Position: 14 04.59N, 60 59.64W

 

Today: an early introduction to island time; fireworks that are out of this world; now that is how to get your day started!; Elmer Fudd time;

 

Dear Readers, as you may know, we have managed to cross the finish line yesterday @ 05:19 and we are now safely tucked up in the Rodney Bay Marina—super yacht pontoon, no less—where Libeccio will spend the next few weeks recuperating from her efforts during the passage and while Jane and I return home for Christmas with the family.  We will return mid January and slow the pace down while visiting a number of islands—which islands and in what order has yet to be determined.

 

So, grab that Starbucks, Timmy’s (don’t forget the vanilla shot, Tracie), Serious Coffee or, as in my case, a cup of the finest instant, decaf coffee... more like coloured hot water, really, but it works. I am sitting in the cockpit on the boat, having just gone to the washroom complex to have my shower. Its 06:30 and there is a queue for the showers—make that shower, because there is only one of the four cubicles that is operational. To say that it is operational is also an overstatement as it only provides cold water. Invigorating, refreshing  may well describe the sensation, but, given that there are at least 180 boats from the ARC alone here--  a couple other words occur to one’s mind, but, better keep those out of this blog. The sun is rising over the hills to the east of the marina and is is already warming up—yesterday it hit 35.5 C on our outside thermometer which is also in the shade.

 

In any event, cast your mind back to our last catch up- the crew of Libeccio had gotten out their abacuses and slide rule to determine that our arrival time would be somewhere between 04:00 and 05:00. This was based upon a careful extrapolation of the 2 week moving average of the mean boat speed when the winds ranged between 13 – 18 and averaged exactly 15.472 knots. Ya, right—we guessed. And the moment that the guess was made another force, perhaps more potent than any other that we have  encountered before—yes, stronger than the winds, more powerful than the ocean itself and certainly one that no man, woman, boat or nation can overcome....yes, it’s ISLAND TIME.  Offended by the audacious act of estimating an arrival time that was slightly optimistic, Island Time (we are not sure if it is a woman or a man) decided to slap us in line and ordered that the winds die down—this is where the brilliance of the intervention was—to that point where Izzy was in a state of almost continual collapse. With a final display of omnipotence, Island Time caused the wind to change direction in random intervals. In this way, we could not justify firing up the iron lungs we call engines, nor could the helms person relax because the sail would no longer tend itself. And so, our speed slowed down to 2.5 to 5 knots and our estimate arrival time stretched out.

 

Little did Island Time know, that each of the watches were savouring their last (for a while) spell at the helm and that the clear, star filled sky and calm oceans were exactly what each had thought night time passage making with the trade winds was going to be like. As it made little difference when we actually arrived, no one was in a hurry for this to end.  There is something unique and special about sitting a watch where all is quiet except for the sounds of the waves washing against the hull as the boat moves forward and the rustle of the sail as it shifts with the slight changes in the wind. Other than checking the radar and AIS every 15 minutes or so, you are left to look across the sky and on moon lit nights such as this one to watch the waves.  It is the same as watching a fire, always changing and mesmerising.

 

As if reading out minds, the astrological society made a few calls to some passing comets and arranged for a bit of their tails to enter the atmosphere so that we had the most amazing fireworks display—for hours, there were falling stars all around us, in the order of 20 or so each hour. In an environment with no other light except the half moon and stars, the falling stars were easily spotted.  Our friend Wayne, would probably be able to put a proper name to the event, but, we prefer to think of it as our welcome to St Lucia fireworks.

 

I was lucky enough to be on the  01:00 – 04:00 watch and so enjoyed the final 20 or so miles on our approach to St Lucia. On our right hand side was Martinique and we could watch the lights of the island get progressively brighter the closer we got. When we were 5 miles away from the finish line we contacted the Finish Line Control and woke up some poor sole whose job it was to coordinate the boats crossing the line. Our next check in was 2 miles for the finish line and it coincided with a change in direction that would make it difficult to continue sailing Izzy and so it was time to wake up the rest of the crew. With the precision of the RCMP musical ride (if you don’t know what it is, then Google it—pretty cool) we had Izzy safely in her snuffer and into the sail locker. As the rules of the ARC require that you sail across the finish line,  we had to get some sail up so we chose only to raise the genny—there was not enough wind to use the main. And so, we rounded the corner of Pigeon Island and made our final turn—this time LEFT (do we have time for a LEFT turn party?) and saw the finish line  that was marked by a sail boat with lights in it rigging and a strobe light a the top of its mast. There was one other strobe light, and that was from the photographer that comes out to meet your boat—clearly at any time of the night or day—and take a series of pictures. Libeccio, accustomed to the attentions of the paparazzi as most beautiful Italian women are, shrugged off the camera flashes and drove straight to the finish line. With a little hoot from the officials at the finish line we booked a new World Record Atlantic crossing time (in an newly established category for Libeccio and this crew).

 

Once we crossed the line we then had to prepare to dock up in the marina- so we had to contact, I kid you not—ARC Berth Control— just imagine trying to say it out load over the VHF when you are a bit tired and not start to giggle, just a little.  Our call was returned by another sleepy voice, it was Viktor, one of the ARC team that had been responsible for our wharf in Las Palmas. Before you know it, we are making our way to the super yacht dock (i know, i have said it before, but, it feels good to say “super yacht”)... there was a moment of concern as we realised that it had not been necessary to manoeuvre Libbecio  with precision below 100 miles over the past 19 days.. but, we made it. Sure enough, the expected greeting party (remember this is 06:00 by now, the sun is only just starting to rise) of the two ARC team members and two members from the St Lucia tourist board—much to our surprise and delight, Amanda from El Mundo was also there. What a star to get up so early to welcome us in. So, in the stillness of the marina, the 5 of them gave us an ovation reminiscent of the audiences appreciation of Pavarotti in Hyde park.. well, sort of. After tying up came the traditional ceremony of “The Drinking of the Elixir”, better known as quaffing the rum punch provided by the tourist board. As well, they kindly gave us a fruit basket.

 

We were all pretty excited about finishing and were not anxious to go to bed so we toddled off to one of the restaurants that are along the quay-side of marina and indulged in a cooked breakfast. The rest of the day was spent catching up with fellow yachties that had completed the crossing and hearing about their trip and challenges.  Oh, and we all had a post lunch snooze as well—except for Bill. Marianne, Bill’s better half, was arriving in the early afternoon and so Bill had to get organised and clean his room so he could abandon us to move into a hotel. After dinner and a couple rum punches, it was an early night as we  were all a bit fatigued.

 

Well, you are now up to date, with the exception of reporting hugely interesting items like “cleaned the bathroom”, “emptied the diesel containers” and similar items, there will not be much to report on so we will likely not be posting regularly. Thank you for reading the blog, hope you had as much fun reading it as we had writing it. So as one of our greatest thespians of our time, Bugs Bunny said, That’s All Folks!

 

Best wishes,

 

 

The Crew of Libeccio