Ailsa Blog 18 - landfall
Position: 14:04.420N 60:57.000W
Captains log; Stardate 2012-12-22 – 09:00 UTC
After three days of convalescence we are beginning to resurface. The last stretch to St Lucia was by no means straight forward with another difficult sea state, a steady F6 and squalls. Our arrival at St Lucia at 08.02 local on Tuesday morning was an emotional experience. There was lots of hooting from boats already here, clapping from the crews and a welcome party on the pontoon. One of the first to great us was Adrian Lower – a gynae colleague from the UK – and we shared a tearful hug! - then rum punches to celebrate. It has taken a while to equilibrate back to “normal running” but we are gradually sliding into the Caribbean mood. There have been many stories exchanged with other crews and it seems that our hardships endured were considerably less than many others. It also seems that this ARC was unique in the sustained wind speeds and poor sea state over much of the crossing. We are gradually taking in what has happened and initially have been disappointed at the time we took – 21 days – compared to others, however we started as novices and are a little less so now. We have arrived pretty much intact with no major breakages and have learnt a lot on the way and are pleased to have come through one of the toughest ARCs. We are now planning our next stage and are probably heading down to Grenada tomorrow then to work our way back up the Grenadines to return to Rodney Bay in Mid January for the generator to be replaced. We will keep the log going but in the meantime we thank all our friends and family for their thoughts and wishes and wish you all a wonderful Xmas and New Year. Lots of love Richard and Shelley xx |