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Tulla Mhor - day 22: Arrival at last



We have landed. On dry land in St Lucia. We crossed the line at 09.30.16 local time which meant it took us 3 weeks, 30 minutes and 16 seconds exactly. If only we had a better start we could have shaved 5 minutes off!
The last night at sea was quite surreal and was the roughest weather we had all of the trip. All was good late afternoon/early evening. We had are usual game of cards which Andrew won. Had supper which was one of our less good dinners but I was beginning to flag about meal ideas and most of the better more interesting food had been eaten.
The boys then decided to have an open air cinema, watching Top Gun, one of their all time favourites. Hugo fixed up a bluetooth connection so the sound track played thru the cockpit speakers. The laptop sat on top of the companion way hatch and we settled down under the stars, the wind moving us thru the waves listening to the roar of jets and ‘Take my Breath Away’. I felt I had seen this movie enough times so went to bed to catch some sleep before my watch at 2.00am.
Wham! 6 minutes before the end of the film the cinema was closed because of impending squall, the first of many. We only had 1 reef in the main and full jib so a bit over canvassed. I could hear all the commotion above me as further sail was reduced. Dugald was up and down thru Hugo’s watch and eventually everyone was up. I was with Andrew for 2 hours and then Dugald until the morning. The main was reduced to 3 reefs by now. When the squall came we rolled away the jib and then back out after it had passed. We could see the squalls developing on the radar and big black clouds behind us coming closer and blocking out the horizon. I did not enjoy it much. Sitting at the back of the boat behind the wheel, full oilskins, clipped on, watching the clouds come up and then hurtling down the waves. Wind speeds were up to 35 knots with very heavy rain and big seas.
We were going too far down wind and needed to go up wind to make it round the north of the island. A change of course put us across the waves and we shipped a huge wave right over me and into the cockpit.
We could see St Lucia, everyone was up and the weather looked like it was improving. One further heavy squall, 38knts of wind, and we were romping up to the finish line. We crossed the line just behind our friend Harry Shiers on Scarabaus, last seen as we motored out of the marina in Las Palma.
Sails down, marina contacted for our berth number and we motored in to tie up. We were all pretty tired and Tulla looked very grubby and battered. Kate and Colin, our friends form Aberdeen were on the pontoon to welcome us and it was lovely to see them. We had made it. A fantastic feeling to be berthed. A lovely welcome with rum punches, probably not a good idea at that time of day after so little sleep, a basket of fruit and some steel drums.
Boats were streaming in that morning and the ARC and marina staff kept very busy answering the VHF radio and making sure everyone was berthed and safe. All the boats had endured a hard night and everyone coming in was tired but elated.
We all need a few days to recover, clean the boat and catch up with sleep.
This blog was much easier to type now we have stopped moving around. I was quite surprised I managed to keep writing while we were sailing as I thought I may feel seasick. Slept almost unconscious on Sunday night, it was great lying still. Feel a bit sad that our journey has finished and really enjoyed it (except for the last night, although even then it was a challenge which we came thru together). I will miss our crew evenings and being part of a close team.
Val.


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