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Atlantic Crossing

dolphinfish, phew! They were only fishermen, we warmly congratulated
them on their catch, as we were very reassured to know that they would
not want to attack us.
And then the large-scale birds appeared: brown boobies. Finally we en-
tered the channel of Saint Lucia, without getting too close to the north
coast to keep wind. One last turn, and here we were on the last tack, the
last straight line to the finish line that we crossed at 20:22 UTC, or 4:22 pm
local time. It was daylight, the coast lit by the sun going down to the west
was magnificent. The finish line was crossed after 25 days, 7 hours and 52
minutes of navigation. The engine, which has
not been running since November 24, started
and ran like a clock.
Christine has read 5 books and made lots of
textile shackles, which I had used almost en-
tirely, Gilbert had taken hundreds of photos,
and I had spent more than 75 hours collecting
grib files. We dropped the sails, we headed towards the entrance of Rod-
ney Bay’ marina. The marina gave us our berth number: Charlie 27. The
bow thruster was operational, we had to find our marks to take the pon-
toon, there was still a lot of wind close to Charlie 27. But the pontoons
were large, the places were wide, and we were welcomed by the sailors of
the port. As soon as the moorings lines had been turned, we received a
large basket of fruits and each of us a good glass of punch. We did not
complete the formalities this evening, the offices were already closed, but
joined our friends of Lubilu III for the dinner after a good and long shower!
We told them that for more than two weeks we had been trying to catch
them, and they told us that for two weeks, they had been trying to escape
us!

The next day, Kia Ora arrived, then it was Milena Bonatti's turn. Many of
the crews who had arrived before us have already left, or taken up other
occupations such as visiting the West Indies. But we needed to share what
we have experienced, and every evening until Christmas, we found our-
selves with the crews of Lubilu III, Kia Ora and Milena Bonetti, sometimes

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