Sane men are racing to reach a true Hell on Earth

As a friend set off in the ARC ocean race the other day, it was odd to imagine a fleet of racing boats brimful with yachtsmen dead keen to arrive in St Lucia's hellish nightmare bay.

The Admiralty chart names it Rodney Bay. It's the finish line of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, under way at this very moment.

Yachts of a huge variety take part, including really pricey, honed-up jobs like Gavin's and the Sparkman and Steven's sloop, Altair, skippered by Clinton Bolton, which arrived as the clear winner yesterday.

Gavin's yacht, Clarelsa, an Oyster 72, skippered by Nigel Martin, is running second, but at the time of writing still had 265 miles to go.

If the finish line is how I knew it on my 'swallowing the anchor' voyage, I'd say turn away while you are still 265 miles from insanity.

Awash with hospitality

Gavin and the fleet is heading to the bay because it is the finish line, and even now is probably awash with hospitality, hospitality introduced by the visiting support teams, and sufficient of it hopefully to soften the aggression of the most vicious team of Customs I experienced in many a long year at sea.

However, it's true that the ruthlessness of the people who prosecuted me in UK would certainly take some matching.

Here's some of the welcome that awaited me, taken from my ocean adventure book, Sailing to Purgatory, out now and available - pretty please - for Christmas. In this extract, the customs' gang climbs on board in Rodney Bay... Continues on SailingToPurgatory.com …