting outlining basics of the trip such as route planning, stops along the way and preparation for the Panama canal crossing.
All of these serve to highlight the reality of the adventure we are about to embark on.
January 9 13:00 the rally starts.There is only one problem. We all are required to get a PCR COVID test . A third of the boats test positive including Infinity so while we enter the start we need to return to Antigua for 5 days. We spend the next days working on the boat and sailing to different beautiful anchorages. Saturday we get Gail to the airport and then prepare to sail to Bonaire. Covid is helping me work on my patience.
More to come….