The next day was a flurry of activity, though; getting unpacked, putting Paw Paw back in order after being left unattended, packing away the Christmas decorations, including packing the items we intend to take with us, then cleaning her, since we had multiple viewings lined up for that weekend. More importantly, before the week was out, we had a written offer and the buyer was flying out to St Lucia with the signed Sales and Purchase Agreement and the required deposit in hand. Our plans were coming together nicely!
In between all this activity we had the pleasure of meeting Frances, off Navillus, with whom Elaine had first corresponded when selling our courtesy flags and cruising guides. We’d initially thought we’d miss each other, but, as luck would have it, they had arrived in St Lucia for the start of the World ARC 2024/2025 rally earlier than first envisaged, which overlapped with our stay in St Lucia. A lovely chat over a morning coffee sealed a friendship and before long we’d met her husband, Brian, and had had them aboard for a barbecue. An afternoon tea was also enjoyed aboard Sofa So Good with Sharon and John, a couple we’d met during the ARC 2023 rally, who were also doing the World ARC this year. Drinks with Pete and Jeremy, off Chiron, whom we’d met through ARC 2023 as well, was squeezed in too, before they departed for Grenada.
In between viewings and all our socialising, we started to clear out our wardrobes, bed linen, towels, etc, taking advantage of the World Cruising Club’s presence back in St Lucia to make donations to their supported charities. Other items given away included Elaine’s sewing machine, picture frames, ornaments, a laptop, a myriad of spare sheets and halyards we had carted around the world, as well as managing to sell our paddleboards and a few electronics devices we weren’t including in the sale, but no longer needed. Alongside these activities, items we want to take with us were wrapped and packed. Paw Paw’s waterline was lifting by inches every day and she was looking a little bare.
Roy also took the opportunity to complete a few bits and bobs, including replacing the dinghy lines that attach to the davit lines, re-gluing some of the sticky feet on the dinghy sole, checking the dinghy engine to make sure it was still working as expected, marking the anchor chain again and fixing the blind in the port forward cabin after it suddenly got stuck.
Elaine occupied herself by cataloguing all our photographs taken since Sardinia and uploading these to our website gallery, as well as cataloguing the last of our blogs, before getting started on completing all our outstanding videos taken since Greece; these will definitely be a nice walk down memory lane.
In meeting Frances, Elaine discovered the first of many Irish traditions she wants to embrace; Nollaig na mBan, Woman’s Christmas, celebrated on 6th January each year to mark the end of the festive season and to thank woman all over the country for all their hard work undertaken over the preceding weeks. It suddenly became clear that we actually had yet another country’s customs and cultures to educate ourselves on and enjoy once we get to Ireland.
On the evening of 7th January 2024, however, a range of emotions swept over us as we listen to the steel band from afar that was playing at the World ARC 2024/2025 Welcome Drinks event taking place at the Rodney Bay marina, knowing we’d completed our circumnavigation and our days left on Paw Paw were numbered, although it felt like it was only yesterday that we were at our 2016/2017 Welcome Drinks event and excited about embarking on an adventure of a lifetime. It was still hard to believe it was all over.
On Saturday, 13th January 2024, while waving goodbye to our friends as the World ARC 2024/2025 fleet set sail, wishing them fair winds and following seas, sadly, the written offer we received on Paw Paw amounted to nothing when the buyer flew into St Lucia, but arrived empty handed, claiming they couldn’t get financing after telling us they’d been pre-approved.
Annoyed at the time that had been wasted and having returned from the US earlier than intended to progress this sale, we progressed with Plan B instead; list Paw Paw with a local Yacht Broker. Thankfully Paw Paw was already staged for the viewing, so photographs and videos could be completed that afternoon and by the Sunday evening she was listed. All we could do was now wait for an upstanding buyer.
With the World ARC’s departure, the marina has been very quiet and we feel like we’re living in limbo now. To pass our days, we enjoy a walk then a morning coffee at the Corner Boutique and Café, where the staff have gotten to know us and simply bring our standard order to the table; a café latte for Elaine and a Turkish coffee for Roy. No baked delights on these occasions, though, after literally eating our way around the world! In truth, however, we have, on one occasion, taken a walk to the Hilton Hotel adjacent to the marina that has a Swiss Bakery, and enjoyed a delicious freshly baked delight there and on other occasions, to stave off the boredom we venture out for a gelato, the latter made slightly difficult with the terrible weather we’ve had since returning to St Lucia; continuous bands of torrential rain and high winds that have not abated at all and have kept us in the marina simply because we don’t feel like being at anchor and yacht bound with 30 Kts of wind howling constantly.
Highlights over the past few weeks have included our communications directly with the grandchildren after they each received electronic communication devices for Christmas. Thankfully none of these have occurred in the wee small hours of the morning with the time difference. Additionally, we had a pleasant enough day for each of our birthdays. Roy enjoyed his favourite breakfast of poached eggs and smoked salmon, prepared by Elaine, and a wood-fired pizza for dinner, while Roy baked Elaine a tres leche cake for her birthday, made soda bread, accompanied by crispy and bacon for her birthday breakfast and then we returned to Elena's Italian Restaurant, Café, Gelato & Pizzeria for a pizza dinner. Our respective days were filled with birthday wishes and phone calls and it was particularly special for Elaine to have both her parents sing Happy Birthday to her. What were the chances, given her dad’s poor health.
This past Sunday, given that it was the first bright sunny day without a drop of rain, we decided to enjoy a dinghy excursion out into Rodney Bay, where we snooped around the resorts, then dropped the dinghy anchor, jumped overboard and enjoyed our first swim back in the Caribbean Sea.
We are, however, definitely looking forward to our imminent departure from St Lucia for a change of scenery, enjoy some sailing again and to stave off “watching the kettle boil” syndrome we find ourselves in, while we await the sale of Paw Paw.
