Day 22 St
Lucia!
Last night after several days
becalmed, the wind decided to return and we could finally switch the engine off
and give it a rest. The poor thing had been going non-stop and had done sterling
service. We still have just under ½ tank of fuel left, plus the reserve jerry
can, so we can pat ourselves on the back for that. We passed a couple of other
boats yesterday who either had no fuel left or chose to be sailing purists and
refused to put their engines on, either way, they were not making any real
progress. We had to keep our progress rates up as we all have flights to catch
this week.
So with the wind on our tail,
we had full sails set to port and were bowling along very nicely, reefing down
as night fell in case the forecast increase in the wind speed materialised. We
finally passed the finish post in Rodney Bay at 08:36:20 this morning to a
rapturous welcome from many of the ARC participants who had already checked in.
It was a very gratifying experience. We were met in the bay by Elaine, Ed’s wife
who had hired a water taxi to take her out to meet us. No-one expected this to
happen and it was a real surprise. We had several photographs taken by a
professional photographer as we neared the bay, it will be great to see the
results and might even be a keepsake to have pride of place in the office. We
already have received a certificate of congratulation on a successful Atlantic
crossing to add to the souvenirs.
Day 21 14.5N 58W Less than
200 to go
Last night we experienced the
best ever sunset – simply spectacular – it seemed to us that the whole sky was
aflame, and the red glow spread across the sky as far as the eye could see. As
time went on, the colours got redder and deeper and it looked to is as though
there was a volcano in the distance and the red clouds were like layers of
molten lava across the face of the mountain. It was absolutely
awesome.
Also, I don’t know whether or
not I witnessed the death of a star. I was up on watch between 03:00 and 06:00
and sometime in the period, there was a brilliant flash in the sky over towards
the ENE from me. A single point object was glowing red, then yellow, then green,
and then it disappeared altogether. The intensity of the light was very strong
and that part of the sky was very bright. I’ll have to look it up in the news;
maybe I saw a moment in stellar history. It all seemed a bit star wars to
me.
Our attempts to catch some
supper have been fruitless, we managed to get a bite yesterday, quite a large
fish leapt out of the water having taken a bite of the lure, but it didn’t get
hooked. Subsequent attempts to catch anything were to no
avail.
We put the ship’s clock back
an hour last night to bring us in line with St Lucia time (UT-4). We are in the
home straight now, the wind is due to return to us today and hopefully will send
us on into St Lucia. We have been out of email contact with the world for a few
days now, something has gone wrong on my laptop and the port that the modem uses
thinks it is already busy. Thankfully, we have been receiving update texts from
our friends in the real world that let us know the weather prospects and we have
been acting on this info.
For the first time since
leaving the canaries, we can see two other yachts on the horizon at the same
time. The convergence of the boats on the Martinique passage to the north of St
Lucia seems to be everyone’s target. We should see more as the day progresses.
We have half a tank of fuel left plus the 10 litres I have kept for emergencies
in reserve. That should be plenty for the remaining part of the crossing, and
there should be no issue here. The extra jerry cans I bought in Las Palmas were
definitely a good move and have paid dividends. We have passed other boats that
were progressing under sail alone, and not covering any distance. Perhaps their
spare fuel quota wasn’t great enough. The recommendation was for 5 days of
motoring, we allowed for 7-8 in our calculations. Thank goodness we
did.
We ate pork (and pork
sausage) cassoulet for our dinner last night, just about all our fresh food
stocks have gone now, and we are down to tinned products. Not too much of a
burden. Fray Bentos night again tonight for our last evening meal aboard.
Tomoorow we will hit the restaurants ashore ...
Day 20 14.5N 56.75W Becalmed
with 240 miles to go
Frustrating! We are nearly
there and the wind has died on us altogether. It was forecast, but the sight of
the Atlantic Ocean as smooth as a millpond is somewhat unexpected. I was on the
6-9am watch this morning, and the sun hadn't risen by the time I was on duty.
The atmosphere was positively ethereal. There was a mist hanging over the water,
another yacht was forward on the horizon, with its tricolour masthead light
twinkling through the gloom, the water was dead calm, and I was totally at peace
with the world.
Then the sun came up, and I
was treated to the most magnificent sunrise, a mackerel sky overhead that has
since disappeared as the sun has warmed up the skies. The clouds have all but
disappeared from overhead and the temperatures are rising. It is going to be a
hot day. We have put 40 litres of diesel into the tank from jerry cans, which
leaves us with 10 litres in reserve and a tank that is three-quarters full.
Enough fuel to motor for 2.5 days. Hopefully that will be enough to sustain our
progress towards Rodney Bay and hopefully the winds will pick up to allow us to
turn off the engine and sail again.
Last night, after sailing
over 2500 miles from Las Palmas, we ended up less than 1 nautical mile from the
East Martinique mid-Atlantic weather buoy. We knew it was in our vicinity, but
with all the hundreds of thousands of square miles of ocean, we ended up having
to keep a sharp eye out for the yellow lights that would indicate its presence.
It seems a bit like parking in a multi-storey car park where there is only one
other car on the same floor, and you somehow end up reversing into it. Things
like this never cease to amaze me.