Sailing Across The Atlantic

Early last year I heard word through the family grapevine that my uncle and aunt would be sailing their 46’ yacht, Trucial Coast, across the Atlantic in December, taking part in the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers. After a speculative email to him and a chat with my boss about being out of the office for all of December, (and potentially even longer!) I was signed on as the third member of the crew. We’re now a year on and the rally is over. The three of us set of from Gran Canaria on 25^th November and arrived into St Lucia about 18.5 days later. In that time we used our engine for just 1 hour and sailed for the remainder. On corrected time, after boat handicaps had been applied, we finished 85^th out of 169 yachts in our division – something we felt was a credible performance especially as we only had 3 crew members.  Immediately after arriving in St Lucia, having battled our way through three hours of the worst weather of the trip, we were basically too tired, wet and fed-up to feel anything. As we readjusted to life ashore, there was a certain sense of relief crept in. However it is only in the last few days that I’ve really begun to feel any sense of achievement – I just purchased the Admiralty Sea Chart covering our route, and it was an awfully long way, with no possible respite – there are no conveniently located islands halfway across: something I was very aware of during the crossing! I’m now in the position where I’d definitely consider undertaking something similar again, especially as I now have a much better idea of what to expect: but I would really hope for a slightly easier ride than we had this time. As we crossed, I wrote a daily blog for friends and family following the crossing: these entries have now been loaded up on the Audley blog if anyone is interested in what goes through your mind as you sail across the Atlantic….