Titania Day 14 update: arrival!
Titania
The Dobbs family and friends
Mon 10 Dec 2018 13:39
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14:04:63 N
60:56:97 W
Distance to finish... 0 miles
We have arrived in St Lucia! After almost 14 days of continuous sailing, we have completed the
passage of 2800 miles from Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, to Rodney Bay, St Lucia in
the Caribbean.
We could see the lights of Martinique ahead of us
through the night, and the dimmer glow of St Lucia to the south, willing us on
towards the finish. As we arrived at the channel that separates the two islands
a line of squalls appeared, bringing strong winds (which just made us sail
faster) and rain. After two weeks of sailing downwind, it felt very different to
be hardening up into the wind as we turned south.
Then, with the lights of Rodney Bay ahead, and the large
black shape of Pigeon Island on our bow, the rain stop, the skies lightened and
the sun rose. We ghosted over the line in a few knots of breeze, to cheers and
handshakes all round.
We've learned a lot about sailing downwind, how to tune
Titania to sail deep and fast, and how to work happily and effectively
as a team. All in all it has been an excellent voyage on a beautiful
boat.
Not many other boats have arrived here yet - we were
11th over the line, including the racing boats, multihulls etc). The official
results will not be announced for a few days yet. However, we've been monitoring
our position within the handicap system, and it looks like we seem to be close
to the top of our class (Division 1 Cruising, Class A - the largest yachts). As
more boats arrive in St Lucia, we will be able to see how we did overall, but
for now we're pleased with our result.
Ned
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