We finally arrived
Worthy Sailing Mojo
Paul Worthington
Sun 10 Dec 2023 23:02
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14.04.46N: 60.56.98W
So at 2155 hours local time in St Lucia we
finally made the finish line, finding it was a bit of a mission in the pitch
black in a busy bay with lots of other boat anchored, it was marked with a
flashing white light visible at about half a mile, however our first contact was
with the ARC cameraman who photographs all the yachts across the finish line. We
spotted the single white light whizzing across our bow which then approached us
and pointed us towards the finish line. He had the most amazing set-up in that
he was alone strapped into a harness that allowed him to stand upright
and lean back and single handed take photos whilst steering his inflatable
with the other hand, how he didn't fall in I have no idea but I guess he was
used to it.
Anyway we were congratulated as we officially
crossed the finish line, our overall time was computed as 20 days 11 hours and
55 minutes, we were not really racing so weren't that bothered with the time it
was just a relief to finish especially after the final 24 hours in which we had
had to motor with strong following seas which lurched the boat constantly fro
left to right making it difficult to do anything.
The next task was to get into the marina in
Rodney Bay in the pitch black, I was beginning to wish that we had arrived in
daytime but just needed to man up and get us in there as everyone was keen to
step on dry land. I eventually located the very poorly indicated narrow entrance
to the Marina and nearly missed the entrance as the green and red buoys are
reversed in the US! Anyway we did make the entrance were allocated a berth
number and we had to make our way round.
Thankfully the ARC staff were there to greet
us with rum punch and a bowl of fruit from the St Lucia Tourist Board. They
helped us with our lines as I made a faultless reversal into our berth to be
tied up and finally we switched off the engine to relax, by then it was about
10:30pm, we managed half an hour sort out before heading off to the bar next
door for a refill of rum punch however they were out and we had to settle for 4
G&Ts, these consumed we returned to the boat to open the second bottle of
Tattinger and consumed this with crisps and chocolate as none of us had
eaten.
It was a great feeling to be finally there and
complete one of my lifelong ambitions and especially 29 years after my first
aborted attempt.
We had clocked up according to the final log
entry 3,026 miles how I'm not sure as the route was supposed to be only 2,900. I
think from a fleet of about 157 yachts we would have come in around 85th so
quite respectable and we are now enjoying the hospitality of St Lucia and catch
up with stories from other crews on their trials and tribulations.
It's been a fantastic experience and a real
achievement and been a long time planning so I now need to work on the next
plans which I expect to be some Caribbean sailing and then an around Britain
sail before returning to challenge the Atlantic once more on the more
challenging Northern route.
Paul/Skip |
