Whippersnapper - Day 17 and 1/2

We made it! Crossed the finish the at 5:49m local time here in Saint Lucia :)It was quite a special moment, we were in regular radio contact with the finish line from about 5 miles out but despite our best efforts to arrive in light it was still pitch black (hard to estimate time of sunrise when it changes each day!). A photographer was sent out in a RIB to capture the moment and we have some great photos. Upon berthing in Rodney Bay there was a welcome party of ARC staff, a local from the Saint Lucia Tourist board bearing gifts of beer, rum punch and fruit baskets. Other boats were cheering and we felt pretty chuffed all round. We did see later in the day that if you manage to arrive in daylight you also get a steel drum player on the dock drumming you local tunes. What a great. read more...

Whippersnapper - Day 17

Still motoring and now there truly is no wind, barely a ripple, it is  another beautiful day though, the water is now 28.7 degrees (feels like a bath) and the sun is very warm. Phillip took this photo of sunrise this morning.  Motoring for extended periods can be very frustrating. When at sea we all sleep in the aft cabins and my pillow must be no more than a meter above our big diesel engine. The engine bay is sound proofed but when trying to sleep it feels like lying on the bonnet of a tractor! Last night we caught another Mahi Mahi similar size but didn't realise it was on the line, Phillip noticed it this morning and brought it in to discover it half eaten, basically a head and a spine trailing behind it, quite gruesome he said. Currently our ETA is 10:30 tomorrow morning. read more...

Whippersnapper - Day 16

OK now the wind has totally gone :(  We were motorsailing for a bit but now we're just motoring along as the wind is less than 7kts and dead on the nose. It's very depressing and not the flying finish to our crossing we were hoping for.  Also a bit disappointed ARC didn't send position report today, but now we're motoring anything could happen to our ranking. They say there is a motoring penalty and we have to record the number of hours per day under power but I don't know if it is a penalty as such or more just an equaliser with those boats who choose not to motor??? We are starting to see more yachts as we all converge on Saint Lucia now, we saw 4 today and spoke with them all on the radio. Good Fortune told us about their encounters some whales that stayed with them for two. read more...

Whippersnapper - Day 14

Well Phillip's Mahi Mahi BBQ last night tasted beautiful and we also enjoyed a beer to celebrate the 2000 NM mark :) We even had enough fish for lunch today as well. This morning was a beautiful clear sky and we were all starting to feeling good about being in Saint Lucia soon, the water is now 18.2 degrees and the air 30 degrees. Funnily we again spotted Fry Flyt as they passed within a mile of our stern. This afternoon though was very humid and sticky and the windy slowly dying… shame the forecast is now for light winds tomorrow, there goes our Wednesday arrival. We needed to average over 7kts and as I write this (it's 7am Monday - end of my watch) we're down to 5.5kts :( One of our lifetags has died (electronic bracelet we wear that alarms if we go over a certain distance from. read more...

Whippersnapper - Day 15

The wind is back, almost… currently we're reaching (sailing across the wind) in 15kts and doing about 7.5kts which may just get us in on Wed 7th before sunset. We certainly lost time overnight with some averages around 5kts so we're all looking forward to downloading a new weather forecast today to see whether we'll make it or not. The idea of arriving in the dark doesn't impress us but there's not much we can do about that! Hopefully too as we approach Saint Lucia we'll start seeing more yachts we as all converge on one place again. We can see one yacht this morning but nothing else since Fry Flyt yesterday. Just as I type this the nearby yacht called us on the radio, it was La Chunga II. Nice how everyone calls to say hi :). read more...