Rodney Bay, St Lucia – 17/04/11

Today is not one for photographs.  There’s a lot of hugging, kissing and a fair few tears as the realisation that the adventure, for most of us, is over.

Tucannon slips her lines before most of us are even up and about and sails away.  Amongst the people flying out in the morning are Anna from Basia, Mike from Eowyn and Ann from Wild Tigris, who all go off in a taxi together.  Then Jared from Brown Eyed Girl leaves.

People are wandering about getting crew members to sign their World ARC flags and flag pictures but I spend ages trying to choose pictures that truly represent the atmosphere of yesterday afternoon.  I don’t think I manage it.  Nothing can really capture it.

I start to watch the recording of Bev and Bob singing “The Southern Cross” and at that point stop trying to do anything constructive because the tears come too fast and furious.  I go out onto the dock to see who is around and end up on Crazy Horse with Matt and Bill, both dry eyed but sympathetic to my snivelling.

Get a grip girl. 

It’s difficult to put into words the conflicting emotions surrounding the ending of something like this.  We always dreamed of sailing around the world – both of us did.  But for me it was always a pipedream, something that was nice to dream about but which would never actually happen.  There was always work, family, and the hum drum of normal day-to-day routines of life which stopped it becoming a reality.

Then we bought our beautiful boat, Jeannius, and the dream came a little bit closer, but still too far away for me to actually be overly concerned.  Chartering years came and went and Mike started to get more and more twitchy, wanting desperately to retire early, and getting frustrated by the fact that everyone was sailing his boat but him.  Then we made the decision to charter the boat ourselves but reality still didn’t set in, not even when we sold the family home.  After all, we were only going to be away for a couple of years, weren’t we?

We had hardly started our new life in the Caribbean when the World ARC opportunity came our way.  Living at the time in the BVIs, joining it seemed such a small step on from what we were doing anyway so unbelievably (and I don’t think Mike has ever been more surprised) I said yes.  Then began the slow and painful crawl towards the date, at that time, over a year away (but hey, still ages away, nothing to worry about yet).

Then, suddenly, back in the UK for a couple of months at the end of 2009 the enormity of what I was about to undertake started to penetrate my brain but there was no turning back.

I have been periodically seasick, homesick and miserable but, and it’s a huge BUT, the happy memories far outweigh any miserable ones although I’m sure that to Mike, especially when we were going through stormy seas for days on end, my misery must have been a trial to put up with.

I have some memories that will last for ever and have had an experience that very few people will ever have the chance to go through.  I have met some wonderful people and had some great times with them, getting and giving support when times have been tough going.

I’m older, fatter, blonder and probably none the wiser for my experience but I’m a circumnavigator and not many people can say that.  On a good day, I might even say I am a sailor but I’m still not quite sure I believe that, more a truculent passenger.

The World ARC lasted for 465 days and almost half of them were spent at sea.  We crossed three oceans and a few seas totalling nearly 25,000 miles and have set foot on 50 different countries and islands over half of which were in French Polynesia.  We have used 17 different currencies and failed miserably to speak far too many languages.  I have taken literally thousands of photographs on 3 different cameras;  Mike has taken about 30 and only when I’ve nagged.  We have spent … no, that’s one statistic too many and one I can’t bear to think about.  Suffice it to say that we spent a lot more than our budget.

My thanks go to Mike who allowed me to see so much more of the world than I would otherwise ever have been able to, for looking after me and taking all the pressure of driving and maintaining Jeannius and to Jeannius herself for being the tough little cookie that she is.  The only problems we ever had were mechanical or electrical and when you consider the conditions that these boats were subject to and the forces that Mother Nature threw at them, I don’t know how any of them survived at all.