14:04N 060:57W Safe and Sound in Rodney Bay, St Lucia

Wind Charger
Bob and Elizabeth Frearson
Sun 19 Jan 2014 23:14
What a lovely way to end our holiday, on a high note, all (maybe not quite all) alarums and excursions forgotten (maybe not completely). 
Dinner last night was at our favourite French restaurant is St Pierre run by quite the loveliest couple: I had moules, wahoo in a sublime lemon sauce and ice cream with chocolate sauce and chantilly cream (wicked), Bob had crevette cocktail (good in parts apparently), duck in honey and then tarte tartin with just the one spoon. Matt also had the crevettes then entrecote steak and frites (once again, before he returns to the land of the vegans), rum and raisin ice cream with an espresso to keep him awake.  It was very, very good and just all so very relaxing.
We set off from St Pierre just before 7am, across a glassy sea and a whiffle of wind.  The sail down the lee of Martinique was on a gently puckered sea but a somewhat erratic wind, rising and falling and disappearing all together.  “Where does it go?” Bob pondered.  Once out of the lee, the waves grew more bold but steady, chuntering along minding their own business, the wind got up to around 22 to 24 knots, we reefed in the mainsail, took in the staysail and more balanced, pranced along at a tidy pace, Windy on the bit and plunging happily into the waves.  Dolphins arrived, a whole swarming pod of them crossing our bows and skittering on their way.  A lovely sight.  Then the day’s piece de resistance, Bob spotted a whale breaching in the distance.   So, so exciting for him.  He shouted out as soon as he spotted it but I was too late and Matt only saw the final sploosh.  We scanned the waves eagerly peering into the mist like meerkats, hoping for another great leap, until our eyeballs dried out from not daring to blink but sadly that was it.  Our closest encounter with a whale, ever.
We continued without incident to the familiar environs of Rodney Bay, found the tiny, inauspicious entrance to the lagoon, called in for a berth (“at the end please, the bow thruster isn’t working”) and parked on E28.  The engine kept working until the final moment so, big phew, a happy landing.  We’ve done a bit of tidying up, mainly washing out the smelly bilges where the engine has been spitting out water mixed with fuel and oil, but most of it will keep until tomorrow.  The ARC has come and gone, leaving Rodney Bay in peace (hopefully no German drinking songs to keep us awake) and we are relaxing, gin and tonic in hand after all we have to finish it up before we go home on Tuesday.