World ARC comes to an end

Yesterday was our final day of the Rally. We left Marigot Bay in the morning and formed a Parade of Sail with all the boats in the fleet smallest to largest. We were 5th in line leaving the marina to head up to Rodney Bay calling in at Castries on the way to motor around the bay for the benefit of the local press and holiday makers. There were two big cruise ships in the bay and we waved at the passengers standing on the decks who were all lined up watching us. The fleet then made it's way up to Rodney Bay for the final farewell party. Once in the marina plenty of staff were on hand to take our lines and there was also a guy holding a huge bouquet of flowers and a bottle of chilled champagne!! This was a lovely surprise for us and thank you Jenny and Bill from Yorkshire who were kind enough to send us the flowers and champers! Once all the boats were docked it was time to head up to the marina swimming pool where rum punches and food were waiting. There was a lot of jolility and some frolicking in the pool too. Later that evening we were transported off to the Royal St Lucian Hotel for a farewell dinner followed by speeches and gifts. We came away with a lovely souvenir album of the trip plus a bottle of St Lucian rum and a plaque to mark our achievement. It was an emotional event with a lot of messages from former yacht crews conveyed and the fleet gave their own personal thanks to Paul and Suzana our rally control who have done a brilliant job keeping us informed and helping with docking in port and numerous other things including dealing with all the formalities entering and leaving each country. So today Peter is doing routine maintenance on the engine and generator and I am cleaning and doing laundry. We have 3 nights free berthing here so will leave on Tuesday to island hop up to the BVI along with several other rally boats including Zoe our sailing buddy boat. We rendezvous in Nanny Cay Marina (BVI) on 1 May which is where ARC Europe actually depart so we will be waving off the boats Dreamcatcher, Peat Smoke and Working on a Dream. Peter and Phil from Anastasia both have birthdays on 2nd and 3rd May respectively so a party is organised for 1 May to celebrate. We could not hold our party on 2 May as that is when ARC Europe have their event. It will be great to see a few rally boats in the BVI.