can we help
+44(0)1983 296060
+1 757-788-8872
tell me moreJoin a rally

Menu

Azzurra - Day 23 – St.Lucia arrival-



On Monday 16.December at 10:35am we crossed the finishing line and heard the nice tone of the horn just telling us that we made it. It also was perfect to arrive at Daytime, rather than during the night. We carried with us some Voeuve Cliquot, Champaign for just this moment and of cause we consumed it. It is hard to describe all the feelings a man can have after 23 days on sea. Of cause there is happiness, one becomes very emotional, some tears are running and one is proud on the achieved; you feel exhausted but lucky. Most rememberal are the crew members. 23 days with four different characters, together on very limited space. Even your bed is a moving part on sea. Especially this time I felt it much more difficult to find sleep. There were these 3 days where one could not sleep at all. Bft 9, 43 to 49 knots wind for three days as well three or more days with no wind ‘dead calm’; it glues the crew together. Also you find time to think about yourself, probably more than before and more honest.

It is an adventure of your live. Arriving in St.Lucia was like coming home; especially if your spouse is waiting for you on the pier. The ARC committee waiting on the pier as well celebrated a warm welcome providing rum punch and a choice of local fruits. Getting into the berth was not that easy as the wind and gust pushed our bow to the wrong direction preventing to go in stern wise. We changed our plans and went in bow wise.

Everyone was happy being in the berth. No waves! That was an immediate thought telling you tonight we will sleep like in paradise’s garden. Especially Franz and Paul, they shared a berth. Arriving is a great moment! Place 8th of 18 in our Group ‘D’ and 55th out of 165. Looking back on what curse we ran, we never believed to make it below the 130th, a real surprise. Of cause we had some problems to solve or to overcome. We had limited fuel, motoring was a no go. We had repairs most we could handle; some like Genoa repair was not that successful. Most of the second half of our race we performed only with the main sail. Max, our never tired helmsman, twice went on strike. After some negotiation with parts out of our toolbox the problem could be solved. A major problem we detected 3 days before our arrival. The boom showed a serious crevice. We were very concerned and we know we would not have made it another 5 days without the boom breaking.We were just lucky.

We also remember very nice moment we had during our passage; all the parties we celebrated together on board and all the stories we told each other. We watched the stars at night and made progress in identifying some. We had those dark nights with a new moon where we could see nothing while Azzurra was rushing thru the waves. We saw a rainbow during the night when we had nearly full moon. When we saw land, it made us happy and we felt the last 30 miles as it were 100 miles, it did not want to end...It was not always easy writing under deck but much easier as Franzy’s job cooking. We tried to remember how often Franz quitted cooking it was about 6 times. If you fight under deck when the waves are 3 to 5 meters high, shaking you around, you know he must be special.

We all, that is Paul from Dallas Texas, Brian from Manchester, Franz and Manfred from Bavaria want to thank you who followed us on our journey and who read our daily blog.


arc13-5106

Previous | Next