It's been pretty full on since we arrived in the marina on Monday afternoon. After registering with World Cruising Club, the organisers of the World ARC, we wandered along the docks to touch base with a couple of boats we already knew and ended up enjoying rum punches on one of them, a great start.
Tuesday saw the start of the seminars with the first one being an overview of the route, it sounds absolutely amazing and we both felt very excited. The WCC organise various tours and rendezvous for us along the way, meeting local tribes people, volunteering on charity projects, sightseeing etc. Later that day Tumi had her safety inspection and with the exception of taping up a couple of split pins and replacing flares we knew were out of date, we passed with flying colours! US$245 in the chandlers soon sorted that out!
The marina hosted a welcome drinks party that evening, a great opportunity to get to know some more of the participants. Everyone seems very friendly indeed. We rounded off the day with our friends who have sailed up to wave us off. All in all a busy but good day.
Wednesday was all about boat preparations which included running the lines for the new Parasailor downwind sail, similar to a spinnaker but a lot bigger with a parachute arrangement built into the front. We did a quick Google to determine the correct length for the lines (twice the boat length) and then confirmed it with another rally boat with a similar sail. It turns out the deck hardware and anchor points we hoped to use are not up to the job, such is the force from this sail. So it was back to the drawing board with emails flying back and forth to Parasailor in the UK to determine the correct break loads for the blocks. More expense!
We now think we have a workable solution and a very kind sailmaker made us some soft shackles out of Dyneema, a very strong rope. We bought a new block and asked one of the WCC team who regularly sails with a Parasailor on his own boat and the consensus is we're good to go. Hurrah!
The farewell drinks party is this evening (giving us all 36 hours to clear our heads before departure!) and then we're down to our penultimate day in the Eastern Caribbean. It will be a busy one as we've got some provisioning to do, the skippers briefing to attend, dishes to prepare for our first few days at sea and either lunch or dinner with our farewell committee. Oh and refuelling too once we've cleared out with customs and immigration. I hope we fit it all in!!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Feel free to post your comments, they will be vetted before publishing!