Saturday 16th April Parade of Sail to Rodney Bay
At 9.30 all boats are preparing to leave their moorings for the short trip to Rodney Bay. We go in size order - Eowyn first and Wild Tigris last. We take one of the Marina boys with us. With all yachts being dressed overall the fleet presents a very impressive sight. We motor-sail at 5 knots with about 100m between each boat. It is actually quite difficult to keep in line and Crazy Horse, Ocean Jasper and Tzigane have trouble going slowly enough! As we approach Castries Harbour, Voyageur broadcasts a bagpipe version of ‘Auld Lang Syne’. That starts us off and other boats choose appropriate music. Brown- Eyed-Girl plays Van Morrison and Tzigane plays some Caribbean music and then ‘We are the champions’ and ‘We’ll meet again’. We parade around Castries Bay under a dark cloud and as a final tribute it rains; comments on Tzigane’s special personal rain cloud are rife.

Then we are joined by many local boats that follow the parade. As each boat crosses the finish line, there are many congratulations from WARC and hooters and whistles from everyone. It is very moving. Even more so for David and Susan who are completing their second circumnavigation – an amazing achievement!

We proceed into Rodney Bay Marina being the place from where the rest of the crews started 26,000 Nmiles ago and we are quickly and efficiently berthed. It’s then off to the bar for a drink and a team photo.

We have a siesta in the afternoon and then Lady Lisa hosts a lovely rum punch party. Then we all get into taxis and go off to the very swish Royal St Lucia Hotel for the final dinner. Photos from around the world are showing on a big screen. We are served an excellent dinner and then there are very emotional speeches from Paul, Suzana Andrew Bishop and Nick. Each boat is presented with a plaque, a poster, a bottle of spiced rum and a wonderful book of 400 photos of the trip compiled by WARC – very special.
Graham, Bob and Mike on Eowyn, receive a special award – ‘The Spirit of WARC Award’ for their outstanding skills and dedication to the saving of not just ‘Basia’ but also ‘Bristol Rose’ earlier in the rally.

Bev, accompanied on guitar by Bob then sang the Crosby, Stills and Nash song, ‘I have been around the world.’ It’s a fabulous evening and a great end to the rally.

Monday 18th April Moving on
Boats are beginning to leave. Ariane, Lady Ev.V1, Thor VI, Kalliope, Lady Lisa (those going back to Europe on ARC Europe) need to start moving north quite quickly. They have another 4,000 miles to go before they arrive home- I just could not do that yet.

Crazy Horse, Ocean Jasper and Brown-Eyed-Girl will head off towards The Virgin Islands then Bahamas before sailing up the East coast to North America. The rest of the boats will head slowly back down to Grenada for storage during the hurricane season. Susan and David have gone back to Scotland for ten days to await the imminent arrival of their second grandchild.
Tzigane hosts a final rum punch party and then we go for a lovely quiet dinner with Jim and Annie.

Reflections
Well it’s all over. Most of the other crews and boats have been together for 16 months. We have been with them for just seven. We thank our very dear friends David and Susan on Voyageur for encouraging us to complete our circumnavigation which we started with The Blue Water Rally in 2005 and after a 3 year break in Phuket, we have now completed with WARC.

It is difficult joining in after so many friendships have been formed, plus the fact that from Bali we made seven very long and difficult passages and stop-overs where everyone wanted to go off and see the sights. David and Susan made sure we got to know the other crews and we now feel very close to everyone. The fairytale wedding in Mayreau of Annie and Jim was the clincher. Every one of us revelled in that joyous day.

What can we say about WARC? Yes we paid a price which has been so worthwhile and terrific value for money. They have a brilliant communication and support system and they all do their jobs so efficiently. At the official stop-overs, Paul and Suzana were always waiting on the dock to take our lines, whatever the time of day or night and Paul was great at organising people to come and fix Tzigane. We would never have contemplated a trip like this without an organised rally. WARC too have provided great parties and get-togethers.

Our log shows we have travelled over 34,000 miles and we have visited over 30 countries.

The Indian Ocean was our greatest challenge – as we knew it would be, but we did not expect to be quite so cold and wet! Many times, I have asked the question, “What on earth am I doing this for?” And there again, so often it was, “This is just amazing!”

This morning, it does not feel as though we are circumnavigators. It is easy to move on but for us - very late-comers to sailing and double handed at that, we have to remind ourselves of what we have done. Many, many people dream of sailing around the world and many people start and then stop. But we have done it. It is an amazing achievement and we are very proud of ourselves and Tzigane.

John has been a great skipper and companion and we have shared a whole range of emotions, challenges and thrills.

We are so glad that Leila and Chris were able to join us for the leg from Cape Town to Salvador –the best and only crew we have ever had.

Of course we are always asked the question, “What was your favourite place in the world?” An impossible question but for us there are several special places:

1) The Atlantic Ocean - the longest passage we had ever done – we were grateful and delighted to have had Leila and Chris with us.
2) The amazing experience of going through The Panama Canal and then sailing under the Bridge of the Americas and into The Pacific Ocean
3) Galapagos- a place we will never forget and then much less commercial.
4) The Pacific crossing - 3,000 miles and the first long distance double-handed
5) Vanuatu and the unique experience of standing on the edge of the live volcano on Tanna.
6) We loved every single place that we visited in Australia, but the ‘Red Centre’ with Ayers Rock, The Olgas, Alice Springs and King’s Canyon were a must see.
7) The amazing ‘City in a Garden’ Singapore – we were pleased to have had the chance to re-visit it.
8) The lovely island of Phuket where we could not resist buying a house.
9) Cocos Keeling - our first stop in The Indian Ocean.
10) We were entranced by Mauritius and Reunion – far better than expected.
11) Our beloved South Africa and wonderful Namibia that we were able to share with our great friends Nick and Peta from France
12) St Helena- what a privilege to visit this lovely British Island steeped in history.

So what is next- we do not know.

At the moment, we are just looking forward to seeing friends and family in UK and to getting back to our lovely farmhouse in France.

Wednesday 13th April Bequia to St Lucia
We have had 3 days of terrible weather in Bequia and I feel so sorry for the charter boats here on holiday. Yesterday we checked out and went to Young Island at the bottom of St Vincent for the night. It is a very pretty spot although it rained almost continuously. We had dinner on board and an early night.
This morning we left at 6am to go to Marigot Bay 60 miles away. It is pouring with rain, we have 30 kts of wind on the nose and a 2 knot current against us and we are making only 3.5 knots even though we are motoring. It is miserable. We had porridge for breakfast.
We make our way up the west side of the island which is incredibly beautiful even in the
rain. At around 1pm it brightens up and by 4pm we have reached Marigot Bay Marina which is set in this beautiful, almost hidden from view, inlet in the middle of the rain forest. Bob the marina manager and his well qualified team soon had us tied up between Wild Tigris and Ariane. The space between the boats is rather small and we are almost touching on both sides. Paul and Suzana have just arrived. At 6pm there is a lovely cocktail party hosted by The Marigot Bay Resort and then we took a water taxi across the bay to ‘The Rainforest’ restaurant where we had a good meal but the music was terrible.

Thursday 14th April Marigot Bay Marina
Once again we had a lot of rain overnight but our boat boy arrived early this morning to clean the boat. Because of the rain, I have sent all my washing to the laundry and it will be washed and dried by this afternoon. We were invited to Destiny for coffee with Bill and Rosemary, but we had Campari and sodas then champagne! Elaine Bunting from ‘Yachting World’ came to interview us and she is particularly interested in how couples manage the boat, the sailing and each other on the circumnavigation.

Friday 15th April
Cloudy again! Imbert the engineer has come to fix the 2 electric toilets. The problem is calcification and he needs acid to clear the pipes.
In the afternoon Paul briefs us on the sequence of events for tomorrow – the closing day of the WARC and in the evening we have a lovely BBQ dinner at the hotel.

Friday 8th April We cross our track at Bequia
We left the anchorage at 9am and for once had a fantastic sail all the way to Bequia.
Boat boy, ‘Tony’, directs us to a buoy and we are quickly secured.
This lovely island has great significance for us because so far it is our favourite Caribbean island and we were here five years ago with Max, Chris and Leila and so we have just crossed our track.

So! We have just completed our circumnavigation and we are very pleased with ourselves.

We have a few glasses of champagne with David and Susan to celebrate.
We will chill here for a few days.

Tuesday 5th April Mayreau Wedding
We left early this morning for Mayreau, for the wedding of Jim and Annie and for Jochem’s birthday. It was still very blowy as we dropped the buoy, turned to starboard and skirted the reef, before heading north to Mayreau. Jutta and Jochem first told us about this favourite island of theirs many months ago and they also told Jim and Annie about it.
We drop anchor in Saline Bay we are immediately offered fruit and vegetables by the boat boy ‘Mr Wonderful’and we order bread and a lobster for the next morning. After a coffee with Susan and David and a glass of wine on Destiny, we return to Tzigane and have chicken salad for lunch.

We then set off in the dinghy to the shore with our ‘smart’ wedding clothes in a dry bag. There is one main road upwards and we climb up the steep hill to ‘Dennis’s Hideaway’ – a place that Jutta and Jochem have advised and supported for 24 years. It is a lovely little complex with restaurant, bar and a few rooms and it has the island’s only swimming pool. Of course on reaching it we have to stop and have a drink with everyone. Then John and I get changed along with Bill the best man and Jim in Diana’s room. Diana has been Jim’s secretary for 10 years and has flown over from the US for this very special occasion.
Jim looks great in white cotton trousers and shirt. The ‘girls’ are getting ready somewhere else.
At 1.40 we climb again to the top of the hill to the beautiful little Catholic church, built originally by the Dominican monk, Father Divonne. (Who incidentally also inspired the people to build a reservoir on the hill side.) The church has been decorated inside with lovely flowers and ribbons and outside at the back of the church is the most stunning view over the Tobago Cays- a group of uninhabited islands set in the very shallow waters of a huge reef. The varying colours of the water are amazing from clear to turquoise to deep blue. It takes our breath away.
The little church fills up and Oisin sits at the back singing ‘Have I told You Lately That I Love You while accompanying himself on guitar- just lovely.
Jim arrives and seems to be quite nervous. Annie arrives and is supported by young Matt (Bill and Rosemary’s son) who will ‘give her away’. Utta and Rosemary are maids of honour. Annie looks beautiful in her gorgeous dusty pink dress which falls to the floor in beautiful folds and swirls. Jim’s face is a picture it breaks into a huge smile and he clutches her hand.
Father Mark conducts a most beautiful ceremony which is simple but which has depth and meaning for everyone. Jim and Annie then exchange their vows and then Father Mark proceeds with the official ceremony and then pronounces them ‘man and wife’ to huge cheers. With the exception of 4 boats, the whole rally is here. It is a wonderfully moving event
Then we all go outside to the fantastic viewpoint and while Jim and Annie sign all the papers, rice is thrown and there is champagne for all. Oisin sings another lovely song and Bob takes the ‘official’ photographs.

Jim and Annie then lead us all down the hill on a pub crawl back down to Dennis’s for more drinks and a lovely finger food buffet. Then there are the speeches and cake cutting and the first dance by the newly married couple. They look fabulous and it is so obvious that they are just crazy about each other and what great dancers they are too!

Now there is supposed to be a break until 6.30 when Jochem’s birthday party will begin, but of course this does not happen. One event rolls seamlessly into the next one.
Dennis asks all the skippers for a short speech and Beverly also sings a lovely song and we all have a wonderful party with a BBQ later and music and celebrations for the whole evening.
It was a fabulous day!

Wednesday 6th April Salt Whistle Bay
This morning Mr Wonderful brought us 2 baguettes and a lobster which were quite expensive but we got a slight discount in exchange for some petrol for his outboard engine. John cooked the lobster and then we went ashore with Susan and David as we were going for lunch to Salt Whistle Bay as recommended by Jim. We walked right back up the hill almost to the church and then down another, up one more and then down a very steep hill which brought us to the Salt Whistle Bay which is the most beautiful bay and anchorage- mainly for catamarans. We find the Salt Whistle Bay Resort which is cleverly hidden amongst the trees. In the bar we meet up with Jim and Annie, Diana, Jutta and Jochem and we all have lunch together at a lovely round table with a stone bench around it and a little thatched roof. Susan, David and I had the red snapper with salad and real chips. John and the others had great salads too.

We took a taxi back to the jetty!

Thursday 7th April
After a rolly night, we left Mayreau for Canouan and took a mooring buoy close in. John and I went ashore and had a walk ashore. Sadly the Tamarind Beach Hotel looked rather shabby and there was not very much to the rest of the town. We walked along the beach and John had a quick swim, but it was quite rough. In the evening we had a lovely dinner on Voyageur.

Thursday 31st March Prickly Bay
We dinghied to the dock and took a taxi to ACE hardware and then Budget Marine chandlery and Sice Island Mall to look for wedding presents for Jim and Annie. Then we walked along the beautiful beach of Grand Anse hoping to find a good place for lunch, but no luck so we went to the Calabash Hotel which has a ‘Rhodes’ restaurant. This was closed and we were directed to the beach bar where David and I had good fish but John and Susan’s burgers were disgusting! We then went back to Tzigane for coffee and a rum. We had a quick swim but the water was very choppy and there was a strong current.
It spent another uncomfortable night and the fridge and freezer that we paid $500 to have repaired, are not working!

Friday 1st April
We were due to go to Carriacou today but the forecast is not good and Basil has promised to come back and see to the fridge and freezer. This he does and after lunch we leave to return to St George where we will anchor for the night. We have a lovely dinner on Voyageur and then have a very good night’s sleep.

Saturday 2nd April
We left the anchorage at 7am and after quite a rough crossing we arrived in Tyrrell’ s Bay, Carriacou at around mid-day. Voyageur have had to turn back as their bow thrusters is letting water in and needs to be repaired.
The anchorage is sheltered with a flattish sea but it is very, very windy. Later in the early evening Eowyn and Thor VI arrived and then at about 8pm Crazy Horse and Jeannius arrived after very difficult passages and John talked them both in.

Sunday 3rd April Mother’s Day
I had no idea that it was Mother’s Day until I got a text from Leila- a lovely surprise.
We bought a lobster from a boat boy and John has cooked it. We then went towards the shore but were invited aboard Thor VI for coffee. We then went ashore and walked along the beach and had a rum and Coke in a lovely beach bar. Then it was back to the boat for a swim. Voyageur arrived and so we took them over to the beach for a look. In the evening Voyageur came to us for lobster salad with lime mayonnaise an d then chicken and corn casserole. Very good.
During the night it became very windy and John sat on deck from about 2 am watching the anchor. Unfortunately we did drag and so we immediately started to pull the anchor up, but before we could do this, we pulled another boat ‘Teveso’ onto us as she had laid her anchor on top of ours. The wind then gusted heavily and we were both blown sideways onto an old metal boat called Gloria whose chain was also entangled with that of Teveso. So we were in a real mess and although we got fenders between us, Tzigane’s topsides were badly scratched and chipped by the large rusty bolts that were sticking out of Gloria. Max on Gloria cut away Teveso’s chain and two French boys in a dinghy came to help untangle the mess. Mike from Orion also came over to help as did Jorge and David, who put out our kedge anchor for us. It was too dark and windy to sort out the mess and by now we were securely fixed to each other.

Monday 4th April
As soon as it was light Max went down and freed our anchor (for which John paid him $100 but his and Teveso’s were still entangled. David and Susan helped us retrieve our kedge anchor and we left and headed out towards Hillsborough where we needed to check out of Grenada. I was very shaken by what had happened. The short trip was very windy and the anchorage even more so and it would have been impossible to take the dinghy ashore, so we headed back to Tyrell’s Bay where we would get a bus to Customs and Immigration as we were leaving Grenada. We tried to anchor again but the holding was poor. Luckily, Ariane were just leaving their mooring buoy and we gratefully took that. On inspection we have a lot of scratch damage to our topsides and also on the hull from the anchor chains. We took the bus into town with David and Susan and cleared customs and immigration with the minimum of fuss. We then went back to Tyrrell’s Bay and had a very good pizza at a beach restaurant.
We then returned to Tzigane, checking the state of Gloria and Teveso and seeing no damage we left for Union. However both Teveso and Gloria then called up to say that we must return and pay for ‘the damage’. Of course this did not sit well with John and strong words were exchanged. Needless to say we did not return, but it was a nasty situation particularly as neither boat said anything on our return this morning!

Anyway, another beat up to Union but it was only a few miles.
On our approach to the very beautiful anchorage, a speed boat came up and asked if we needed a buoy. Oh yes please! We were moored up in five minutes. Voyageur did the same and were just in time to check in to Union which is one of the islands of St Vincent and the Grenadines.
At 5pm John and I went ashore for a short walk and a sun - downer then returned to Tzigane for a very comforting meal of Fray Bentos steak and kidney pie and roasted pumpkin. It was very blowy, but we were in bed by nine and slept soundly until 7am.

Sunday 27th March Island Tour
WARC has arranged two mini-buses to take us on an island tour. This volcanic island was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1498 and it was named originally ‘Granada’ as it reminded the Spanish sailors of the green hills around Granada in Spain. It has been fought over by the French and the English since 1650 and in 1783, Grenada ( pronounced Grenayda) became English. With its rich soil Grenada developed a rich spice industry and it was known as ‘Spice Island’. With the abolition of slavery, the plantations declined and many were divided up into small holdings where, bananas, coconuts and nutmegs were grown.
The population of 108,000 is 75% of African descent.

In 1955 Cyclone Janet caused serious damage to agriculture and infrastructure and later Grenada became an associated state of The Commonwealth and then in 1974, she became independent.
There were several years of political turbulence which ended in 1983 when the Americans invaded to get rid of Cuban and Russian influence and control. Since then there has been a slow recovery of tourism and agriculture but in 2004 Hurricane Ivan devastated the country, destroying almost the whole nutmeg industry. Many, many yachts were also destroyed.

Grenada is divided into 5 parishes, St George with the capital St George’s Town, St David, St Patrick, St Mark and St John. We drove up the west coast, stopping at a nutmeg shop where we also tasted rums and rum coffee and rum tea- very good. Then we drove across the top of the island and down the east coast to the River Antoine Rum Distillery- the oldest working distillery in the Caribbean. As it was Sunday it was actually closed but our driver was able to give us a very good tour all the same. Then we went on to The Belmont Estate which is a working plantation of 400 acres of spices cocoa and coffee. We had a buffet lunch here but as it is owned by ‘Seventh Day Adventists’ there was no alcohol available.
We continued on to the town of Grenville, then SW through the beautiful Grand Etang Forest Reserve and back to Port Louis Marina. It had been a fairly long trip but there is still so much to see when we return in a few weeks time.

In the evening it was the WARC prize giving and party- very good.

Tuesday 29th March
This morning we took a taxi south to Grenada Marine in St David’s Bay. This is where we will leave Tzigane and Voyageur for hurricane season and we needed to check a few things. It is a very good, well organised yard, prettily set in a lovely little bay with its own bar and restaurant and shower block. ‘Raquel’ was very efficient and quickly answered our questions and made the firm booking for the boats to be stored in heavy metal cradles that are then strapped to the ground. Crazy Horse and Jeannius were also there having work done.
Our driver Winston then took us into the ‘countryside’ which was very beautiful and we stopped at ‘Laura Spice Garden’. The tour was very interesting but it was very rushed –a pity. We were very surprised to see so many huge houses and were even more surprised that they were owned by Grenadians. Winston explained that these houses were owned by Grenadians who had worked almost their whole lives in UK. Under a government scheme, they were repatriated with all their belongings and a vehicle. So here with their UK pensions they are very wealthy and in turn Grenada benefits from this large input of money. We passed many schools –most linked to churches and the children were all extremely smart. We then drove down to La Sagesse Bay and had lunch at the hotel’s beach restaurant. David, Susan and I had calaloo soup and then freshly cooked mahi mahi which was very good, but John had a quite poor Greek salad followed by mediocre prawns. It was expensive too. We then looked at the rooms as we are considering staying in a hotel while the boat is on the hard and while we make final preparations for our return to UK. We also looked at rooms at the Bel Air but decided that we would stay on the boats. On the way back to the maria we visited The Westerhall Rum Distillery which is set on a beautifully landscaped hillside. We did a rum tasting with a very stroppy girl who could not wait to get rid of us even though we bought several bottles –not good for tourism.

Friday 30th March
After settling our bill with the marina, Voyageur and Tzigane left the harbour and headed south and around to Prickly Bay where we going to anchor for two nights. We had a horrible bumpy trip and at one stage could only manage 3 kts against the current. The bay looked very crowded but on closer inspection there was plenty of room for us. After a spag bol we spent a very bumpy noisy night with very little sleep.