In between these events, we tidied up and gave Paw Paw’s decks a cursory rinse so, at least, she looked somewhat presentable for our guests, Elaine enjoyed a chat to her sister in Ireland and we stopped at the Sailor’s Bay café for a coffee, since our preferred venue was closed being a Sunday.
The parade occurred around midday, preceded by all the flag bearers congregating to collect their respective country flags, then stood in the demarcated areas to allow the rest of the ARC 2023 participants to gather behind their respective flag. We opted to carry the Irish flag, given that we’d only travelled on our Irish passports during our circumnavigation, which had got us this far without incident or the inconvenience of visas and the European Union’s Schengen restrictions and since Ireland is our chosen county to “retire” to once we swallow the hook.
We were delighted when a bunch of Irishmen joined us from one of the Oysters participating in the Oyster rally next year leaving from Antigua, bringing along with them the all important ingredients for a parade; fun, laughter and beer!
Walking to the sound of the bands, one to the front of the parade and one to the rear and following the colourfully dressed contingent of St Lucian delegates, we made our way around the marina.
After a few short speeches from various dignitaries, the country flags were raised, 33 nationalities in all, marking the opening of the rally. In many ways it was very emotional. It’s still hard to believe we’re about to undertake the last leg of our circumnavigation with friends who were aboard Paw Paw when we did our very first passage on Paw Paw, almost ten years ago.
Once Justine and Paul were settled and after they’d enjoyed a walk to stretch their legs, we enjoyed a delicious dinner at the Pier 19 restaurant, bringing a memorable day to a close.
Today, after all the energetic people went for their morning exercise walks or run, ie everyone onboard except Elaine, the day was all about completing the Safety Debrief, something Elaine was responsible for and decided that a practical application was the best way to transfer the knowledge to Justine and Paul. That meant it was all hands on deck to complete the associated activities after they’d paid the obligatory visit to the marina office to collect their access passes and the Immigration office to get stamped into the European Union, given that they travel on their UK passports.
First their lifejackets were checked, the PLBs (Personal Locator Beacons) were programmed and then fitted to their lifejackets. Next up was getting them setup to use the “at Sea” Iridium-GO satellite communications equipment onboard, ensuring all the Emergency Contact telephone numbers were transferred to each of their smartphones, following which various tests were undertaken so they knew how to make a phone call, as well as send and receive emails and messages.
Once that was completed, armed with the laminated card indicating the location of all the emergency equipment onboard, they started their “treasure hunt”, starting with the liferaft and grab bag, hauling both out of the dedicated locker, primarily to feel the weight of each and satisfy the ARC criteria that the crew can remove the liferaft to be deployed, if necessary, within 15 seconds, as well as adding the additional emergency food rations to the grab bag. This was followed by a discussion on the procedures involved, should abandoning ship become necessary and discussing the emergency steering system, then working our way through the rest of Paw Paw, lifting floorboards, bunks, lockers, etc, to find the equipment and receive instruction on how each is to be used and under what circumstance, delegating responsibilities as we progressed. Topics covered everything from MOB (Man Overboard) realities, hazards, procedures and rules to avoid this situation entirely, fire prevention and procedures, water ingress, demasting, medical emergencies and avoidance, including completing the Crew Health Form, etc.
Other discussions included what expectations everyone had of the voyage / experience and what they hoped to get out of it, handling small annoyances and the all important adherence to “provisioning consumption rules”, at which point Elaine presented each person with their individual bag of “goodies” for the passage, much to everyone’s delight. Bets were taken on who would finish their entire “stash” within the first week, with Elaine and Justine making it abundantly clear that they weren’t sharing under any circumstances!
Although it was a long day, briefly interrupted by a light lunch, complements of Roy, Justine and Paul felt more prepared and informed, besides having the practical aspects appeal to the best method for their learning, much to Elaine’s relief.
Deciding to enjoy an early dinner before the ARC sundowners event, all dressed in our team polo-shirts, complements of Justine and Paul, we made our way to the Sailor’s Bay café, only to discover the kitchen didn’t open until 1900. Resigned to the fact that we wouldn’t be getting any food for the next two hours at least, we enjoyed a number of cold beverages instead before heading to Restaurante Aramara for another delicious dinner. In fact, it was so delicious, we promised the very friendly chef that we would be back, after having an opportunity to meet her and chat.
In between all this activity, Roy added tbe last of the waypoints to the chartplotter for our route, and Justine and Paul’s lifejackets were inspected by the ARC Safety crew, only to discover the lights and triggering devices had expired, a problem for another day, but brought a rather hectic day to a close.
