Before getting onto the dock, though, we stopped at the Sailor’s Bay café for a coffee and bumped into Lost Abbey (Lu and Jeff), meeting one of their crew members, Amy, too and enjoyed a good chinwag.
Back onboard, we were delighted to find Roy’s efforts on the saloon sole had paid off and it resembled what he had first envisaged when he started this particular yacht project back in Türkiye.
The rest of the morning was spent packing the last of the tools and materials away, tidying up Paw Paw and stowing all the extra items for our passage properly, eventually restoring our liveable space.
Then, while Elaine cleaned the starboard cabins and heads (aka bathrooms) and got everything ready for Justine and Paul’s arrival, Roy returned to the Sailor’s Bay café to help Lost Abbey with the upload of various electronic books from our library, meeting their additional crew member, Mark, while he was there. It was early evening by the time he returned to Paw Paw, ending our day with dinner and a movie.
Unfortunately Elaine didn’t have a good night’s sleep on Thursday night, given the residual fumes still lingering from doing the sole; our own fault for not airing Paw Paw properly when we got back onboard, a tad difficult with the rain showers that kept passing over.
Regardless, yesterday was a low-key day with very little to do, other than to air Paw Paw properly, fill the water tank, backwash the watermaker and run the generator. To be honest, we were both looking at each other wondering why we didn’t have a yacht task to do; it was a rather refreshing feeling actually!
Since we had time on our hands again, we removed the strut bracket from the anchor locker, something that broke a while back, but we’ve been unable to replace. Hopefully the bracket can be repaired and the struts replaced once Justine and Paul deliver them.
Afterwards we did the laundry, although we’re really annoyed that someone actually stole our laundry bags that we left on top of the watching machine in the laundry facility while our clothes were being washed. They were old, but very useful and versatile for a yacht. Nothing is scared these days!
Elaine’s last task of the day was to raise our ARC 2023 flag in addition to having our World ARC flag flying, since the latter was causing mass confusion on the dock.
Unfortunately neither of us had a good night’s sleep again, waking up feeling worse for wear this morning and making for a very sluggish start to the day, although Roy did muster up the energy to do his morning walk, returning with freshly baked croissants and a baguette for breakfast. We both, however, went back to bed after breakfast and managed a nap before walking up to the Sailor’s Bay café for a morning coffee, meeting a few more ARC 2023 participants in doing so. The atmosphere in the marina is definitely becoming very festive as yacht after yacht arrives; not surprising, given that there are 96 ARC+ yachts and 161 yachts on ARC 2023. Heaven alone knows how many crew that amounts too, but hundreds nonetheless.
Then, while Roy walked to the grocery store to top up our provisions, Elaine enjoyed a chat to her sister in Ireland, but not before we’d worked out a backup plan for the time period following our arrival back in St Lucia and, more importantly, what we’re going to do if Paw Paw is still not sold. Pleased with the results of that discussion, we can now concentrate on the mission at hand; getting across the Atlantic Ocean safely and soundly as well as enjoy all the upcoming festivities.
The day was wrapped up with the start of the festivities; a walk to the beachfront, where we enjoyed a tasty dinner at the family restaurant, Canteras Playa, before getting settled at our reserved table in Paddy’s Anchor bar to watch the Rugby World Cup final between the New Zealand All Blacks and the South African Springboks, joined by the crew of Lost Abbey, their indoctrination into the sport, and a myriad of other folks jammed into the little pub, with our families scattered across the world ready to watch the final too. To say our nerves were shot is an understatement. What a match, what a final and, although the All Blacks played their hearts out with a man down, the Springboks managed to hold onto their World Championship by one point. It was a brutal match indeed, but our celebrations continued well into the wee small hours, as did celebratory parties around the world.
