St Lucia

14^th to 23^nd of December – St Lucia

St Lucia is a beautiful little island were the whole country population consists of only 100 000, with absolutely lovely and friendly people.

Andrew, Rufus & Pete with the local beer Piton (lecker!)

 The kids are all so gorgeous; you could take them with you! We did an island tour to the local active volcano, where you can go into the crater with the bubbling sulphate mud. Not the best smell! 

The Pitons of St Lucia

Brother and sister...

The volcano

...and waterfalls

The coast is dotted with lovely little fishing villages and other than that the island consists of winding roads through rain forest areas. The next day we took Havachat around to Marigot Bay and spend the day snorkeling and having a nice BBQ lunch. 

Marigot Bay

Monika

BBQ man Andrew with his cool hat!

Absolutely beautiful! Lisa, James and Aiden arrived on the 17^th .The kids went with Darren and Lisa to the zip line adventure park, where they went on zip lines through the top of the rain forest.

 

Johnny's boat from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean (His feet walked the same spots as ours!) Plus they sold the best rum punch of St Lucia!

In between at night all these ARC parties! The boys had made lovely friends from Australia and around the world, with whom we had a few (or more) rum punches and the nice local beer Piton (named after the twin mountains on the island). 

Celebrating Ben's HSC

Pete and Pete (from Aurora) with his 'Netball Trophy' (long story)

  

We said good bye to Andrew on the 18^th and Wolfgang and Monika on the 19^th .After the final ARC presentation on the 21^st we set sail on the morning of the 22^nd  and headed down to Laborie, a little fishing village towards the south of St lucia on the Caribbean side. No tourists, what a difference to Rodney Bay! We arrived in time for the local xmas celebrations. For a week before Christmas they meet in the town square and celebrate with music and food and drinks. We had a fabulous night, with Kate ending up having all these beautiful children around her and we danced and sang with the local people and tried their delicious local dishes.

Labourie children, how cute are they?

Bread making training with Wolfgang.

Hey, how good is this! And it tastes fantastic!

Waiting for the boys - Miami to St Lucia

Waiting for the boys – Miami to St Lucia

Martina’s blog – 8^th to 14^th of December

After Nicole driving us down to Sydney on Sunday morning we had an uneventful flight to LA and from there to Miami. We took a taxi to our pre booked hotel, just to find it was being renovated at the time and closed... Great start! Finally, we found out they had moved us in the neighbour hotel, which was nice as well, with a nice pool etc. Food at Miami beach was very expensive, (especially if you have two growing boys) so we took Lisa in to Maccas for the American experience of it. (She had a grin from ear to ear! But we told her, this will have to do now for the next 8 months) we had some walks around town and ended up going shopping. All the kids bought some nice sunnys from Omi and Opi’s birthday and xmas money.

We arrived in St Lucia on the 10^th with a 2 hour taxi ride from the airport in the south of the island to Rodney Bay, where the boats will land, in the north of the island and spend the next couple of days exploring the town a bit, but mainly being lazy, swimming in the pool at the beach or reading books. We were all exhausted from the year and it was nice to just relax. On the 12^th Monika arrived and it was great for us to get to know each other a bit better. Finally the boys arrived on the 14^th! It was great to see them.

  

ARC 2013 - Las Palmas and the atlantic crossing to St. Lucia

The crew enjoying a couple of beers at the sundowner (happy hour).  Conveniently it is on every day.

Some last minute maintenance, Pete remembered we had to fix the leak/hole  in the bottom of the boat?????

As you can see Wolfgang has embraced the Aussie culture and is now able to work one handed and offer plenty of advice.

We nearly had to call in a mediator to resolve a dispute during the construction of a simple shelf. Should or shouldn’t the glue go on both sides of the timber, should the holes be predrilled, what colour do we paint it, how many coats.

It is going to be a long trip...

Preparing for the fancy dress party was comical. The tails were not long enough to go around our waist so we had to look for an orifice to secure the tail.

Daz took out first prize on the night for best costume, (100 euro which bought us a nice ham). He was scary looking, so scary that the bouncers asked him to put his mask back on as he was scaring the kids. 

Wolfgang baked the first breads. They were so good that they eat one in the night as they came straight off the oven and still where hot.

We had to do our safety training at sea. Skippy did the m.o.b. exercise quite well.

Now only the provisions are missing, which we store professionally. Jetzt fehlt noch der Proviant, den wir fachgerecht verstauen.

After the Skipper Briefing, we finally leave.... Nach dem Skipper Briefing geht es endlich los......

After the start we are doing very well, we are coming 4th from 250 on day 3! Nach dem Start sind wir gut im Rennen. Am 3. Tag auf Platz 4 von 250 !

Der wind is coming increasingly from the south and we have to change sails.  Der Wind dreht zunehmend auf Süd und wir müssen die Segel wechseln.

 The 3 fishing rods are always in use and the results are presentable! Immer sind 3 Angeln in Gebrauch und das Ergebnis kann sich sehen lassen

 Hmmmm.... Lecker!

Time flies with great sunsets and games.  Die Zeit vergeht mit tollen Sonnenuntergängen und Spielen

Gambling... Ganz schön abgezockt.......

Finally, after 19 days and 17 hours we arrive short before sun rise in St Lucia, Rodney Bay. Endlich - nach 19 Tagen und 17 Stunden kommen wir morgens kurz vor der Dämmerung

in St.Lucia Rodny Bay an

Tired but happy through the finish line... Müde aber glücklich durchs Ziel...

 Sunrise and land ahoy! Morgendämmerung und Land in Sicht!

We made it (and drink rum punch at 6:30 in the morning :-)! Wir haben es geschafft (und trinken morgens um 6.30 Uhr Rumpunsch :-)

She has him back! Sie hat ihn wieder!

The route of Havachat. Die Route der Havachat.

Unbelievable - 2,800 nautical miles across the Atlantic! Unglaublich - 2.800 nautical miles über den Atlantik

ARC - Las Palmas preparations 16th/17th November

Thomas from Parasailor was on board and we tested the new sail. It went very well and it looked awesome.

 

The 2013 Havachat crew preparing for the grand opening march. Wolfgang was made an honorary citizen of our great country with a ceromony on the back of the boat (he still has to swallow a fly to complete citizenship)  They loved the blow up kangaroos and the toys and trinkets

 

 

Peter, reflecting about the honour of hoisting the Australian flag on behalf of our entire country

 

 

The boys in the parade