Lucky lottery numbers
Marinara
Ed Dolman
Fri 11 Dec 2009 22:05
|
Dear Readers,
It is with mixed feelings that we post what will
probably be our penultimate blog. We were all delighted to have made it to
St Lucia in such a quick time - 16 days 14 hours 28 minutes and 29 seconds to be
precise, with a total of 2786 logged miles - but also a little sad that
such a great adventure had come to an end. Marinara performed impeccably
throughout with,as you know, hardly a problem and we were also pleased that
we made it through unscathed (apart from a few minor bumps and
bruises) After a celebratory glass of champagne and a couple of
beers early on Wednesday morning, we all crashed out completely exhausted
and have just woken up. Actually, Wednesday was a very strange day as we tried
to adjust to a "normal" timeframe and to walk in a straight line on land!
Yesterday we spent most of the day being hurled around in a pick up truck on a
tour of the west side of the island (Captain Dorado had the front seat so didn't
really notice this, whilst Dave, Pete and Tony were wedged together in the
back waving Pete's camera wildly out of the window whilst trying to take some
pictures). In fact it was not unlike the experience of our 16 days at
sea. We visited the caldera of the volcano at Soufriere and then had a
very good lunch at a fantastically located restaurant looking out to sea high up
between the Pitons ( two spectacular peaks on the south-west corner of the
island). In the evening we were invited to the home of the St Lucian artist,
Llewelyn Xavier OBE and his wife, Christina, for "pre-dinner drinks". Our hosts
were extremely kind and generous and we returned to the boat at about half past
midnight! This was, unfortunately, not good news for Captain Dorado, who
had to get up at 0530 to catch a plane to New York. The rest of the crew had the
luxury of a few more hours in bed and have spent
today giving Marinara and all her equipment a thorough wash and
brush up.There's not too much left to do tomorrow and Pete and Tony are
hoping to persuade Dave to let them have some time off so that they can
finally go for a swim!
Now, we know
that some of our readers have been asking where we have finished overall in the
ARC. We were the 87th boat to finish but, as most of you know, there is a
handicapping system to adjust the finishing time of each boat. There are
still some boats to arrive but from what we have been able to ascertain, we
think that we are likely to be in the top ten overall. We were concerned
yesterday that Momo would overtake us in Class 1H because she has a lower rating
than Marinara. Momo came in last night and it appeared that she had indeed
beaten us by four hours(!), which was hugely disappointing. However, we
discovered this morning that Momo had used her engine for 12.5 hours which means
that she will be "penalised". We are trying to find out what effect
this will have on her adjusted time and it may be that we will edge ahead of her
again. It is amazing that after such a long voyage, the margins are so small! We
hope to be able to confirm our final place before the three of us leave
St.Lucia on Tuesday.
We have had lots of interesting and innovative
entries to our Smash competition. The judges are considering these and the
winning entry will be announced very soon. Thank you to all of you who
submitted a recipe (or recipes).
We would like to thank you too for your interest in
the blog and the kind comments we have received. We hope that it has kept you
informed throughout our voyage, as well as tolerably entertained.
Finally, for those of you who do the lottery
and are trying to decide what numbers to choose tomorrow, we would like to
suggest the following: 9,12,16,14, 28 and 29 ( with 27, 8 and 6 as
possible options!) Good luck and we look forward to receiving our share of
your winnings. This is Marinara, out (for the time being at least). 2200 GMT
11/12/09
|