I’ve discovered that if you hang around enough bars on St. John, eventually you’ll be invited to go sailing. It just so happened Capt. Tom Rowlinson was shorthanded for his boat Terra Nova which was entered in the annual Thanksgiving Weekend Regatta off of Coral Bay and, for the faith offering of a couple of Heinekens, I was signed on as crew. Also aboard were Tom’s good friends Jeff and Laurie.
Capt. Tom making his genoa behave on Terra Nova
The day was crisp and bright, the winds light. Tom’s 40-foot Sparkman and Stephens cut through the water like a warm knife through butter. “We always start late,” he said, “because the boat is so fast it catches and passes everybody anyway.” As the sails went up and we jockeyed for the starting line I was relieved to see Capt. Tom is a calm fellow, a far cry from my racing experiences in the Great Lakes where jolly weekend skippers turn into manic Capt. Blighs barking orders and berating the crew. But then, this is St. John where the committee boat at the starting line is a floating bar.
The 25 racers were made up of a strange conglomeration of craft from a sailing kayak piloted by captain and dog, to Elliot Hooper’s steel schooner Silver Cloud with five sails and all flags flying. The race took about three and a half hours to unfold. We did indeed pass most of the smaller boats but were smoked at the end by one of only two other boats in our class. Never mind. Kids swimming off the committee boat and a toast from the balcony of the bar barge were a fitting end to the race.
The Virgin Islands, both British and U.S. are ideal sailing grounds with constant breezes, few obstacles to navigation and lots of beaches and harbors. Charter skippers come here from around the world . It was good to get back on the water, to handle some lines and feel the movement of a living ship beneath my feet. Thanks, Tom, for a magnificent day.
The Committee Boat
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