Royal Clipper – The Race !

After the wonderful sailaway on Royal Clipper I think we all went to our beds and slept well, rocked to sleep by the motion of the ship.

The next day we arrived at the island of St. Lucia and moored off the town of Castries. St Lucia was the first Caribbean Island I ever visited and it was lovely to go back and wander along the harbourside, looking at the colourful houses and very expensive yachts ( and one or two not so expensive ! ) , I don`t remember seeing many of those when I visited before.

After a wander around we headed back to the boat for a lovely buffet lunch. Life on board is very relaxing and afternoons at sea are mainly spent relaxing on deck, maybe a dip in one of the three small pools.

Evenings centre around the Tropical bar, where staff and guests mix to talk over the days experiences and look forward to the next days itinerary. Our next port of call was Dominica, but there was another highlight in store before we reached the port of Roseau.

There are three ships in the Star Clipper fleet – Royal Clipper and her two smaller sisters Star Clipper and Star Flyer. It is very unusual for two of  them to be in the same part of the world at the same time but the next day, off the coast of Dominica, Star Clipper would be there too! The captain made the announcement the evening before that the ships would be together for about an hour at 8am the next morning and we would be having a race!

The whole ship was awake at 7am and up on deck as we eagerly waited for Star Clipper and gradually we saw her getting closer and closer to us. She drew along side and then waited as we raised our sails ready for the off. It is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen.

Star Clipper suddenly dropped back and, with incredible speed, drew up on the other side of us and the race began. Music played, the crew cheered and waved to their friends – it was incredible. We won of course!!!!

 All too soon it was over and our little sister headed off into the distance as we continued on our journey too.