My trip back to the boat began with a surprise:  the nice lady at the American Airlines check-in counter asked me whether I had filled in the immigration form and gave me the link.  Oddly, it was a form for St Lucia, not Martinique where Kincsem was moored and I needed to go.  After some investigation I found out that my “return trip” to Martinique was booked to St Lucia rather than Martinique and missing a key leg:  St Lucia to Martinique!  Kathy from my travel agency – who had not booked the “return trip” - informed that there are no flights from St Lucia to Martinique on that day, much less flights from the US to Martinique.  Well, I decided to board the flight anyways and work on the St Lucia to Martinique connection while on the plane.  My friend Adam put me in touch with a guy with a motor boat who would drive me to Le Marin for a hefty sum.  But with the help of OCC port officer Alisdair in St Lucia, I found a pilot who was willing to take me from St Lucia airport to Martinique airport by a one engine plane – for a smaller fee.   No brainer!  

My two pilots and the Italian plane

So I ended up arriving at Martinique airport at the same time as the 3 crew for this leg!  There is Udo from Germany, Guglielmo from Italy and Elaine from Canada – all experienced offshore sailors.  We shared a first round of beers while waiting for the last one of us to clear customs and then a taxi to the boat.   

Arriving on the boat there was some bad news off the bat:  the carpenter had done none of the varnishing work he had promised to do and Amel had not done one of the jobs albeit a less important one.   On the positive side the new sails had been installed and Amel had serviced all the main sail and mizzen furling motors and mechanics and reinforced the supports for the davits.  And Pochon had replaced the seals in the leaking autopilot/steering ram and I was assured by the boss that “it works.”  So after two massive shopping runs, introductions to the boat and a few little jobs around the boat, we called the marina staff to get us off our bow mooring.  As the lines were being taken off, I noticed that the steering seemed to have an odd feel. No, correction, not an odd feel, it wasn’t working!! Turning the wheel did not result in the rudder turning!   So stop, lines back on and call Pochon to get the technician back on board.   I know a thing or two about Kincsem’s hydraulic steering so before the guy showed up it had found the cause – after emptying the entire lazarette:   the on/off valve for the steering had not been properly put in the “on” position after Pochon had finished its work.  So another try:  call the marineros and cast off.  All seemed good for a few minutes as we were exiting the humungous Le Marin anchorage on autopilot but then:  “Alarm, Alarm” – check the steering” was the message.  When I took over from the autopilot the steering felt very light and turning the wheel didn’t result in much change in the rudder.   And the alarm never went away.  But then, we managed to limp back to the dock where the Pochon technician waited already.     I asked him whether he had refilled the hydraulic system after servicing the ram and he confessed he didn’t even know where to refill the system!!!  Well, I knew and the reservoir was totally empty so what we were experiencing was a hydraulic system with no oil!  We were lucky that we had made it back to the dock.  It took only a few minutes to refill and off we were for the third time, which turned out to be a charm!  

The sail from Martinique to Rodney Bay on St Lucia was a pure delight and the new sails looked good except for a few details that we can fix or do without.   Checking in at St Lucia is old hat for me – but then that St Lucia immigration form I had learned about at the San Francisco airport reared its ugly hat, again:  it is required for arrival by sea as well and takes 10 minutes plus to complete per person!  But I made it 7 minutes shy of closing time and even had time to check in with World ARC to get my WARC flag and other goodies.   Successful day!  

We had a great time in Rodney Bay, catching up with old friends and making new ones among the WARC fleet.  There are 31 boats entered for the World ARC most of which are already there.  They include Saltair with our friends the Spiegels from St Francis YC and Pelican, an Amel 50 we have met several times before.  There is frantic activity everywhere, if only pushing contractors to finish important jobs before the start on Saturday January 11.  In our case, the key thing was to get Carlos to replace the membranes of the watermaker which finally happened a couple of days before the start.  We immediately left the marina to anchor outside to do the test.  Success!  We now have a watermaker that is producing good fresh water again and has no leaks!  I was now sleeping better, suddenly.  But there were many other jobs to be done and the entire crew was busy at work day after day.

Guglielmo splicing the new mainsheet

Elaine at work in the galley

Udo sorting  the bread baking supplies

Last minute rig check – found a few shackles that had not been secured properly!

The crew ready for the start

For the start, we executed a good old “Vanderbilt” start which involves running away from the line for a set time, gybing and sailing back to the line.  You have to time all this so that 2 times the time allowed for sailing away from and to the line plus an allowance of a few seconds for the gybe is equal to the total time you have when crossing the line to begin the process.  If timed well, it results in the boat hitting the line at speed right as the starting gun goes off.  We were 10 seconds late and amazingly there were two boats which crossed the line ahead of us!   It seems that this “cruising” fleet has a few racing sailors!  To prove the point, spinnakers went up behind us a few minutes after the start before we had our Parasailor ready. 

Nice view shortly after the start

But as we were rounding the turning mark to the West, it sank in:  we’re off in the World ARC, an amazing adventure that will take us around the world back to St Lucia in April of 2027 if all goes according to plan.

To see where Kincsem is at any time, check out this tracker https://my.yb.tl/Kincsemadventures.