Since our arrival on the 14th
Chaser 2
Yvonne Chapman
Thu 28 Dec 2006 22:21
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It's been a
long time since we arrived in Rodney Bay St Lucia, so I have some catching up to
do in our diary.
We arrived
at St Lucia just before midnight on Thursday and crossed the finish line at
00.25am.. Needless to say after our welcome from our friends (that made it
before us) and the ARC team we then slept for some time. It was nice having a
peaceful night together and with no risk of falling out of bed. I did get up
once and put my harness on to check all was ok before I realized we were here in
the marina.
Since then
we have caught up with our sleep, it did take a little while, but we are back to
normal now (or as normal as we're gonna get).
The boaty
picture is from our cockpit across part of Rodney Bay marina, in the
background is the house of the Rodney Bay Marina manager Cuthbert
Didier, he laid on a party for all the ARC participants, with steel bands,
drinks, food and more drinks. It was a good evening, in fact many of our
first evenings were spent this way, events, parties and the final prize
giving presentation for the racers and cruisers.
In between
this we were asked by the ARC team if we could man the finishing line for a
couple of days. We did and it was good fun. We anchored out in
Rodney Bay on the southern end of the line. We were the first to be contacted
when an arriving boat was within five or six miles of the line. We passed on the
info to the ARC office and on the boats arrival at the finish line we sounded a
horn and gave them a good welcome, along with directions on where to berth etc.
One sadder moment was the arrival of Be-bop-a-lula, this was the boat that
turned back to help a couple that had lost their rudder during some big seas.
Be-bop-a-lula managed to get the two crew on board but their boat had to be
abandoned. Consequently we had to welcome Be-bop-a-lula but commiserate with
their passengers, it must have been a hard time for them, it was nice to be part
of the ARC team albeit for a couple of days, welcoming the later
arrivals.
The
following day Yvonne and me were invited to a private party with the
ARC team (yellow shirts) and the other volunteer helpers and local
dignitaries.
The prizing
giving, again with food and drinks, was laid on at a local hotel. We didn't win
any prizes although it wasn't a race, however according to our rating for the
race (which isn't) we finished 148 out of 240 boats and came 10th in our
group of 20. Had the rating been done correctly we would have been in the top
four, it's not sourgrapes honest and its not a race and we weren't racing
but we did better than they said and they got our rating wrong, this can be
verified too by other boats, their rating was also wrong and they should
have been higher placed, but not as high as us though! and who cares
'cause we weren't racing, were we? We did do in 18 days though, which was as
good as we hoped and better than we expected.
The evening
ended though with music from steel bands and of course Rum Punch. It again was a
well organized evening with the manager of the marina, the owners of the marina,
local councilors and the minister of tourism who was standing in for the
Prime Minister, he couldn't make it because he won the general
election two days before and had other commitments. The ARC is that big
here.
We've since had a bit more time to relax. One of
the events on the voluntary agenda was what is called a canopy tour. You
harness up and slide down steel cables above trees and gorges in the rainforest.
This was good fun and for Non who doesn't like lifts or escalators was quite an
achievement, but what the hell she's an ocean sailor! As you can see the
brave face prior to the accent and then on it, (you should see the
movie)
Christmas
eve we went to a jazz night in a local bar on the beach. That was a lovely
evening, this time we had to pay for the food and drinks, back into
reality. It was a really good night and we'll be back there again.
Christmas
day we saw some friends from other boats, Chris and Fritz came for a
breakfast Bucks Fizz. We then met them later in the evening and took them
by dingy to a beachside restaurant for a Christmas Dinner of steak and
lobster.
Boxing day
we decided to go to Souffriere, a quaint little town in a beautiful bay, we anchored the
boat and with a local boys help he tied our stern to a palm tree to keep us into
the waves so we could have a comfy night. Three of our ARC friends joined us,
anchored alongside, we dingied ashore and had an impromptu BBQ on the
beach.Another good evening, and in the morning we did some snorkeling over the
reef, unbelievable the fish we and coral we saw, all colours of coral,
bright yellows and reds, tropical fish of all shapes, colours and sizes, blue
parrot fish, moray eels and barracuda. When we finished the other
boats left but Non and me decided to have a look around the small town, we
stopped in some shops and a bar, had a beer and some fishy bites at 'Archies'
before getting back on board for a hard beat upwind back to Rodney
Bay.
We had a
quick shower and jumped in our convertible sports car (dingy) and grabbed a bite
to eat and drink.
Today we've
been working, one or two repairs we have to do, so the next few days we'll be
tied up but hopefully get everything ship shape and in good order for our next
sails.
Jon and
Kate haven't left Las Palmas yet because of bad weather but hope to at the
weekend, and we've just heard James has booked a flight to come out and see us,
he should arrive new years eve.
That's all
until the new year, not long now, 2006 another year gone but hopefully we shall
see and experience some good times in 2007 and we update our diary in due
course. I'm also trying to add photos to the existing pages of our route some
keep on checking.
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