Rodney Bay Christmas 2013 - 2

This picture shows an early warning of what was to come at Christmas eve.

This picture is a testemony the day after of the rainfall on Christmas eve. I would estimate the pricipation to be close to 100 mm. And most of it came during 4 hours.

This is another testemony of the bad weather we had while celebrating safely in "Tatt av vinden". What you see is debris and wood, even big logs that has been wased from ashore out to the sea.

For St. Lucia this weather was wors than the latest hurricane that hit in Octobre 2010. Christmas eve 5 peolple died. One of them a policeman on his duty trying to help others. A wall collapsed over him. Many bridges were wased away. The airport was closed for one day. And several districts have no water, since the main pipes have been destroyed together with the bridges. There is no watersupply for the boats in the marina, and it may take a week.

Since we do not want to run the watermaker in the marina, we have imposed very strict rules for water consumption in "Tatt av vinden". Luckily there is water in the showers and the toilets ashore.

On Cristmas day the weather was a bit chilly (21 C) to this guard at the marina gate, and he was happy to borrow a fleece from Bjørn. Here he shows Eva how thankfull he is that she brought the fleece.

Here the German steel boat "Beagle" enters Rodney Bay marina as the last ARC boat this year, on Christmas day. They had been out for 31 days! It was said that it was the slowest in the ARC ever. As far as I can recall, even Chr. Columbus (Colon) was faster on his first journey, when he landed on the Bahamas after 29 days. But the doublehander crew of "Beagle" was probably in much better shape than the crew of Columbus. And I think they felt more happy to get into Rodney Bay than most others...

So the ARC 2013 both saw the fastest and the slowest crossing in the ARC history.

There was a big party to welcome "Beagle". Lots of waving flags and testing of fog horns, and a lot of applauses to greet them. And of course the traditional rum punch and fruit basket, even if the finishing line closed on the 21st. Cecilie (who works for the Worldcruising and sailed the Norwegian "Las Primas" in the ARC 2008) and a man (also working for Worlscruising) had dressed in their uniforms (yellow t-shirts) and was ready, guiding them in, and took their lines.

At the 26th it was time to get  serious about the necessary repairs. This is the view from above when Bjørn thread a new spinaker halyard. It is not easy to see it, but Eva waves at him from the opening in the front side of the sprayhood.

View of the marina from the mast head.