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Annabella - Annabella - Final blog



Position: Berth E 17, Rodney Bay Marina, St Lucia

Our arrival in Rodney Bay was a bit dramatic, because it was blowing 25 knots with big rolling waves as we approached the island. We thought that once we got around the top we would be in the lea of the land giving calmer water for gybing. How wrong can you be? We managed to get rid of the pole, and all we had to do was let the port twin over on to the starboard twin and sort the sheets. We could then scoot over the line. Port twin was let go too early and went in front of the forestay with gusts of 30 knots. Struggled to get the sheet around the forestay, but after a bit of flapping managed it and we were in. Kaoma, who we met in Las Palmas was coming in behind us and managed to squeeze ahead of us (higher division so not an issue). Fortunately, it wasn't George who we did take.

Our position at the moment is third in class. However, there is a time penalty for using engine
and we discovered that 1 and 2 in the class used their engines extensively. Like the true offshore racers that some of us are we didn't use ours at all. We are not sure how they calculate the penalty but we reckon that we should at least take second place. The result won't be known until Saturday at the prize giving. Three of us will be gone by then. However, skipper Peter and Stephen will still be here to represent the team.

We have in the meantime met the crew from George and it was interesting to hear how our approach from behind helped to motivate them. They were getting news from home telling them to watch out for Annabella. The bit of competition added a dimension to the experience for both boats. Apparently, they were blogging false info to see if they could mislead us (ignorance is truly bliss). We all had a great laugh over the various strategies while having a few beers.

The weather in the last week took it's toll on a number of boats with broken booms, dismastings, splits in hulls, engine fires, shredded sails to mention a few. We, the crew of Annabella, commend skipper Peter for ensuring that Annabella was in great shape by having all the systems and rigging comprehensively overhauled in the year leading up the the ARC. We always felt safe in the knowledge that we were in a very seaworthy boat capable of handling whatever was thrown at us.

Your support and comments along the way provided us with the inspiration to push a bit harder and it was great to hear that so many people were following the blog. We know that some of you will miss the blog and we will also miss being part of what is for most people a dream. For us it is a dream come true. Meeting the crews from the other boats and hearing how they got on has been brilliant and a dimension to the ARC that we hadn't really given much thought.

We will post some photos in due course. We need to sort the technology involved in getting them from camera to ipad. In the meantime, I'll post what I can from both iPhone and iPad.

Tomorrow we will sort the mess on the boat. Tuesday to Friday we will try to see some of St Lucia and Saturday some of us will head for home to families that we dearly miss and who have been unconditionally supportive in our pursuit of personal goals.

Thanks again to all who helped in the preparations, Edwin, Derek, Andy & Nikki (Rocket Foods), Watty and Pat to mention a few.

We are now wondering what the next challenge will be.

Best wishes for Christmas & 2014.

Peter (Pug), Stephen, Craig, Conor & Terry


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