Off to St Lucia !

Ten days on from the last post, it’s Wednesday 19th November and we are on the starting blocks again in under three hours time. Photography and internet access have not convened to allow us to illustrate so here’s hoping we can catch up on the pics in the Caribbean with some daughter support.

We covered most of the trip here -up to day 5-  on the ARC website http://www.worldcruising.com. This we can do with a simple email by SSB radio from the boat and we will endeavour to keep this up over the next 2/3 weeks, hopefully with a variety of contributors.  As everyone knows we can also be tracked there on the Fleet Viewer for ARC/ARC+ 4 hourly updates.

We arrived at Mindelo, São Vicente Cape Verde on Sunday 16th (day 7) at 02.30 feeling our way into the marina in the dark with a fairly challenging reverse park onto a very swelly pontoon. After tidying up, we snatched 2 hours sleep before the rendezvous for our pre-booked full day Santa Antao tour at 07.15. This was a great experience- one hour ferry ride across then guided tour with excellent local guide taking in the vertiginous landscape ranging from bare volcanic to fairly tropically lush, locally brewed grog and a superb buffet lunch of local foods. Barely had time to draw breath between returning from this and the Crew Supper – also pre- booked! Long and deep sleep inevitably followed. Joining crew had arrived in Mindelo and came on both these ARC events.

Monday morning brought a further organised tour of São Vicente itself with beach barbecue so it was Monday afternoon before we could regroup on provisioning, refuelling and boat jobs. Tuesday was Skippers briefing, crew changeover and then send off event complete with carnival type drums and dancing.

The results were published after this and we were second last in our class but felt we’d done OK overall as there were still 20 boats to come in after us – the penalty for 35 hours motoring didn’t help!

Great buzz of activity on the docks yesterday and this morning as final preps are in hand by everyone and we had a last minute hiccup having discovered our rudder had been damaged (fortunately fairly superficially) by the chains securing the marina pontoon.

For those who keep asking- fishing has not yet commenced and will only start on day 4/5 of the next leg when the fresh supplies run out.

Thanks to all for good wishes and Bon voyage messages.

Next posting on this site in about 3 weeks.

Off to Cape Verde!

At Las Palmas Gran Canaria 23rd October to 9th November.

The ARC+ Rally starts in 2.5 hours at 13.00 and we can be followed at http://www.worldcruising.com – look for the Fleet Tracker for ARC + . our position will be updated every 4 hours and you can see how the whole fleet of 52 boats is doing.

We are expecting good trade winds for the 850 mile passage and to arrive next Saturday 15th November for a four day stopover at Mindelo, São Vicente Cape Verde Islands, before the ‘big one’ starts on 19th November.

The 17 days at Las Palmas has flown by in a flurry of final preparations, ARC events and stocking up. Yesterday we had visiting the boat, Jerry the Rigger ( rig check all OK), Superdino supermarket delivery, Laura from the meat place and finally Jorge from the veg place. The last got a bit confused between units and kilograms on our order so we have rather more of several things than planned – but it will be a good test of longevity and our storage strategies!

We had niece and partner visiting the Exody ‘caravan’ for 5 days of their half term break and took them out for a short day sail to remind ourselves how the boat sails! Our two crew for the next leg, both old friends arrived later in the week.

The main ARC fleet of circa 200 boats has been building with more than half of them here by The time of the big reception by the City Council on Friday 7th.

Internet at the marina has been poor so we will hope to upload some photos at Mindelo.

We also might supplement this ‘in port’ blog with some short contributions to the Boat Logs on the ARC website – so look out for those under the boat name in case we find the time in amongst everything else!