They made it in! Currently sitting in 7th Place behind Alpha Tau who are still racing but ahead on handicap, Dads Army have arrived in St Lucia. Just spoken with Capt. Mainwairing (the american contingent might need to ask David about that one!) who is already rather merry(!) on the rum punch and is happy to be on dry land after a thoroughly enjoyable past 3 weeks and a tight race - if only the wind had held throughout!

All the crew wish to express their thanks for all the support, messages from home and 'armchair' sailing sent to the boat during the race - it really helped to keep the crew going and they are genuinely appreciative to everyone who took the time to contact them during their adventure! The engine gave up the ghost after finishing the race, so an hour of tinkering was required to get them into Rodney Bay Marina but they are there, had a fantastic reception with friends, family and the ARC crew. The final email update frm the boat is below:

_______________________________________________________________________________________
"Barring any more disasters we should be in later today.At 09:30GMT we are 48nm from the northern tip od St Lucia, we then have about 5nm to go down to the finish line in Rodney Bay. Some squalls overnight but the day is dawning bright by the looks of hit. It was Mick R's turn to get hit on the head by a flying fish last night, the same happended to me a couple of nights back.
Thje batteries finally gave up the ghost and as of now we are engine charging to keep the nav lights going and to get the batteries topped up a bit.
Can almost smell the beer from here :)

13:05UTC: Land ahoy!! The peaks of St Lucia spotted at 25nm distance. Running down to the northern tip of the island where we do a left and follow the coast for only a couple of miles into Rodney Bay and the finish.

We have had a passenger for the past 24hrs Sammy Swallow, a baby swallow who must have been lost at sea (Like us). He's been living with us and even sitting on my arm whilst I was helming. We hope to get him safe and sound to Rodney Bay.

ETA around 5hrs, 18:00ish UTC/GMT
Dave & Crew"
______________________________________________________________________________________

Unfortunately 'Sammy' the swallow didn't manage to finish the journey with them.

The command centre was in Birmingham catching up with the past 3 weeks work all day today, so the crew will be picking up todays messages themselves once they get over tomorrows inevitable hangover!

So from the crew of Happy Morning, Thanks again for all your messages, words of support (and banter - Mr Payne!) and general encouragement from all. It really kept them pushing on. If it was not for the wind hole of the past 3 days they could have won it, but offer them 7th place at the start and they would have taken your arm off!

Braintree Command Centre signing off!