December 12, 2001
By Susan McKenzie
"I was throwing up like a fecker," was the way Mo Monaghan of Team Morgan Stanley described the yacht regatta that began the second day of Expedition BVI, in which teams sailed clockwise around Jost van Dyke Island before anchoring off Sandy Spit and paddling onto its white beaches.
Monaghan was not alone in her misery. Rough water kept many of the athletes below deck, and rendered at least one or two members of each team seasick. Athletes lay strewn across the beach, those hardest hit curled up on the sand, resting under palm trees while others, who quickly recovered ate food and swapped vomit stories. Language proved to be no barrier for the two teams tied for second place, Red Bull-Buff and Nokia. The sign language said it all, as Nokia's Elina Maki-Rautula's mimicked being ill while Red Bull/Buff's Florencia "Floppy" Garces held her hands to her stomach, Even the normally reticent Nokia captain Petri Forsman admitted to a rolling stomach on the rolling chop.
It's worth noting that, although the regatta was for fun and does not count towards the race, the first yacht to finish was Galway Securities.
The morning began with bright sunshine, as the sailboats milled around Great Harbour preparing to race. Each boat is flying identical EBVI, Hummer and Sunsail flags, so in order to distinguish themselves from the pack, many of the team's have added their own flags. Apart from sponsors flag (and there are a lot) and a number of patriotic flags (American, Finnish and Spanish to name a few), other intriguing ones stick out. King Oscar/AdventureTraining.com is flying a Bob Marley flag, Terra Discovery/ BrokerXtrodinair is flying a few skull and crossbones and NYFIX/ racingahead.com has two bright orange life preservers
One team began day two with only three members racing. Last night, while hiking on Jost van Dyke, Joel Klug of Dupont Adventurewear slipped off a cliff and tumbled into spiky brush and cacti. He was sent to the hospital, but was released this morning, scratched and bruised but otherwise okay. In fact, he was around the Prospect Reef Resort this afternoon to watch the team makes the transition from the water to the very welcome mountain bike section.
The first team to gratefully leave the water was King Oscar/AdventureTraining.com around 2 p.m. The team was in and out of the checkpoint within minutes, on their bikes and on the road, with several teams hot on their heels. But it will be a short respite from the water: in order to ensure racers are off Tortola's roads before night falls, race management has decided to shorten the mountain bike section, so teams will be back on the water before dark, paddling out to Norman Island.
