Look Out World: Here We Come!

Raising the World ARC flag

The big day had finally arrived. On Saturday, January 11, 2014, we left the dock at Rodney Bay, St. Lucia and headed out of the marina to the Start Line for the 2014 World ARC. There are about 4 boats that were to start with us or join somewhere along the way. Many are going to complete their circumnavigation in about 16 months and return to Rodney Bay, St. Lucia in April of 2015. A few of the boats are headed back to their homes somewhere in the Pacific and will leave the World ARC then.

Another small group of us are planning to head to New Zealand in October and will rejoin World ARC 2015 when it comes through Australia in the fall of 2015, returning to St. Lucia in April 2016. We are looking forward to meeting those who are taking more time to complete the circumnavigation.

Unfortunately, several boats had to turn back for repairs or equipment. We have not yet learned the details, but our numbers arriving in the San Blas Islands off Panama are slightly smaller than expected. The remaining fleet arrived over a three day period so we are staying somewhat together on the seas. Those that had issues are supposed to catch up by the time the last group transits the Panama Canal.

Our friends on Nexus

We had an uneventful crossing which is a good thing! Harold and Christel had advised that we stay at least 60 miles off the coast of Columbia, which we did. If you were following our track, you may have thought we were going to Jamaica! The wind was East and East North East all the way so we were being moved along nicely. Trillium loves to sail in 20-30 knots of wind even when the swells are 6-9 feet. We were being set to the north some of the time so needed to tack a couple of times to come back down to our course. Our friends on S/V Nexus reported 40 knots of wind off the coast of Columbia and a rough ride. I am glad we chose to stay further off the headland.

Wing and wing

It was our first time sailing wing and wing. We poled out the genoa on the side opposite the mainsail. This really steadied the boat and required very little tweaking of the sails once we had them balanced.  We were able to maintain this sail plan through the night as well. The timing of the Start was probably good planning on behalf of the World Cruising Club, as we had a beautiful full moon for 6 nights in a row! It was lovely night sailing. We keep a steady speed between 6.5 and 8 knots over ground depending of the wind. At times, we were surfing the huge swells and would register 10+ knots of the ride.

After everyone settled into the motion of the boat (I had my usual challenge with mal de mare for two days), we were able to eat, sleep, read and enjoy the passage. Unfortunately we were skunked in the fishing department. I think we were going too fast. Hopefully we will have better luck on the longer passage coming up. Some of menu planning was counting on, but not dependent on, some fresh fish!

Friends – New and Old

Law partners and friends: Dennis and Loretta

While in Rodney Bay Marina, we reconnected with sailors from previous Rallies. We had just tied up to the dock when friends from Switzerland came up in their dinghy to say “hello” and catch up. We first met the owners of S/V Callista in our first Caribbean 1500 Rally in 2010. We haven’t seen them since then. Just after they left, a couple arrived on the dock to welcome us. It was David and Julie from S/V Mahalo. We had sailed with David and his crew in another Caribbean 1500 Rally. In fact, we have David’s crew joining us on the leg from the Galapagos to Marquesas. This will be Tom’s third trip on S/V Trillium and we look forward to meeting Tony from Wisconsin.

WARC Welcome Party

The World Cruising Club provided several evenings of entertainment and opportunities to meet other boat owners and crews. These events are a welcome break from the frantic list of tasks to be completed before the starting date. We had a great crew who worked well as a team to get Trillium ready to sail again. Loretta had to head back to cold and snowy Detroit. Vicky and Peter arrived and had a car available for provisioning, which was a great help. Ron arrived and jumped right into the preparations. This is Ron's third time on S/V Trillium. It is great to have returning crew members.

A job or two for everyone!

There was laundry to do (always), propane to fill, provisioning, skippers’ meetings, weather briefings and the like to fill the days. Of course, rain always managed to burst out of the clouds every few hours. Last minute shopping at the local vendors on the marina property topped off our fresh items.

Just before we were to cast off, we had a lovely surprise. Harold and Christel from S/V Sophie appeared on the dock! We had not seen this German couple since Caribbean 1500 Rally 2010. We had taken them with us to dinner and had a chance to get to know them a little. Then I followed them as they participated in World ARC 2012. Seeing them again was a nice surprise. They gave us several pointers about the circumnavigation that have already paid off.

There is much discussion about whether “to rally or not.” There are always pros and cons to every decision, but for us there are a number of reasons we choose to sail with the World Cruising Club:

• While there may not be “safety in numbers”, there is comfort in knowing you are not out there alone. In port or anchorage, we fly our WCC flags so we can find each other.

• The WCC takes care of many of the legal formalities with the various ports of call. Yes, we pay a hefty fee to sail with them, but we avoid hiring agents and many of the hassles of checking in with Immigrations and Customs. These formalities can take several days when sailing independently.

• We enjoy the daily roll call so we know the position of everyone in the fleet. Sure it helps to know where they are if you a serious about winning a leg, but more importantly, we know who is near us for assistance if needed. It is always fun to see one of the Rally boats appear on the AIS screen. Then we call them on the VHF to chat.

Personally, we like the rally format because of all of the personal connections like the ones above. It is more fun when you come into an anchorage or marina and see someone whom you have met before. Catching up on each others’ travels makes for good conversation. And the smiles say so much!

100th Aniversary of Panama Canal

The shortest way from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

What an exciting time to be passing through the Panama Canal on our own vessel! I remember how interesting my Mother found her passage on a cruise ship. Now we will do it with other yachts in the World ARC. Apparently, they will raft several of us together as we pass through the locks. The only other time I have experienced passing through locks was on our honeymoon when we took a river cruise from Budapest to Vienna.

I wonder how long this will take?

The Panama Canal was opened in 1914 and was considered "the greatest liberty ever taken with nature" at a cost of over $400 million. It also took 33 years to complete. The 50 mile span allows for the movement of international trade between the Atlantic via the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific oceans. It was a truly historic engineering feat- especially at that time!

Of course, political pressure over the years have played a role in the Canal's history. The French attempted to build a sea-level canal in the late 19th century. Both a lack of engineering capability and the onset of diseases impeded their progress. The United States became involved and took over the project with construction starting in 1903 when Theodore Roosevelt was our President. Over 100,000 workers were involved in the project.

It will be an interesting trip across Panama.

Once completed in 1914, the Panama Canal was considered one of the seven wonders of the world! In the past few years, the Canal has been widened with a third lane at the cost of $5.25 billion. As ships became larger in size and trade increased, it was necessary to keep the cargo traffic moving freely through the Canal. Of course, a few years ago, the United State's lease expired and the Panama Canal was turned over to the government of Panama.

Once we are going through the canal, I will take our own photos and videos to share. Of course, the real excitement lies on the other side of the canal: the Pacific Ocean where we will spend the next year exploring!

We are scheduled to make our passage on January 28th. We will report from the other side!

Off to the Market! A New Experience

Loretta and Laurie with Ericka and Ness

We girls had a day out! Actually a day at the open air market in Castries which was a 20 minute bus ride away from the marina. Laurie, Ness and Ericka from Nexus and Loretta and I made the trek. I am sure I will see many and a great variety of these markets as we continue around the globe. The bus ride was only $2.50 EC each way, which is less than $1 USD.

Just put the goods on the ground!

There is obvious price fixing within the market so there is no real bargain hunting. This is not a problem since things are so inexpensive based on our US shopping. The market is colorful and lively. Pleasantly, the vendors do not hound you or try to negotiate. If you want to move on, you just say "thank you" and move on.

That piece on the left was our dinner!

We bought a large bunch of bananas for $1 EC. That is around $0.35 USD! We found a butcher with meat just laying there in the open. The first time, we passed by thinking: YUCK. Then Loretta reminded me that this market will probably look really good compared to what I am going to experience in the islands of the South Pacific! The next time we passed the butcher, we bought a nice hunk of beef. It was something like a roast so into the pressure cooker it went! Out came a wonderful pot roast dinner with potatoes, onions and carrots. Along with a nice bottle of Chianti, dinner was the beginning of a lovely evening!

Ness bargained with the fish monger and came out with a beautiful Mahi Mahi (also called dolphin fish - not the mammal). We bought three pieces from her and had that for dinner with some of the fresh vegetables. And of course, fruit for dessert.

He is preparing a coconut so I could drink the water in it.

Along the way, I was looking for coconuts. I had my first lesson in coconuts and of course, I always learn the hard way. The coconut I chose was yellow-green and filled with yummy coconut water. However, I was expecting the coconut meat,. Now I know that I need to find the brown husky ones and have them cracked open with a machete to get to the little brown coconut that I wanted!

And our fruits and bread.

We had a full morning of shopping, bought three bags of goodies and did not spend more than $50 USD. I saw so many different root vegetables that I have no idea about how to cook them or what they taste like. Since I have limited storage space, I decided not to bring any back to the boat. We will probably return to the market again before we leave for Panama on January 11.

The next task is washing all of the produce as soon as it gets aboard because we don't want to take any hitchhikers with us, i.e. bugs, spiders, snakes, etc. I am not looking forward to seeing any of those creatures on board with me, but I am sure I will have the experience at some point! ICK! In fact, I was lying awake in my berth looking out the porthole when it occurred to me that any dock critter could just jump on board and right in on me! OOOOOHH!

Their version of fast food!

On the way out of the market, the gals stopped for a snack at a little "fast food" joint. It did not appeal to me. I guess I am going to have to learn to be more flexible in my tastes and sanitary food requirements to survive this adventure.

Remember: you can follow our track at www.WorldCruising.com. Click on World ARC and then on Fleet Tracker on the upper left. Scroll down to Trillium and watch us go. And remember, we love to get comments from you on the blog so we can stay somewhat connected. Your email address will not be shared so you don't have to be anonymous!

St. Lucia! At Last!!!

Leaving Mt. Pelee behind.

There were times when I didn't think we were going to make it to St. Lucia for the start of the World ARC! I know Dennis was confident, but I was extremely frustrated with the repairs and the wind/weather situation. When Loretta showed me the weather she had been watching before flying down to Guadeloupe, I saw the extremely strong Sahara winds (that are still blowing) and understood why we were struggling with the wind. It didn't change anything, but it helped me put it into perspective.

A welcome site: St. Lucia!

Following our two nights and a day of sightseeing in St. Pierre, Martinique, it was time to raise anchor and head south again. As we passed the port of Fort de France, we knew we had made the right decision to stay in St. Pierre. The bay is huge and it would have added hours to our trip just to get in and out of there.

When passing on the lee side of an island, the winds are calmer, but somewhat squirrely. The mountains affect the way the air flows down and out to sea. Once you pass the headlands and reach the open channels, the wind is totally different - and almost always, much stronger. We had a good sail across the Martinique Channel to St.Lucia. With some motor sailing, we were able to maintain our course against the east to west current and the heavy swells.

Entering the Rodney Bay Marina while passing the
local fishermen and their boats.

On our way south, we were approached by a northbound yacht. As it came into view, I noted the burgundy sail cover and wondered if it could be our friends, Rick and Julie on Altier. Sure enough, it was! What fun to see someone you know in the middle of a passage and pass within a few hundred yards of each other. Dennis got on the VHF and had a great chat with them.

Rodney Bay Marina office

Wow! We finally have arrived in Rodney Bay, St. Lucia! It is a great marina and we were able to dock opposite our friends on Nexus, a 60' catamaran. It was good to see them again.

We had just tied up when a dinghy pulled along side. It was friends from Callista, whom we had met in the Caribbean 1500 Rally in 2010. They live in Switzerland most of the time so we haven't seen them since we left them in Nanny Cay, BVI. Just as they pulled away, David and Julie from Mahalo. another Hallberg-Rassy, knocked on the side of our boat. Again, we had not seen David since Caribbean 1500 in 2011. What fun! It was like "old home week!"