Well we made it. The last few days sailing were idyllic. Plenty of sun and a good progressive wind.

We crossed the line in the middle of Rodney Bay on a very lovely day just 19 days after starting in Las Palmas. Then followed the welcome - rum punch and a steel band which played so loudly that we couldn't hear each other when we were coming in and tying up. It was probably my worst ever attempt to park a boat, requiring three attempts and much frenzied fending off by the owners of the two yachts we were trying to park between. The rum punch was quickly followed by the freezing cold beer we had all been dreaming of, and it all went rapidly downhill from there. Chairmans Rum was the main problem.

Looking back it was a game of two halves. The first week or so was dominated by the heavy winds and sea of the first day and then the return of stormy weather a few days later from which we had to run south for a couple of days. 

We can now reveal that we broke a spinnaker pole on the evening of the first day. We had the genoa poled out and were trying to reduce sail when it just folded in the middle. We did have a second one, however, so it did not turn out to be significant. Twelve or more boats retired during that first day, mostly with rig or steering issues. Some went back to Las Palmas and some diverted to the Cape Verdes. So, having broken our spinnaker pole, we felt that we were joining in properly. 

A few days later the storms came back. The WCC forecast, that suggested we could go West earlier than usual this year, was completely trashed by a very strong storm  heading down towards us from the North. We turned South and ran before it for two of three days before turning back West again. We discovered that we had not run a far South as the rest of the fleet, ending up at one stage as the most Northerly boat.

The second half of the race was basically sailing South West in the Trade Winds, which tended to be between 10 and 25 knots, and with either the spinnaker up or the genoa poled out - depending on the sea state. The wind tended to be too far behind us for the Code Zero. 

The issue during this phase was the squalls! These came at night and were quite challenging. We were able to avoid most of the ones that came near us but were hit by two. On both occasions the wind rose towards 40 knots and the rain lashed down. They lasted between an hour and two hours. We were pleased with the way we handled them. Reducing sail quickly and easily and then riding out the blow.

High points en route, we all agreed, were surfing down huge swells at night in 20+ knots of wind. Once we were used to it this was really exhilarating.  The low points were being woken in the night to go on watch and having to pull a damp T shirt onto an already sweating body…. not at all nice. 

The crew were great - better than I could have hoped or expected. Apart from some spells of seasickness early on, they never shirked a thing. They were always up for their watches, always onto their other chores around the boat, and astonishingly resourceful when we had boat issues to deal with - and there were plenty of those! It was a pleasure to sail with them all, without exception. I hope that we will remain friends, and in contact, and that we will sail together again some time before too long.

 

Dingle, Gemma, Laura and Adam join me today for two weeks cruising around St Lucia and the Grenadines - there may be more blog entries….