Sailing Across The Atlantic
It’s 22nd November and tomorrow I fly to Las Palmas in the Canaries to sail across the Atlantic. Having signed up to do this right back in January, and had it as a major focus in my year, it still seems to have crept up on me very suddenly! I’ve had my last day at the office till after Christmas, handed my house keys over to my cat sitter, and said goodbye to my girlfriend: it is now very real and I am very nervous!It started innocuously over a pint with my brother, who mentioned that our uncle was joining the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) to get his 46’ yacht, Trucial Coast, from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean. I’m a sucker for a bit of an adventure, so I dropped him an email asking if he was looking for crew and casually asked my boss if he’d mind me being out of the office for 5 weeks at the end of the year. And that was it, I was now a paid-up crew member of a trans-Atlantic sailing race!
Race is perhaps too strong a word for the ARC: it is essentially for people who live on their yachts: a means for them to move their boats, that double as their homes, from one cruising ground to another in the safety of an organised event. That having been said, everyone will want bragging rights at the finish line so it won’t exactly be a leisurely amble across the pond. Looking at previous ARC reports it seems our crossing should take about 3 weeks. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology we will not be entirely out of contact: a daily position report will be sent to Cowes and logged on the ARC website (www.worldcruising.com/arc) so you can follow our progress there. In addition we’ll be able to email a daily log to be posted on the website, so I’ll be jotting down thoughts and experiences as we cross so those who are interested can see just how we fare!
