Hello everyone, we seem to have been here 4 days and I haven’t managed to find time to blog yet. So here goes with my first attempt. Sorry if it’s a bit rambly!!
Since we arrived in St Lucia our days have been filled with preparations and planning for the journey ahead, along with lots of socialising in the evenings with fellow World ARC travellers.
Jayne and I have been trying to provision the boat for our first few passages at sea, first to Santa Marta in Colombia and then on to the San Blas Islands and Panama. We now have 21 vacuum packed frozen evening meals! These will hopefully be easy to heat up and eat on a rolling boat!
We’ve been cooking in the kitchen of an Airbnb house hired by Tom and Jayne. Think the inspector’s house on the beach in Death in Paradise but set up above the marina in the rainforest, and you’ll get a pretty good idea of what it’s like. With geckos and hummingbirds keeping us company.
I’ve been keeping up my yoga with an incredible 80-year-old instructor who’s sailed round the world with the ARC 10 times! She’s introduced us to Qigong, which she’s promised will help with stress and sleep on bumpy passages. Think I might be needing that! She’s also written an amazing cookbook giving details and helpful hints on how to prepare and cook with local fruits and vegetables, many of which I’ve never heard of. Hopefully very handy when we get into the Pacific!
We’re all enjoying the local rum punch and had a few delicious dinners out, including a dinghy trip to Marie’s Fish Shack on a local beach. Thought we’d gone to the wrong place when we arrived as it looked deserted, but Marie greeted us as we came ashore, gave us her delicious homemade rum punch, and then cooked us a beautiful fish supper. She told us she’d cooked for Prince Edward and regularly for Amy Winehouse!
We’ve also been to a couple of organised social events getting to know other World ARC participates. They seem a very friendly, supportive bunch of people from across the world, who I’m sure we’ll get to know really well over the next 4 months.
On Saturday we start out first passage to Santa Marta in Colombia, which should take about a week, so I’ll try and message again before we set off. Love to all, Amanda xx
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Oh Amanda, what wonderful things you are already experiencing… I can really imagine the geckos and hummingbirds around your Airbnb… it must be easy to get distracted from the jobs in hand! Sounds like deep bonds are being formed with your fellow competitors. I did a beginners yoga with Adrienne this afternoon… to check out what my body could do… it felt so good and then a round of wim hof breathing to get my lungs stronger. The photos are amazing, great to see and impressive meal prep! Happy sailing and nameste xx
Looks amazing , great photos, you've packed a lot into four days ! Glad you found somewhere to do the cooking ! Looking forward to hearing more x
So lovely to get your update and to see your photos. Sounds like you’ve been very busy getting everything ready. Pleased you’ve been able to keep up with yoga - will you be able to do any on the boat? Tricky I would think. Have a fantastic first leg when you set off on Saturday. Looking forward to getting yours and Bill’s updates. Lots of love xx
Great photos guys!! Big day tomorrow so have a great day and don’t crash on the start line!! Bon voyage and fair winds 🌬️ PS is Tom turning into a hippy??
Hello,
Thinking of you as you prepare to start the first leg of ARC to Columbia. So many adventures yet to come! The first week in St Lucia sounds fabulous, meeting some inspirational people.
Safe sailing, looking forward to more blogging when you find downtime
Love from a snowy and cold Reno :) xxx