Milla of Falmouth - Milla: Progress Report 13- Mindelo / St Lucia Part 5

Hi all

Monday: Apologies for the delay in sending the final installment. Life has
been quite busy fixing the boat.

The last day of the passage was quite eventful. We hit three qualls, (two
at night), which usually start with 25-30 knot winds, buckets of rain and
then are followed by a period of absolutely no wind or very confused
breeze. So all in all quite frustrating, the culmination of which was that
the wind died completely so after sailing 2000 miles we had to motor the
last three hours to get into Rodney Bay in St. Lucia arriving about 02.30
on Tuesday morning.

After that, the merriment started again with lots of rum punch, sleep,
followed by boat fixing which seems to have taken for ever. The final
tally was two chafed halyards, broken car and batten on the main, three
small holes in the code 0 (which went for a swim twice), broken battery
charger(which hopefully is being fixed), broken 12mm pin on the auto
pilot, blocked forepeak head, broken sheave pulley at the top of the mast
(which is no doubt the reason one of the hayards chafed), and the screws
sheared on the plate which holds the through deck fitting at the end of
the rudder stock. So all in all quite a lot, most of which happened in the
last three days. I think the sailing element of the crossing is a less
significant consideration compared to the impact it has on the boat. Not
sure I would do it again - too much hard work both in terms of boat prep
and making things good after the event. Seems like we have been preparing
for the trip for ever and now have to tackle the repair list. Still, I
don't think we are much different to the rest of the fleet - I am sure
they all have their own breakage list. I think the best thing to do is
cross the Atlantic on somebody else's boat!

We had mountains of food left and could have gone twice the distance with
the amount of provisions we had on board. A lot of the spare food has gone
to homes in St Lucia and I am sure there will be more on its way soon.

The Caribbean is as beautiful as always which a mixture of sunshine and
rain. After we arrived, it rained for two days solid which delayed sorting
out the boat somewhat. All the ARC + boats are now in, we think this time
we were 4th in class.

Our friends on Magnetic Attraction, a steel boat, were the last in. They
had a really hard passage, they started a day late from Mindello because
they had engine problems, then 4 days out, they think they hit a whale
which was lying just below the surface out of view which then startled and
walloped their rudder with its tail which bent their quadrant and
destroyed their autopilot. As a consequence, Ged and Ann had to hand steer
for 15 days which is hard work at the best of times,(never mind with just
the two of them) and can only be done in 2 hour max stints. They arrived
yesterday thankfully, but sadly a freak wave had also hit the boat about 1
hour before arrival and sent the kettle full of boiling water off the
stove and onto Ann's leg which is quite badly burnt. Tom has been looking
after her and now the burn is dressed and Ann is taking pain killers. All
in all quite a trip, but they are still smiling.

Well that's about it, we are back to the UK on 18th December will send
catch up photos once home - again the internet here is not sparkling.

All the best

Derek and Anita.