We started a quest yesterday about who would have the most accurate estimate of how many miles we'd do during this crossing. The consensus seems to be between 2950 and 3200nm. Let's see who wins at the end of today, as our ETA is getting into Rodney Bay in the dark. Seems to be our usual pattern, always arriving in the dark after a passage: 2am into A Coruna from La Rochelle, 10pm into Lisbon, 11pm into Lagos, 3am into Mohammedia, 12am into Las Palmas. What time will we arrive today? It all depends on the wind. We had gusts of over 30 knots overnight, but since daybreak it has slowed down a lot so we lifted the blister, hopefully for the last time with no change in wind until St Lucia.
At 14.50 UTC-4 we spotted land in the hazy air, it's the soaring mountains on Martinique to our starboard. We held a direct course west, sailing towards the sun and St Lucia.
At 17.30 UTC-4 we saw the peaks on St Lucia! It's still 22nm away, but we are close!
At 18.00 UTC-4 our phones started beeping with all the messages and emails coming in via the mobile networks from Martinique, being part of France and hence the EU.
A menacing squall appeared behind us. We hurriedly took down the blister but again the squall veered to starboard and missed us. By now the sun has set and it's probably not worth putting up the blister again. So we unfurled the jib and pushed on.
It was getting late, past 9pm and we were still staring at the distant lights on St Lucia. Jason and I went downstairs to have a power nap. We set an alarm for 30 minutes but snoozed again as we were not near Rodney Bay yet. The next thing we knew, we were in the marina ready to dock, at 11.30pm. What?! Did we just miss making landfall and the grand entrance to St Lucia after 22 and a half days at sea crossing the Atlantic? This was too much to swallow but luckily the welcome rum punches (not for Jason obviously) made it easier.
At last, we have arrived!