The Demands of the ARC Finish Line
Karma Daze
Chris and Penny Manley
Fri 13 Dec 2013 21:19
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14:05N 060:58W
Tuesday December 10th was our first day on the
ARC finish line. The ARC is the rally we crossed the Atlantic with last
year, and when they e-mailed all last years participants asking for volunteers
to man the finish line we agreed to be one of those boats.
We had arrived in Rodney Bay marina on Sunday,
given a berth and had our Finish Line Induction. We have to do 3x24 hour
sessions from 10 am Tuesday to 10 am Wednesday. There are about 3 other
boats doing some days too.
Our first day we set out for the finish line to
take over from “Wavelength” who explained that we had to pick up a bouy when
they had released it. There is also the official Finish Line bag
containing a large orange flag to fly on the bow during the day, so the yachts
coming in can see us; a flashing orange light to be used overnight as
identification, and a book to write all the arrivals and the time they crossed
the line.
We are not the slickest at picking up buoys and
the wind was blowing 20-25 knots, but we managed it on our 3rd attempt.
(The skipper on “Wavelength” had said it was easy – perhaps he has longer arms
than Chris?) There was a tender out with a couple of ARC staff on who
transferred the Finish bag, so that was helpful. And they took a photo of
us which should be on the World Cruising Club website.
We had a 4 hour wait until the first yacht
contacted us. The instructions to the yachts are to call at 5 miles out
and at 1 mile, but some also have instructions to call at 2 miles! Anyway
when they are reasonably close we could give them there finishing line
instructions i.e. what we looked like (south end of the line) and that there is
a small yellow buoy at the north end of the line. Pass between us and the
buoy keeping our yacht to starboard (right!). This is fine if when the
boats come around the headland (Pigeon Island) into Rodney Bay, but on our watch
a large 3-masted cruise ship had moored between Pigeon Island and ourselves, it
had a long bowsprit and a a tender trailing from the stern – OK during the day
as it could be seen, not too good at night. Anyway, the mad photographer
who dashes around in his inflatable taking photos of all the yachts as they
finish, persuaded the captain to move his tender as our attempts to contact him
by radio went unnoticed.
We had one yacht that was very difficult to hear
clearly on the radio, but we managed to make out that it had something around
its keel. As it approached the finish line with full sails it was heading
straight for us, OK, we thought he’ll alter course any moment now, by this time
we were on the side of the boat shouting and gesticulating a he veered away went
behind us into clear water. Well it would have been if the hobie cat
sailing dinghy from the Sandels resort across the bay hadn’t been there.
The 2 people on the dinghy managed to leap into the water as the yacht crashed
into them. Fortunately no-one was hurt, but it took a long time for the
dinghy and crew to be rescued by which time they had drifted a good half mile
out to sea – next stop Belize!
That was the only drama of the day. We
thoroughly enjoyed it, and even managed to get a couple of short naps. We
clocked in 18 boats, leaving only another 200 odd to arrive by next
Friday,
Our next stint is on Sunday, so we have had a
few days to catch our breath and relax, |