Back to St Lucia … huge celebrations but hard to say goodbye …

I’d like to say we had the party of all parties but in fact … we had many parties of all parties!

A welcome to Rodney Bay, St Lucia

Parade of Sail

We started in Marigot Bay, St Lucia with a fabulous World ARC Women celebration – cocktails by the pool with twenty totally awesome women. The fleet left Marigot Bay and sailed in a ‘Parade of Sail’ single line formation, from the shortest boat to the longest, up to Rodney Bay. We were warmly welcomed to the dock by a live jazz band and plenty of rum punch … a raucous party ensued. A very brief respite before the final celebratory dinner – as each boat was congratulated, I found myself close to tears. This journey has been life changing and it’s hard to describe the gamut of emotions as we say goodbye and at the same time, think about what the next year holds for us.

Leaving Marigot Bay

Toward the finish line

Fat Kat Team

I was thrilled that the day after the dinner, ten of us had booked to stay in a beautiful villa for a couple of days … a lovely way to wind down and close the 2023-24 rally in style. Many of the boats in the fleet will do a little more cruising in the Caribbean before being hauled out for the hurricane season – after which, some will spend next year’s sailing season in the Grenadines. We are hoping that we will meet again this time next year when we finally complete our circumnavigation and return to Grenada in March 2025. A long way ahead but truly, a goal that will keep me going across the Indian Ocean!

Clare, me, Cory, Julie & Fiona

The Villa

We have now returned to the UK – very cold and a bit damp but a joy to see family and friends. Our only sadness is that Jo, Chris’s wonderful Mum, died last week. She leaves a huge hole in our lives … an incredibly special woman and a role model for me.

With the grandchildren

Jo

We will only spend ten days in the UK before heading to France. It’s been more than twenty months since we have been to our home there and I’m really looking forward to our visit. It will be a short trip, only three weeks or so, as we will need to get ourselves back to Australia and onto Mistral to start our journey back toward home. As one adventure finishes, another one begins. We are making the most of every minute.

Our last weeks in the Caribbean – this adventure is nearly over

Mustique

As anticipated, these last weeks of our tour have been great fun, very social and super relaxing. The Southern Caribbean is beautiful – the waters are turquoise and totally clear; the marine life is colourful and abundant; the local people are friendly and the cocktails fabulous! Floating from one island to the next, exploring each and sharing with friends is a privilege. I am pleased to report no drama!

As planned, we have visited Mayreau, Mustique (no royalty sightings), Bequia and we are now in Kearton’s Bay, St Vincent. Tomorrow we will be at anchor between the pitons in St Lucia and then onto Marigot Bay (where Dr Doolittle was filmed) and finally to Rodney Bay in St Lucia where our World sailing adventure began. I can’t quite believe that in 5 days time we will cross the finish line of the World Arc Rally with 19 fellow ARC boats … we will be having the party of all parties!

Of course, Chris and I still have the Indian Ocean to sail across in order to complete our own circumnavigation and we hope to be back here this time next year having done that and more. In the meantime, I’m hugely proud of what we have achieved so far … so much to reflect on, so much learned, memories for ever – all shared with incredibly special people, who I know will be life-long friends.

Walter & Caroline at the Cocktail Lab

Becquia

Becquia

Canoa

Sitting on the dock of the bay

Walter & Chris playing pétanque

Cruising the Caribbean

It’s been a week and I have decompressed enough to feel able to get back to my blog … there is still more decompression to come but in the meantime, I’m feeling a lot more relaxed!

The southern Caribbean is stunning … beautiful islands surrounded by turquoise waters. Each island is close to the next so perhaps an hour or two of sailing, drop anchor or pick up a mooring buoy and admire the view. Snorkelling every day, exploring the islands on foot, swimming, BBQ and cocktails … what is not to like?

A view from Union Island looking towards Clifton on the right and Tobago Cays on the left

So far, we have spent some time in Grenada, Carriacou, Union Island – Clifton Harbour & Chatham Bay – and we are now in Tobago Cays. We are travelling with World Arc friends … Matilda, Lover of the Light, Solana V in particular, but others are close by. It’s so lovely to reconnect and share experiences. We are 6 on Fat Kat II. Walter & Caroline (Fat Kat owners) joined us in Grenada – really great to have them on board and a privilege to continue to share their boat through the southern Caribbean. Laura and Haemish remain with us – we are all keen not only to enjoy the Caribbean but to officially cross the World Arc Rally finishing line in St Lucia.

Sandy Island

Drinks on the beach

We cleaned the boat to within an inch of its life in Grenada, had a number of workmen to service engines, fix the guest toilet system (deep joy) and sort the wind instruments out. We had a tour of the island followed by prize giving dinner where we came first in the multi-hull class on the passage from Cabadello to Grenada … we were flying. Coming out of the marina, we motored up to Sandy Island – a fabulous start to our Caribbean cruise.

Coming 1st!

The highlights of Union Island were a very special evening with other WARC friends having cocktails on Happy Island – a tiny island made of conch shells housing a cocktail bar; and a fabulous BBQ on Fat Kat with Matilda and Lover of the Light.

Happy Island

Happy times

BBQ with Cheryl, Fiona and Caroline

Tobago Cays are especially stunning. The snorkelling is exceptional and most of the WARC boats came together last night for a lobster BBQ to celebrate Cheryl’s birthday … any excuse for a party!

We have Mayreau, Mustique, Bequia and St Vincent to come. In the meantime, a G&T calls …

Grenada – back to where we started!

Amazing … we have made it to Grenada. Huge relief all round. I had been doing a count down of the night watches.

We arrived at around 9pm on Sunday 17th March – driven in by a 25 knot wind. We had been on a magic carpet ride for some days … current of 2 to 2.5 knots with us and between 15 and 25 knots of wind on the beam nearly all the way from Devil’s Island. We had had 2 reefs in the mainsail along with a full jib most of the way. Fat Kat bumped and banged her way through the seas – we were sailing the fastest we had done, achieving 204 miles in a day – a record! It’s exhilarating and exhausting at the same time. This passage was extremely noisy with the wind, waves and the boat banging up and down … 2 hands needed at all times to move around the boat safely. 95 miles from the landfall, we turned course directly for Grenada. The wind came behind us. We put the mainsail away, pulled up the parasail and flew on. I spent the last 3 hours getting increasingly anxious that the wind was getting stronger and we would damage the parasail or be unable to get it down safely. As ever, Chris was more relaxed and thankfully, 5 miles out, with all hands on deck, we pulled all the sails in and motored into the marina to a warm and lovely welcome from the World Arc team and other friends from the fleet who were already there. The very large and strong rum punch helped to calm me down along with the bottle of fizz … never so badly needed!

With rum punch!

The passage was 1900 nautical miles and had taken 2 weeks. We had a 24 hour layover in Devil’s Island but did not go ashore. There is no facility to check the boat into the country at Devil’s Island (French Guyana) and without checking into customs and immigration, we are not legally allowed to enter the country. The coastguards were circling and we weren’t taking any risks. The respite was welcome – 24 hours to clean up, cook, wash and rest up before the last 4 or 5 days of serious sailing.

Devil’s Island

Rainbow following squall early one morning …

Finishing the 200 piece puzzle (just before the really noisy sailing started!)

I am so glad to be here. Grenada is familiar to us. The rest of the fleet are here. Walter & Caroline have joined us and we’re excited to be doing some day cruising from here to St Lucia. We’ve taken a few days to get some repair work done and deep clean Fat Kat – she deserves the tlc – as do I!

First Mate’s Log … Day 7 of our passage

This is a tough gig. We have had 3 days of squalls – big winds, deluges of rain and lumpy seas. Sails have gone up and come down more times than I care to think about. Everything feels damp. I’m sitting in the outside saloon area surrounded by wet sheets – hoping to dry them out. Leaving hatches open for air nearly always end up with wet bedding as a squall comes out of nowhere.

Fat Kat is starting to tell us that she has sailed from Australia, half way around the world and needs some tlc. In the conditions of the passages we have had since Salvador, the boat is under constant pressure and like all boats on the fleet, things have started to go wrong. I am talking toilets again … a small leak in the pipe from our holding tank; more seriously, the pump to take black water out of the boat for the guest cabins has stopped working so no guest toilets … too rocky to try to fix now but it’s item no 1 when we stop. More seriously still, we have had no wind instruments since Fernando de Noronha. This is challenging in a catamaran where it’s hard to feel the wind on the boat. We have been used to judging our sail plan (which sails to use when) accurately according to wind speed and direction. Now we are guessing … judging through observation of sea, wind indicators and the speed the boat goes over the ground. We think we are being super cautious but with squalls hitting us quickly and randomly, it’s hard to know.

The squalls … holy moly. In the daytime, we can see them coming. The cloud thickens, it drifts from a light grey to a dark grey, slowly the whole sky gets filled in. The temperature drops, the waves start getting bigger and lumpier, the wind comes up quickly – 5 knots to 30 knots in a matter of seconds. As we see it approaching, we make sure the main sail is reefed. If we have a light wind sail up (Code Zero or Parasail), we take it down; if it’s the jib, we may need to take in a reef. We batten down all the hatches and all the zipped windows surrounding the Flybridge and then we watch. The chart plotter slowly turns red as the radar shows the clouds with rain approaching. We change direction if we think it will help – away from the waves, a good angle for the wind and if we can, cutting to the edge of the squall. At night, it’s a different story. The night is blacker than black. The noises are loud – creaking sails, boom, lines. The red radar glares. We can’t see the wind direction or feel the speed. The rain drives through any cracks or openings in the boat. Thunder roars and lightning cracks. Sometimes, I feel truly at the mercy of these massive oceans and big skies.

Squall about to hit …

… and we are in the middle of it

Last night was tough – the wind was all over the place, the sails flapped, the sea was lumpy. The engine has been on and off. We don’t want to use the engine. We know we do not have enough fuel to motor all the way to Grenada. Each one of us spent our watch with eyes glued to the radar, tweaking the sails where we could, running the engine when we needed. I get Chris out of bed at 6am – the first reef has failed. A squall is coming up from behind us. We furl the jib and put a second reef in. Chris heads back to bed. Around 7am, the light has dawned and the seas calmed a little … the world looks better. I head back to bed at 8am. Survived another watch.

On a cheerier note, we have crossed into the northern hemisphere! I made an equator cake and we took 5 minutes to toast ourselves with a tot of rum (thinking Caribbean already!) and eat chocolate cake. Another big milestone. We have 3 days to go until we reach Devil’s Island. I will be glad to get there.

Fernando de Noronha

Our anchorage

A small archipelago of 18 islands 200 miles off the coast of Brazil. The water is turquoise and clear and the island (there is only 1 that is inhabited) is beautiful – gorgeous beaches, green landscape and good restaurants. In 2001, UNESCO designated the archipelago a World Heritage Site because of its importance as a feeding ground for tuna, sharks, turtles, and marine mammals. Diving was a must!

View from the bow

Old Town

Parking the dinghy

We stayed at anchor for 3 nights and had time to explore the island in a bright orange ‘buggy’ – the most common form of transport. We found a gorgeous lunch spot (Fiona recommendation), spent time on the beach playing in waves, had a couple of very social dinners out with the fleet and I did a couple of dives with Cory, Luc and Penny. The second dive was magical … beautiful coloured rock formations, rays, lobsters, barracuda and so much more. Whilst I was diving, Chris was lucky enough to have dolphins for company for a couple of hours. We will definitely be back next year.

Parking the dinghy

Exploring

Me – loving it!

3 days went by very quickly. As forecast, the wind shifted east and it was time to go. We have a long passage of 900 miles to Devil’s Island off French Guyana (Papillon fame). We are hoping to catch the current and the trade winds as we leave Brazil behind … we have to sail as there is no opportunity to buy fuel all the way to Grenada (2100 nm away). 2 days in, we are feeling a little apprehensive. No wind to speak of, many squalls and the humidity and heat is hard to handle. One day at a time … it will take the time it takes. The joys of ocean sailing!

View from restaurant

Lunch!

Out for dinner

Beach visit

Boys braving it …

On the beach

Cabedelo

Fat Kat II ahead – moored in Cabadelo

A good time was had by all … short and sweet. This gang know how to party! It must be the relief of arriving safely and the knowledge there is still a lot of serious stuff to do … our welcome BBQ involved a live Brazilian band, many caipirinhas (the delicious local Brazilian cocktail) and loads of dancing – I am a dancing queen! Especially appropriate to party as we celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary – can not believe that another year has rolled on by.

Welcome drinks

Chris & Matt

Laura & Rob (lovely ARC staff)

Aside from the partying, Cabedelo is a small town; a little shabby and run down but with some character. Each night on the river a saxophonist plays Bolero’s Ravello at sundown – he has been doing this for 40 years and has become something of a tourist attraction – a must see/hear experience …

Being a tourist!

Ravel’s Bolero

Cabadelo

We were moored on the river so had to dinghy to shore each time we wanted to be on land. The river is wide, muddy and with an incredibly strong current – 2 to 3 knots at all times. The ride was short but when we are moored, we always need to co-ordinate to ensure none of us (Laura, Haemish, Chris or me) are stranded on the boat or on the shore. Only once did the comms not work well … Chris and I came back from dinner in town expecting to meet up with Haemish and Laura for our ride back to the boat. When we couldn’t raise either of our crew at 9.30pm, I volunteered to swim the short distance (no more than 50 yards) from the back of a boat on the pontoon across to Fat Kat to fetch the dinghy. Huge error. Short distance but vicious current … I missed the boat. Luckily for me, a random dinghy was crossing my path and picked me up. Another Parker adventure … and not one I shall be repeating … ever.

It was beyond hot and humid with regular deluges of rain – hatches open, hatches shut. Loads of bugs that bit us so I discovered a new wonderful experience – going to the mall – air conditioning, bug free restaurants and shopping. My lovely friend Fiona (a super bad influence!) and I treated ourselves to lunch and some serious retail therapy. It felt so good!

Fiona & me – retail therapy

14th wedding anniversary – Laura & Haemish treated us to pancakes for breakfast

Of course we provisioned, we did laundry, we gave the boat some TLC and 72 hours after arriving, we were off again. A 7am start down the river followed by a 36 hour passage to Fernando de Noronha – a small, beautiful island a couple of hundred miles off the coast of Brazil. No wind so we had to motor/motor sail all the way. A calm passage with 1 king mackerel caught, a puzzle started and no drama – happy to be here!

Getting to Cabedelo … an uncomfortable ride …

We are safe and sound – arriving in Cabedelo at sunrise in a deluge of rain, thunder clouds and fog. I think it might have been a pretty ride up the river into the marina had we been able to see anything but hey ho – relieved to be here and finally to be still.

The ride was rocky – short sharp waves, lots of wind, squalls from nowhere – one minute 15 knots of wind, the next 40 knots. Plenty of rain. I felt queasy for 2 of our 3 day passage – rocking, rolling, banging up and down. We spent the first 24 hours on the motor heading into the wind and the current. Thereafter, a reach with some punchy sailing – blasting along at over 10 knots from time to time on day 3.

I discovered a very small leak from our black holding tank (where the toilet flushes) – I thought I had seen the end of all toilet issues but no … fortunately, this was an easy fix – tightening up jubilee clips that had worked their way loose with all the boat movement.

Our other crisis was lack of English breakfast tea – I had searched Salvador but to no avail – there is no reasonable substitute. Chris and I have been desperate! And finally, we got hit by squalls with hatches open in our cabin twice … this is a rookie error. Always close the hatches if there is any danger of water ingress … our cabin hatch was only just open but a bad slam through the waves and a deluge of salt water landed on Chris in the middle of the night. I would have laughed if I hadn’t felt so wretched … lots of washing being done now to rid ourselves of salty, sticky sheets … the joys of long distance sailing in the tropics!

We have 3 days here in Cabadelo – provisioning, cleaning, relaxing. We head to Grenada on Thursday morning. We will have a 48 hour stop in Devil’s Island in French Guyana but then it’s onward toward the Caribbean. Fingers crossed for fair weather.

Sunset before a storm

Blasting along …

Chris has become a Mexican bandit!

Salvador

I’m a bit late to this post … combination of being super busy and a few days of being less than 100%. Back on form and with a quiet day at anchor off a beautiful little island in Salvador Bay, I’m catching up.

Old town shopping

Traditional dress

The old town is above the marina

Looking down at Salvador Marina

Market Square

We spent a week at the marina in Salvador – humid, deluges of rain, thunder and lightning followed by hot sunshine. Very little breeze – thank goodness for air conditioning. It was Carnival time – from the moment we arrived until the last day of Carnival on Wednesday (5 days for us) the music blasted out from 11am to 5am from every restaurant, bar, club, car, boat and home … a cacophony. Dancing in the streets, ribbons tied to everything, small market stalls selling bags, hats, jewellery, T-shirts and lots of services on offer for hair, make-up, body paint. We had tickets for the last night of carnival – all inclusive eating, drinking, dancing and prime spot to watch the carnival procession through the street. Truly an experience we won’t forget! Our bodies were reverberating to the noise; many of us had ear plugs as well as glitter, body paint and large quantities of fizz. Chris lasted 2 hours. I danced from 5pm to 1am … quite a stint!

Ready to dance

Just before Chris left!

Our stand – close to the procession!

The other side of the road

Party time

Cory & Cindy

The day after Carnival, we needed a couple of days peace and quiet – we followed Ken & Cheryl along with their friends Herb & Sharon and hour and a half up the coast to a small but perfectly formed resort hotel – 2 big pools, Caipirinha’s on tap and 2 days of total relaxation and quiet … perfect! Especially so, as I started to feel unwell – there’s been a flu type bug going around and I definitely caught it.

Back at the marina, there was plenty of social – great meals out including a fabulous traditional Brazilian steakhouse, watching the Super Bowl on Fat Kat, prize giving (2nd prize in the multi-hull section for our South Atlantic crossing!) as well as exploring the old town more. Salvador is a city of contrasts – beautiful old buildings totally run down, abject poverty next to relative wealth, birds nests of cables providing electricity everywhere, churches filled with gold. I liked the place but feel like we have done it for the time being.

The blue jacket – won by Hoka Hay & Solana V

Prizes!

Brazilian Steakhouse

We left the marina and headed across the massive Salvador Bay to an anchorage off the southern tip of Ilha dos Frades. A few restaurants open at lunch time only, some snorkelling, hiking and a lovely beach. The island seemed empty but with 6 boats from the fleet, we were happy to make our own party! We’ve had a couple of lovely social days with friends. We invited Renegade and Amanzi crew to join us for a day trip up the river Paragauçu for lunch next to a beautiful old monastery. The following day, with a deluge of rain and the prospect of storms at sea, we stayed on the boat and had a BBQ – our first on the boat. Joined by friends, another lovely afternoon of chat, swimming and relaxation.

We’ve stayed longer than we anticipated – we are heading north to Cabadelo, 460 miles away and have been waiting for the wind to change from a northerly (we would be motoring straight into the wind) to an easterly, that allows us to sail on a broad reach. We will leave at 9pm. Today is a domestic day … washing, cleaning and preparing the boat for the passage. Here comes the rain again …

Salvador – we made it!

4000 nautical miles and 36 days after we left Capetown, we have crossed the South Atlantic Ocean and arrived in Salvador, Brazil, South America. HUGE!

Look closely and you can see our track

Bright lights of Salvador

We arrived at 4.30am after a really fast night sail (8/9 knots) with the parasail up and the wind at 16 to 18 knots. The WARC team were there to greet us and after a difficult navigation into the marina through many small fishing boats, the odd canoe, an early morning swimmer and plenty of unmarked bouys, we made it to the pontoon, tied up and popped the fizz as the dawn broke. Hooray, hooray 🥳

Celebrating our successful passage

After loads of boat cleaning, we managed to stream the England rugby game … several of the fleet joined us to cheer Tom on! I love that I am able to follow the England games and see him do so well … and this time, I had a drink in hand to calm nerves!

Watching England

We have arrived in Carnival time – the music is booming from lunchtime until the early hours. Everywhere is packed. Restaurants aren’t taking bookings; shops are closed. The vibe is party time. Chris already hates it and I can’t wait to get stuck in!

It’s super humid and today we have a deluge of rain – I think it’s going to be like this all week … sun, heat and then rain. Fat Kat has plenty of protection against the rain and still wide open spaces to live in – a joy!

Welcome to Cacique – they have completed their circumnavigation!

Entrance to the marina

Glorious parasail!