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Matilda - End of the World (ARC) as we know it



It has been another three week break since our last blog, and now it's all over. We handed back our Yellowbrick tracker yesterday and Rally Control flew out today. It feels a little strange that it is all over, but we are quite looking forward to getting back to reality now.

Our last blog was just after we arrived in Grenada which seems like months ago now. It was nice to be the first boat in the marina for a change, welcoming all the fast boats in and helping to tie up. The prize giving there was the last of the Rally; it made us wish we had participated in the Brazil leg, but not for long. Hearing the stories of Brazil mostly made us happy we'd missed it and headed straight for Barbados.

Dreamcatcher organised a big BBQ for the fleet in Tobago Cays which was very well attended and a lovely night. There was even a steel band to serenade us as the piles of lobster were brought out to the tables. The ride back to our boat in the launch belonging to "Mr. Fabulous" (I kid you not) was spectacular on the clear, mild starry night. The moon was just after being full, so it was quite a romantic evening.

We arrived in Rodney bay ahead of the rest of the fleet and started working on all our jobs. We got the generator replaced, replaced the main halyard sheaves, fixed up some deck plugs and 100 other little jobs. We could not sail matilda down to Marigot Bay to meet up with the rest of the fleet as I had removed the fore stay and back stay. Luckily we had booked to stay at the posh hotel there for three nights which was a welcome bit of luxury after 15 months living on the boat. The first BBQ party there was great fun, and was followed by three more parties each night. My liver was begging for mercy by last night so we decided to have an early (and dry) night for a change. We drifted off to sleep early back in Rodney Bay with the sounds of Karaoke aboard Anastasia next door.

A few yachts had already left, and most will be leaving tomorrow. We are pretty much ready to go now so we plan to set sail this afternoon. Dominica is 95 miles away, and we plan to spend a couple of nights there followed by a couple of nights in Saba. Our final destination with matilda is Nanny Cay in the BVI before we move aboard peat Smoke for the last passage back across the Atlantic (our third crossing of the Atlantic!). We will probably write a final blog from the BVI once we've moved off matilda and we have some time for uploading photographs of our last few destinations.



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