Well the adventure has come to an end. Houdalinqua departed St Lucia on 20th
December and headed north to the white sands of Antigua (via the beautiful
Dominica). But fear not, avid followers of the "Houdalinquents" - the crew
partied HARD in St Lucia, a little too hard if Alicia's lack of voice was
anything to go by.
As mentioned in the last post, the crew went to the fancy dress party as The
Lighthouse Family - and ripped up the (sand) dance floor. All that level
ground the crew was finding hard to negotiate (land sickness) was nicely
balanced out by a large serving of rum punch and a few refreshing Piton
beers. Our second day on land was pretty much taken up with breakfast,
shopping for FRESH!!! food and welcoming in the remaining boats from our
communication group - Steelaway and Sestina made it in and it would have
been rude not to join them for drinks. (This ARC malarkey is incredibly
sociable - it is hard to make it back to your berth without boarding
numerous vessels for beer and nibbles!)
Having only just returned from Breakfast and with enough time for a shower,
it was back out again to the Communication Group A BBQ - a chance to put all
those voices to faces. Alicia turned up, laden with turkey burgers and a
six-pack, to be greeted by the crew of Blues!!! What a joy. Once Houdalinqua
heard that Marco was neighbours with George Clooney, the crews were best
friends - regardless of the fact that Blues found it nigh on impossible to
understand the fast excited chatter of the Houdalinqua ladies (and that was
just the radio chat on the crossing!) It was great to catch up with all the
boats - Irena, Starcross, our favourites Pellagie, Scampi, Karinya (couldn't
forget you lot) and all those that I have missed off - of which there were
tonnes. Massive thanks to Starcross and Karinya for all their efforts at
organising what was the inaugural communication group party - how has it
taken 25 years? Could it be that the radio net has never experienced
anything in the same league as the incessant chat and dry wit of Alicia,
Jess and Tim - surely not!
Anyway, the BBQ turned into one of the most epic nights of our stay in St
Lucia. A group of people headed back to Houdalinqua for a quick round of
Ring of Fire. Massive respect must go to Mr and Mrs Pellagie (our heroes),
who not only got fully involved in the drinking game, but cheated to avoid
drinking the party jug - that wily of Nils! Not content with finishing the
party there, it was on to a local 'Jump up'. I don't think St Lucia knew
what had hit them. There we were, a group of 15 or so European sailors
turning up to a local street party to spot for talent. Tim and Christian
from Karinya spent the majority of the night fishing the ladies back to
safety. At one point it began to piss down with rain. 'Run for cover', the
locals were shouting.but we weren't local. Picture this.ARC sailors all
dancing (I prefer performing) in the middle of the street with all the
locals looking on.and then the cherry on the cake- our Danish friend and
adopted son of Vicki and Tim, Christian (buff, blonde hair, blue eyes) rips
off his shirt. It was flash dance meets, YMCA - you cannot teach that. After
making sure we had stood firmly out from the crowd, we decided it best to
make a quiet exit and headed back to Rodney Bay.
To bed, I hear you ask? Hell no. Back to Karinya, whereupon someone decided
it was time to play, oh yes, Strip Poker. Tricky, seeing as most of us were
wearing only two or three items of clothing in total and were so smashed
that there was no chance of a poker face! Memories from this part of the
evening are hazy, but what has been confirmed is that Vicki woke to go to
the loo and saw multiple naked arses, and heard us listening to the Forrest
Gump sounds track (crazy kids) and that Hugo and Christian got down to their
boxers and hugged (photographic evidence on Callum's camera - Callum being a
7 year old, who the next day asked his mummy why people had been using his
camera!!!!!!!), before running off to the marina pool and wedging their
pants off each other. Suffice to say, Hugo and Alicia finally made it back
to the boat as the sun was rising and Julian was getting up!
But that "bastard behind the eyes" and the pounding in our heads, was not
going to stop Houdalinqua from making the most of day three in St Lucia. And
so it was off to the Spinnaker Bar with Hugo, Kim, Jess and Alicia for a
late lunch. After hours of pumping up the rubber dinghy (Jess was trying to
inflate the dinghy with the valve that actually sucks air from the boat!!!),
the four of us headed over to the beach and took our life into our hands as
we negotiated the breaking waves. Getting back off the beach was even more
hilarious though. We braced at the top of the beach, holding the dinghy and
picking our moment to launch. Quite an audience built up around us,
questioning our launch tactics. There was no need to fear though, Like the
Jamaican bobsled team, we were a collection of highly trained athletes, each
with an important but badly rehearsed part to play in the launch. As soon as
the largest in a row of waves had broken on to the shore, we saw our
opportunity and ran. We ran like the wind, galloping over the water, just as
Pamela Anderson had done all that time in Baywatch. The rubber flubber was
launched with about as much grace as Gordon Brown in a tutu, and we sped
away with Alicia half in, half out and with her arse in the air - Success!
Meanwhile, Julian was out for lunch with Adrian and Ginny - a long lunch,
with plenty of refreshment, if you catch my coconut. It was Julian's merry
state that would make us late for the prize giving. Unfortunately the prize
giving party itself was a bit of a wash out. But determined to have fun, the
junior members of Houdalinqua took it upon themselves to further feelings of
friendship between the European states and partied until the small hours of
morning with a bunch of Swedish and Norwegian guys. Our national gift to
their countries - an introduction to the Ring of Fire! This went down a
storm and required Jess to rush back to the boat about 4am for more
supplies - you know you are really scraping the barrel and should probably
call it a night when the best you can do is straight Jaegermeister for your
international friends.
Our 72 hours of fun in St Lucia taught us a few things. Firstly, that
abstaining from alcohol for 26 days leads to outrageous behaviour. Secondly,
Ring of Fire really is a game for all the family - 'what's that Mrs
Pellagie? Did you just tell me to F**k off? When are you grandchildren
arriving in the Caribbean?' And thirdly, it really is possible to have your
fill of rum. What an amazing way to end the ARC.
It was fabulous to meet so many people that we will hopefully stay in touch
with - and those of you who are still kicking around the clear waters of the
Caribbean, we will see you in Antigua for race week in April.
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