Blog from Houdalinqua

Karinya
Tim And Vicki Schofield, Captain Cal 7 and Jess 4
Sat 8 Jan 2011 01:54
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.