The Carib 1500 and Other Caribbean News

Tom and Diane Might, and their Hallberg-Rassy 62 Between The Sheets, have done their landlocked hometown of Phoenix proud by being the first of 47 entries to cross the finish line in the 19th annual Caribbean 1500 from Hampton, Virginia, to Tortola in the British Virgins. The Mights, vets of the event, were aided by crew Ian Jones. Due to one of several shortcomings of the 1500 website, we have no idea how long it took them or how much they might have motored.

The mighty Mights finished on Friday morning, and all but two or three of the other boats should have finished by tonight — in time for the Mount Gay Rum Party. Among the other finishers is Manhattan Beach circumnavigator Mike Harker with his Hunter 49 Wanderlust 3, who doesn’t drink alcohol, let alone Mount Gay. The only other West Coast boat slated to enter was Seth and Elizabeth Hynes’ Lagoon 380, which was from an unspecified place in California and had yet to be named. It’s unclear from the website whether they started or finished.

Further plans call for Harker to sail to St. Barth for the New Year’s Eve Around the Island Race. Another West Coast sailor, Vendée vet Bruce Schwab with his Wylie 65 OceanPlanet, is apparently intending to enter that fun race also. Schwab reports that the one thing he neglected to buy before sailing to the Caribbean was a dinghy. When you sail around the world non-stop, you have no need for such things.

In other Caribbean news, Janet Hein of the Gig Harbor, Washington-based 34-ft gaff cutter Woodwind reports that Obama T-shirts and buttons are being worn by just about everyone in the West Indies. This is particularly true in the U.S. Virgins — despite the fact that residents can’t vote for president. But perhaps the greatest honor bestowed on the president-elect was by the Prime Minister of Antigua, who renamed the island’s tallest peak after Obama! Oh, the curse of unlimited expectations!