Island Time

It would be another 3 days before the next ARC boat would arrive Rodney Bay, St. Lucia. 

The 8 days i spent on the island are a mix and jumble of fond memories.  Each day in the Caribbean feels like the last one and you get the feeling that tomorrow will be again similar.  Picture yourself living a rum fueled Groundhog Day.  Also since there was so much sun to greet, sand to get covered in, and warm salt water to soak up I spent 0 time writing, leaving the end of the trip undocumented and relying on my fascinating memory to put the pieces of time into a story that makes sense.  But in place of that here are some sentence fragments and a couple photographs.  Perhaps the photos will trigger some better recollection.

I spent a few warm rainy mornings running in the green jungle covered hills of the island.  The songbirds were singing and the insects buzzing, chickens clucking; definitely no need for headphones on these runs.

The normal "trade" wind pattern for St Lucia  in months December - May is Northeast 18 to 22 knots; a kiteboarder's paradise.  But the winds were not so dependable here at this time; as with many weather "norms" around the planet that no longer run on dependable patterns because of climate change.

Piton is the national beer of St. Lucia.  Served so cold that it turns to slushy when opened.  It tastes better on salt water covered lips.

What is good to eat on this Caribbean island ?  So many fresh fruits, spiny lobster, fresh fish, and they make some incredible hot sauces, spiced rums, jerk seasonings, etc.  

I attended 3 parties for sailors on boats from the ARC.  There was a Friday night street party with the most excellent fish grill and dancing in the street until late into the night.  I took no photos of this party since I was worried about getting my phone stolen if i had it out but it was unlike any other festival anywhere in the world I have been..... and they do it every Friday night!? These islanders love to party.  I met some talented musicians on the island and attended Jazz dinner at the famous Jaem Du Bois (Wooden Leg) restaurant located within the National Park fort ruins and named after St. Lucia's most infamous pirate.  

Leaving the North end of the island where Altair was docked and driving to the South end of the island to the airport over the island's hilly and curvy roads.  Dense jungle, banana farms, coconut trees abound; through small villages and larger towns and past many pretty sandy beaches. 

 Gorgeous views from the jet before we flew above the clouds and away from beautiful St. Lucia.

St. Lucia Finish Day 12

When i came on for my early watch (sunrise watch) the lights of the islands were very clear on the horizon on this dark Caribbean night.  The nights weather had included a lot of squalls,and we were not rid of those yet.  In the hours approaching the finish line the crew was getting dock lines(1.25" diameter and 15-25'long) and the inflatable dock fenders ready.  Altair jibed one last time in the channel between Martinique and St. Lucia.  With the wind direction change and positive current
we had over-stood the finish.  Now sailing at hotter angles with the wind acceleration typical of this channel, Altair was heeled over and overpowered under spinnaker. Spinnaker doused and genoa at 2 reefs with a full main Altair was cranking towards the (small and barely lit) nearly invisible finish line. The crews faces now began to feel the rain squall to begin pelting them.  Radio contact from
the race committee helped us identify the small lights that would clue us into the buoy with white strobe and anchored sailboat with yellow strobe on the other side of the line.  Out from the dark sideways rain came the ARC cameraman Tim Wright in his small inflatable.  You can see his work at his site Tim Wright Photography .   He was tethered into the little boat and leaning back on his harness attached at the bow.  With one hand he was controlling the tiller outboard and the other hand snapping photos with his powerfully-flashed dslr.  I screamed at him through the wind and the rain as we crossed the finish "HOW ARE THE SHOTS COMING OUT?"  He yelled back "it looks like a snowstorm, but its looking severe!" so that comment made me laugh and happy (my middle name is Snow) that photos of our finish look so harsh and fast!

Altair's finish time was 03:48:32 local time in St. Lucia which is UTC (-4) and was announced to us by the committee on the radio after we crossed.

  The boats elapsed time was 10 days 17 hours 48 minutes and 32 seconds; she sailed
2,410 nautical miles, a bit more than the rhumb line distance of 2,125 nautical miles.  This difference in mileage is due to the amount that we had to jibe downwind during the race.  With the wind direction blowing at exactly the direction we wanted to sail, we could not sail directly downwind!  This may seem illogical to those who have not experienced the awesome feelings of sailing.  I won't go into the details of the physics of sailing but sails work like airplane wings creating lift, so the angle of sail to wind are of utmost importance.   

Altair made her way to the dock assigned at Rodney Bay Marina on the Northwest end of St. Lucia.  At the dock awaiting our arrival were some farmiliar faces from the ARC rally.  Also a rep from the St. Lucia tourism and a local steel drum artist.  The welcomed, clapped, asked us how it had all been and handed out our welcoming rum punch cocktails. ARC photo gallery

The drummer played his steel drum along to 4 pop songs and we took photos and had our photos taken. Our welcome party and entourage bid us goodnight and Altair crew retired to the pilothouse for a bottle or two of champagne, some video selfies, and a quick go-round of each crews
favorite moments of the passage.  I related the incredible sailing we experienced on Thanksgiving Day as my favorite part.  To be fair it was pretty difficult to choose just one moment that stood above all else during the voyage. 

Hitchhikers Day 11

In the early morning darkness the crew driving Altair had to maneuver her between a 700 foot ship and a squall rain cloud that could contain dangerous down burst winds.  This after a night jibe (which Altair crew has become comfortable with) since our strong wind from the ENE that was allowing us to sail directly at the island had once again gone further South causing us to make the zigzags that you can see if you visit the boat tracker site.  Fleet Viewer At this site you can replay the movement of the fleet or an individual boat.  Here also is the link to the official results of the rally. ARC + results The straight line distance of this leg is 2100+ nautical miles but Altair has sailed closer to 2,300 sea miles because of the wind direction being in many circumstances 180* opposite of our destination (aka dead downwind).  This heavy sailing yacht is not designed or rigged to sail with the wind directly behind her.  We have been "jibing" down the course, usually not able to steer directly at the island except for large portions of Thanksgiving and Black Friday.  Finally on my morning watch the wind shifted and allowed Altair to sail on course to our goal.  I had fun trimming sails and steering to keep Altair sailing fast while the wind was as low as 12 knots and high as 22 knots.  Altair picked up 4 hitch hikers today while sailing about 125 miles from St. Lucia.

 These bubulcus ibis (cattle egret) birds spent most of an hour circling the boat and wearing themselves out before bravely landing on Altair's pitching lifelines. 

The birds were so tired that I was able to take photos of them perched from only about 12 feet away.

  My day has been spent absolutely sailing, sleeping, eating, photographing and writing.  I will finish these last lines before going on watch 2230-0130 for more sailing, followed by eating a 2nd helping of baked berry and ice cream dessert before laying down for my between watch nap.  My next watch will start at 0430 which is possible after the time that we will be crossing the finish line and making our way to the marina at Rodney Bay on St. Lucia in the Caribbean's Windward Islands . 

Up Mast (Black) Friday Day 10

Laying on the bow under neath the stars before my watch (turn to navigate, steer, watch for vessel traffic and storms).  I could feel the extra wind that the rain cloud next to us was creating.  There was some very mild bio luminescence in the waves of the bow wake that Altair was pushing.  I could not see on this night the underwater creatures that light up bright green/yellow such as squid.  I was laying on my back looking up at the stars when i heard a flying fish came slapping onto the deck near me.  Sometimes these fish jump onto the boat during the day, but it seems most of them come flying onto the deck in the night.  This misplaced fish began flipping and flopping around on the deck and I could smell that distinct fishy smell.  I reached down to grabbing her quivering body and tossed her back into the sea. 
Captain Clint went up to the top of the mast today to add a backup halyard to our chaffing spinnaker halyard.  I took some photos of him dressed to battle the swaying mast as we sail on the open ocean.

Using triangles, try to imagine how far the top of the mast swings back and forth 113' off the water when Altair rolls just a foot or two to Port or Starboard.  For protection against impact and abrasion, our fearless leader was sporting foul weather boots, knee pads, a climbing harness, deck vest harness, long sleeve shirt, paragliding helmet with GoPro, VHF radio for communication with the deck and the pilot house, and a knife to finish off the gear.  The largest danger facing Clint on the way up were the sections of mast without much to grasp with hands.  If he were to loose contact with the mast and swing to weather away from the mast the slapping return to that mast would at best hurt a lot or possibly cause injury or unconsciousness.

One incident just before Boog (Captain Clint's cool nickname) was to get hoisted gave the deck team cause for concern about the safety of the operation.The helmsman inadvertently pushed a button enabling the jog stick steering feature.  Looking through the windshield of the pilothouse from my position standing next to the mast I could see the growing alarm and call to action inside there.  In immediate danger of a dangerous crash jibe (unplanned downwind turn) the spinnaker had wrapped itself around the head stay and turned into an hourglass shape.  Clint by now was at the helm and attempting to steer the sail back into normal flying conditions.  Helm adjustment itself was not enough to get the sail unstuck; Aaron came out and helped me pull enough of the sail loose to get the
wind into it to fly the rest of the twist free.  In the process of grabbing the line and pulling with all my strength I parted the healing cut on my middle finger from the hatch smash 4 days before.  It was still covered but i could feel that the skin gap had re-opened.  Now sailing normally again, this recovery gave Clint one more thing to fear for the two minutes while Marc and I hoisted his body over 100 feet above the rolling and pitching deck.

Clint made it up and down safely and with the help of myself and Marc on deck managed to reeve another halyard down through the mast and connect it to the spinnaker for added security.  In essence Marc and I pulled a tag line already in the mast that Clint had then tied the end of the new halyard to.  There was more to it than that but I don't feel like explaining it because I don't think it adds much to the story or that you would care to read it all:)

Thanksgiving Day 9

Bang! The spinnaker block came down with a gunshot on the afternoon before Thanksgiving.  The halyard (line holding sail upwards) didn't part, and the block stayed on the halyard for good fortune.  The head (top) of the spinnaker sail dropped 10 feet and dunked the foot (bottom) of the sail in the ocean in front of the bow.  I was at the helm (steering wheel)turned the boat downwind and Clint ran forward on the deck to drag the sail from the water and lower it to the deck.  More help arrived on deck from below and Bob took the helm from me so i could get on deck to help out.  The sock was difficult to get down over the sail but the real difficulty remained after that.

There had been a thick wrapping of tape and material added to the halyard to protect against chaffing.  This had gotten stuck inside the mast and was preventing the sail from coming down to deck.  Can you imagine what it looks like to have 5 crew hanging on a stuck socked spinnaker in the roll of the waves and grunting trying to drag it down to deck.  In the end it took nearly 2 hours to hook, drag, and pop the stuck halyard loose with the Starboard (spare) halyard.  Even our
cook Leanne was out on deck with us to help in this mission.  One minor big toe abrasion on Aaron was the only injury throughout the operation, my healing sliced fingers didn't even reopen.
Thanksgiving Day!

The spinnaker was bravely hoisted on the Starboard halyard and we were sailing fast when i awoke from my after-watch slumber.  Many of the hours under mainsail and spinnaker during the day we were sailing at 10+ knots directly at the island; quickly if not always smoothly. 

At 1200 i helped Lianne in the galley ready our days feast for our scheduled dinner time of 1330. 

The menu included; bacon wrapped turduckens (2 of chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed in a turkey and the whole thing was wrapped in bacon), roast and stuffed turkey (2 seasoned garlic, rosemary, PeriPeri chx), mashed cauliflower (w/ parm cheese, sage, salt & pepper), Brussels sprouts, garbanzo-corn salad with jalapeno dressing, all served with brown gravy, mint sauce, applesauce, BBQ cranberry sauce.

I didn't over eat for two reasons, cherry/berry tart dessert and we had the whole meal again for dinner in a few hours ;)  I just need to emphasize again how good the sailing was on this feast day.  Altair was in the mood to surf waves in 18-22 knots of wind on our Stbd quarter and 1-2 meter waves riding on a long period swell, she was really feeling her groove and each hour of sailing was yielding us more than 10 miles of ocean distance in the direction of St. Lucia.

Time not sailing i kept busy photographing dolphins, laying on deck under the spinnaker looking up at the mixture of blue sky, cloud, and sail cloth, and another yoga session in the main salon followed by a quick strength circuit workout. 

Halfway Across Day 6

Monday November 20th was our day to celebrate having sailed halfway across the Atlantic.  Besides sailing as fast and as far as Altair can do in day (which is always the goal), a few other items were planned on this bright sunny day in the Mid-Atlantic. 

What could not be planned but made the day exponentially better was the catching of a Dorado fish!

 ("Dolphin, Mahi Mahi") Marc and Aaron watched this midsize female jump twice before she hit the lure hard and ran with it.  Altair was sailing at 8.8 knots with the spinnaker up which meant time was needed to get the sails reigned in and the boat slowed down.  With the boat speed slowed to 5 knots, mate Marc reeled the iridescent blue-green and yellow fish in to within several feet of the transom. 

Without a gaff at the ready, captain Clint grabbed the fishing line with both hands and lifted the Dorado up onto the aft deck.  Had the fish been bigger and with more fight it might have stripped all the line from the reel before the crew could get Altair slowed sufficiently to fight the fish.  Armed with my camera, I documented the task of killing, bleeding, and filleting this fish while trying to get little to no blood on the teak deck of this pretty white yacht. 

Fast forward to cocktail hour and the Veuve Cliquot was popped and a toast was made to half way.  Next each crew member wrote anything they chose on a small piece of paper put into the empty bottle. 

Sealed with cork and melted wax this bottle was tossed into the ocean by Bob, owner of Altair.

Also included in the bottle were Bob's contact details in hopes that whomever uncorked this bottle at a later date would be willing to reach out and let him know that it was found.  And finally, after much waiting..... the fish was served; delicious slices of sashimi and soy sauce first.  Next course was broiled dorado steaks with salt, pepper, and lemon next to pilaf and peas.

There was just enough fish to feed the 7 of us, but I would have eaten more into a state of discomfort had there been any left on the pan.