On Sunday 25 th November, the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers got under from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands, heading for Rodney Bay in St Lucia, some 2700nm away. It was a lovely sunny day in Las Palmas with light winds and the huge fleet of 173 yachts taking part treated the spectating crowds to a real spectacle as their colourful spinnakers filled and they all sailed past the Spanish Navy Ship which was the Start Boat.
Our Principal Skipper, Jon Tyrrell, is skippering the First 40 ‘Rocket Dog II’ so we are all back on tracker watching duty for the next 17 days or so. They had a good first night heading mainly south to get down to the North Easterly trade winds and are currently enjoying good speed with a poled out headsail and full main sail. The team on Grand Soliel 43 ‘Quokka 8’ have bet ‘Rocket Dog’s’ crew a bottle of rum to the catcher of the biggest fish so hopefully the lines will be out and the competition is on. I’m not totally sure how they are going to judge who got the biggest fish as neither boat has a set of scales on board…
Follow Rocket Dog II’s tracker and read the blogs on the World Cruising website or check our Facebook page . Be warned – reading stories of blue water, sunny days, dolphins and catching fish on the blogs is addictive and you’ll definitely want to sign up for ARC 2019! We’ll be taking part on our beautiful swanky Grand Soleil 50 ‘Sydney II’ – get in touch with Prue or Jacko in the office and book your space early.
Fair winds and happy sailing to the fleet.
