December 13, 2001

By Susan McKenzie

There are few smells as foul as a salty, wet adventure racer. Put a few dozen of them on a boat, add their gear and their kayaks and the resulting odor can stick in your clothes for days.

Shortly before four p.m. on Thursday, 40-knot winds forced Expedition BVI management to shut down the dive section of the RMS Rhone, which had been choppy most of the day. Those few teams still in the competition category had already completed the course, as had several others. But the high winds also put a stop to the paddle from Salt Island to Virgin Gorda for all but the top teams. Organizers turned the media boat into a makeshift ferry, loaded half a dozen or more teams and their gear onto the Corinthian, and motored them over to Virgin Gorda, where they continued on the course.

The air may have been funky, but the attitude was almost festive during the trip to Virgin Gorda. Teams swapped stories of vomiting on the high seas, debated the amount of water on this race (too much for some, enough for others), ate, slept and packed their gear for the next leg of the race.

"Now I know why capilene was on the mandatory gear list," said Jay Pichard of TerraDiscovery/BrokerXtrodinair. "We were so cold out there."

For the members of Dupont/Challenged Athletes Foundation, it was a case of déjà vu. Captain Lisa Jhung and her teammates began the day with a trip on the Corinthian, which shuttled them, as well as members of Athena, NECC and Dupont Adventurewear from the Prospect Reef Resort to the restart at the caves on Norman Island.

"We seem to be coming here a lot today," said Marshall Ulrich.

Upon reaching Virgin Gorda, Dupont/Challenged Athletes Foundation and Dupont Adventurewear decided to call it a day, and restart the race again Friday morning.

"We want to sleep tonight, and race again tomorrow," says Charlie Engel of Dupont Adventurewear.

Among those on the boat was Stefanie Jackenthal of Team Hummer, who got so sick on the first day that she was unable to race on Tuesday.

"I was hurting so bad," she says. "Man, I have never felt so bad. I just felt so sick, that kind of really drunk, more drunk than you've ever been in your life feeling. It was just awful."

A good night's sleep on dry land restored Jackenthal's strength, which is why she elected to return to the race Wednesday. Hummer was among those teams that, shortly after 6pm Thursday, slid off the Corinthian and into their kayaks, ready for yet another paddle, albeit the quickest paddle of the race. Though the teams left, the smell remained.

Day 3 began late, delayed by a search and rescue effort to locate Team NYC, which had blown off course on the way to Norman Island and instead wound up on St. John.

The restart began with a quick sail around Norman Island then a treasure hunt in the island's caves. Teams had to locate a secret code in one of three caves located alongside each other. The secret code, according to Galway Securities/Island Traders' Louise Depuy, was "mix-a-lot." The paddle from Norman Island to the wreck of the RMS Rhone just off Salt Island was anything but easy. "It was unbelievable," says Southern Comfort's Teri Snyder. "We were paddling in seven foot swells for a pretty good amount of time."

"We were working really hard out there," agrees Carleton Restoration's Sandy Geisel. "It was just pounding out there."

"We're rotten paddlers," laughed Caribbean Star's Murray Todd. "But we took a different route here, so we made good time."

"We arrived before loads of teams who left Norman after us," boasted teammate Antony Spencer, the 1999 BVI longboard surfing champion.

At the dive site, two members of each team had to swim out to the dive boat, while two remained on shore. Bruised and blistered and burned from the sun and the wind, most lay on the sharp rocks, oblivious of the discomfort. While her teammates readied themselves for the dive, Florencia Gorchs of Red Bull/Buff crouched in the scant shade afforded by a small bush.

"I am not doing so well," she admitted, her duct taped hands lifting the hair to show a chafed neck, raw from the rubbing of her PFD. Behind her, Nokia Adventure's Mika Hirvinen lay dozing, recovering from the dive. When he woke, Gorchs paused while peeling an orange to offer him half, nimbly tossing it to him. These two teams, polar opposites in terms of personalities, and fiercely competitive to boot, have spent the race in each others' shadows. Nevertheless, they have managed to create a bond, helping each other out and commiserating along the way.

Red Bull/Buff and Nokia Adventure were only two of the handful of teams still in the Competition category. The bulk of the teams still racing are now in the Expedition category. The Competition racers will continue today on the full course, while the rest will complete a shorter race.