We spent the next 2 weeks enjoying St.Vincent and all it had to offer. Which included quite a bit of socialising with our fellow ‘Arcanians’. Including a memorable evening with the Polish crew of Sancta Anna in ‘Chill Spot’ enjoying an evening of Karaoke. Sailing by Rod Stewart will never be the same. We enjoyed several sun downer evenings with the Arc group and were able to sample some of the hot spots in town such as Tree House and Bar Code. We managed to cram in a tour of the Island with the friendly Desmond, joined by all and sundry at the last moment. We visited one of the sets of Pirates of the Caribbean at Walliabalou and enjoyed some snorkelling at a nearby black sanded beach, where we donated our food to some friendly (and very hungry) stray dogs. Barry and I enjoyed a further evening of jamming with the crew on Sancta Anna and were deeply touched when they gifted us $100 of meal vouchers which we put to good use. We were sad to say them go and serenaded them with a Polish rendition of ‘Sailing’, for better or for worse. We visited the legendary Tobago Quays in a speedboat, quite the bumpy ride. We got wet, wet, wet. But the snorkelling with an abundance of turtles and an eagle ray made up for it. I was able to cram in some training with the local Karate club as well as some one on one with Rasta Sensei ‘Boom shaka’. I even got an invit to their Christmas dinner. Which was amazing. A really friendly club that I hope to return to on the way North. On the 15th of December we attended a prizegiving ceremony of the Arc and were delighted to accept our 3rd place award, Kilts on and covered by local television. Our remaining days in St.Vincent were spent socialising with a friendly Swiss family and sampling a memorable meal in the 4 shells restaurant. We enjoyed St.Vincent but were happy to be moving on when the time came.

We crossed the starting line like a bat out of hell with Arne at the helm, screaming for more sail, moving at a terrifying 14.9 knots in 35 Knots of wind! We crossed the starting line in first place with the fleet on our heels, our favorite song playing at full volume and our spirits high, full of anticipation and the thrill of the race. No mean feet for the elderly lady of the fleet, showing she still had a few tricks up her sleeve. We held on for dear life and sailed west onward to paradise. We flew along with the strong easterly winds at our backs, surfing the rolling waves and going for broke. And all this with no auto helm as we had been unable to make the necessary repairs before we left port. Which meant we all had to up our game on the helm. Meanwhile, we had no shortage of drama on deck, with sheets snapping in the strong winds and spinnaker out poles breaking off the mast which meant a lot of deck work with sails, ropes and flying metal threatening to cast us asunder at any moment. Despite these challenges we kept the wind in our sails and worked the helm day and night without respite determined to push Rose-Marie to her limits. We kept our spirits high with good food and even better banter and even the occasional cold beverage. We were joined by some pilot whales and spotted a few dolphins along the way, although despite our best efforts were unable to catch any fish, besides the flying fish which bombarded us regularly, one even taking out Arne while at the helm during his night shift to the amusement of all and sundry. Meanwhile, new challenges with our battery supply were deftly handled by our resident engineering genius in a manner which only he understood despite many diagrams, switch installations and extensive lectures on the ins and outs of voltages, currents and battery switching combinations. The days and nights flew by and we sailed on rarely reefing except in the most extreme weather conditions until against all odds we found ourselves 13 days later at the finish line 3rd in our class despite racing against larger, newer and infinitely more expensive boats, including our friends in Blue Infinity which we had had a friendly wager with on beating their fancy, brand new catamaran over the finish line. We left them and many others far behind us and arrived feeling tired but extremely proud of our achievement.

While in Cape Verde we continued our morning regime of a morning swim in the beautiful Atlantic sea. Our evenings were mostly spent on the floating bar in the marina as well as a few excursions further afield to a few choice locations including the Cape Verde cafe where we enjoyed a crew evening out, dining on lobster and some wonderful local music. We also experienced some traditional Cape Verde dancing at the leg I award ceremony and mingled with our competitors and had a particularly memorable night with the Blue Infinity crew which ended up in a night club in a dance off with the very friendly locals. We reprovisioned the boat and purchased a new battery and a guitar lead! We also said a sad farewell to Kjetil and hello to our new crew member, Arne who would join us for the big one. Our two week dash across the Atlantic to St.Vincent!

After a week of socialising and preparations, we were ready for our adventure to continue and with nerves tingling we said farewell to dry land once more… after a minor drama involving the delivery of a newly repaired sail, which was hoisted in record time as we scrambled to make race start. We crossed the starting line in second place and with the help of Kjetils regatta sailing prowess and the efforts of the crew we held on to second place for a full day… until the wind died and we were left motor sailing to hunt for better wind. In a bold move we split from the pack and headed west while our competition headed south. Unfortunately the tactic didn’t pay off and after a week of motor sailing, fine dining and good banter we moored in Cape Verde in 8th place, disappointed but determined to do better on the next leg of the race!