Sunday 11th and Monday 12th December
Nowcrew
Tue 13 Dec 2005 14:49
In Position Rodney
Bay.
Sunday final
funday!
Our final full day
together was spent getting Now3 ready for the next leg of our trip - washing the
bedding, completing the final repairs and stocking up the stores. We employed
Maggie to polish the chrome work on deck, Elvis to polish the hull and Albi
to touch up the scratches on the hull.
Dave spent most of
the day collating all the shots from various peoples digital cameras into
one definitive DVD.
Later in the
afternoon we all got Del's water taxi down to Spinnakers on the beach front to
watch our last sunset together. It was a beautiful evening and as the sky
turned bright orange and dropped below the horizon we all agreed that this had
been a brilliant (even life-changing) experience.
After a few beers we
had dinner at Castaways restaurant on Tom's recommendation - superb, 5 stars -
the best of the trip (so far).
Del drove the
younger lads back to the marina for a last session, on the way he remarked that
of all the crew's we'd had the best time by far! We definitely agreed with
him.
In Boson's bar (our
favourite) a few last beers we forced down as heads went heavy with fatigue -
we'd sailed hard and partied hard - lovin' every minute of
it.
The hardcore
Charlie, Nicko, Dave and Andy carried on to Scuttlebutts for a nightcap, trying
to stretch every last minute of the trip. Finally falling into bed at around
5am.
Monday fond
farewells.
Every one was up
early, the final laundry picked-up and bags packed.
Customs clearance
was it's usual Caribbean style, triplicate forms - pink forms for leaving by
boat and yellow for the one's leaving by plane, photocopies of passports and
tickets then all signed off at two separate desks.
We waved off
Charles, Simon and Dave - 3 Trans-Atlantic sailors. Everyone was highly
emotional this had been a one-off experience and now it was
over.
A few tears were
shed by Andy and Charles who'd re-kindled a relationship they thought
they'd lost a few years back, they vowed to never let it happen
again!
The rest of the crew
prepared for sea as Andy picked up the bill, over $200 (U.S) for 5 days power
and water!
Then it was off to
sea , we were heading North to Martinique.
As we motored out of
the marina entrance there were still boats finishing and we spared a thought for
our friends on "About time" who still had 5 days to go.
The quote of the
trip was by Charlie and comes from "If "by Rudyard Kipling:
"If you can keep your head while all around are losing theirs,
then my son you are a man"
Nowcrew
out.