December 10, 2015 – It’s 5.20PM, we need to get ready for the night. Is the top light on? Are the flash lights outside? And the life vests in the cabin? Whose watch is it? Have the dishes been done and are all loose things tightened up? Who makes tea and coffee? Mariette, did you already prepare the Snack Bag?
That’s how it went the last 17 days and nights… Right now at 5.20PM I’m sitting in the cockpit – the boat is not moving (!!) – with the laptop on my lap and a drink and a snack on my left and when I look around I don’t see just waves and sky, but I see lots of ships lying in the harbour and many people walking by or chitchatting in their cockpits or doing some maintenance activities on their ship.
We have arrived at Saint Lucia!!
Yesterday we started the night shift according to our normal routines, but it was of course not a normal night. It was the last night of our Atlantic Crossing! With only 80 miles left to Saint Lucia we were all so eager to see land for real. Therefore we improvised our night shifts instead of following the schedule. Herman and Gerard stayed up almost all night to maintain a good course to Rodney Bay. At some point Herman took a nap in his cabin and Gerard made a bed under the stars while Mariette was night watching. The first time we heard another ship calling the ARC finish line through the VHF phone Inge and Nicoline woke up and jumped outside to see if we could see land already. (Where we almost tripped over Gerard who was taking his nap on the floor of the cockpit!) We could see 4 to 5 green or red lights around us, more boats were approaching the finish line! We’ve also seen 1 cruise ship of 300 meters. Exciting how busy it was at sea! From around 12AM we could see the first lights of land – yes, we had land in sight! We could see both Martinique and Saint Lucia.
At 4.30AM all crew was up on deck because we just crossed the top of Saint Lucia and we were approaching the finish line. 2 miles before Pigeon Island Herman phoned the ARC Finish Line. They had already spotted us, together with the 3 other boats that were just before and after us and finishing around the same time. The wind was increasing when we crossed the top of the island and dark clouds were approaching so we lowered the jib and continued with reefed mainsail. It was a bit rainy, just like at the start of the ARC. Then we saw the orange flashing light that indicated the starboard side of the finish line. Just before we entered the finishing area a photographer in a dinghy came to our boat and took some pictures of us. And then, at 05:50:49 we crossed the ARC Finish Line! We made it!
The daylight came through when we lowered the mainsail and motored into the harbour. How normal to motor into a harbour again, we almost forgot we were for 18 days on open sea. But when we nicely docked our boat and put the first steps on the pontoon we were all exhilarated because it did feel a little bit weird! Not sure if it was the rum punch we drank or the sea legs that needed to get used to land! So there we were, drinking the rum punch and seeing other people and many other ships, something we had been looking forward to for the past few days. Difficult to describe that feeling, but for sure we were all happy we made it safe to Saint Lucia and so pleased with the things we have experienced.
Today and the coming days we will explore the beautiful, tropical Saint Lucia and Shiva will be undergoing some maintenance here and there. We will still post some pictures but this is our last ARC blog in writing. Herman and Inge will continue their sailing adventure for the coming months and are posting their updates on www.syshiva.blogspot.com. Thank you for following us and for your nice reactions!!