ARC 2000

In the planning stage of my second transatlantic adventure I decided to enter the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers again. I knew that it would provide a focus for the Westward transatlantic leg with a definite start place and time (-with good facilities and support) and a definite finishing place with a good welcome. I also knew that it would be easy to find others who would be happy to accompany me. I knew that there had been a change of ownership in the ARC organisers and that if anything the new owners would arrange even more support than was the case in 1998. The entry fee had increased a bit but this would be shared by those on board and I felt that it was not bad value considering the marina discounts (and reservations) and the number of social functions that there were to attend. It became clear at an early stage that the ARC had increased in popularity and the entry list would fill to its capacity of 220 boats (roughly the capacity of the destination marina in St Lucia) a few months before the start and so an early decision was necessary. It also became clear that the average boat size was increasing - and so a 37ft ferrocement boat would be even more in the slower end of the fleet.

We arrived in Las Palmas after a pleasant cruise from Southern Portugal stopping at Porto Santo, Madeira, Graciosa, Lanzarote, and Fuertaventura with 2 weeks to spare before the start. We tied up overnight at Don Pedro's Texaco fuelling dock to fill up in the morning - knowing that to do so before departure would be awkward if not impossible - and to register our arrival with the ARC and the marina - so that we would know the mooring charges before we took up a berth (quite reasonable at £4 a night including a 25% ARC discount).

Security man and dog on Don Pedro's fuelling dock

      Parrot and woman on a nearby boat

We motored over to the new pontoon 16 as directed and tied up bows on (with a weedy marina stern line) and soon found Merel (our ex-crew) on "Wingbeat" - a Swan 38, and made friends with our neighbours. Robbie was particularily pleased to be in port in a city for a bit for the purpose of finding a good dentist. We soon found our way around the marina area and got a copy of the social programme. Another good reason to arrive in plenty of time is to make sure that you get to as many of the parties as you feel fit for! On the Wednesday evening there was an Irish bar in town that had a barrel of Guinness for ARC participants. The trouble was that not many of them had found their way there and so those that had had plenty of Guinness!

On the following Sunday - a week before the start, we had the Flag-raising ceremony - at which a flag from every participating nation was raised on a flag pole along the harbour wall.

Sam and Rauni at the Flag-raising ceremony - we brought our own!

This was followed by Don Pedro's dinghy race - in which I had participated twice before in 1992 and 1998 - all ARC participants are invited to compete in what is really a floating water fight and not a race at all!  All competitors properly entered get a prize at the ceremony that evening which is followed by a grand bar-be-que prepared in a tent on the harbour wall by Don Pedro's helpers. This is a really fine example of the great hospitality generously given by the port of Las Palmas and their associates.

Don Pedro's dinghy race - a week before the start of the ARC - actually more of a water fight - and so competitors should have a strong constitution! It is followed by a grand bar-be-que.

The preparations for the crossing continued. Provisioning was to be done - as was a certain amount of maintenance. Neil Cox from Solent Rigging came aboard and found the rig to be in good order but immediately found a fault in the guard-rail wires! In a subsequent seminar for ARC participants mention was made of this sort of problem. Peter Foerthman of Windpilot  came aboard to check the windvane self-steering gear. He found all to be in good order and left me with further maintenance materials and instructions. His after-sales service is second to none. "Stokey" Woodal was also there and made his contribution to the ARC seminar programme on practical astro-navigation.

Raring to go at the bows - a few days before the start

Sitting down in the saloon for a meal

Preparing food in the cockpit

The ARC is a downwind tradewind trip for about 2800 miles!

Passage report written on Thursday 7th December - 14 48N 49 59.8W - around about 4 or 5 days to go to get to St Lucia at the current rate of about 130 Miles per day. Now 14 47.3N 50 04.0W after lunch. As some of you may be able to guess we have now been under way from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria for 18 days having left there on Sunday 19th November. The trip so far has been perhaps slightly less windy than two years ago particularily in the early stages, and we have been favouring a slightly different sailplan to last time which may reflect the different conditions and the different crew. It looks however that at the current rate we may be around half a day longer on passage this time compared to in ’98. Some of you may have been following our progress on the World Cruising Website since now equipped with an HF SSB radio transceiver we have been able to report our position through the fleet radio net on a daily basis, have chats to other boats, and on one occasion from mid-Atlantic Paul actually telephoned his wife in Brighton through a radio service based in Berne in Switzerland. This service took a little bit of channel programming on the radio and was probably fairly expensive and clearly replaces the service previously provided by Portishead radio. Yesterday we celebrated Finnish Independence Day - the 83rd Anniversary of Independence from post-revolutionary Russia in 1917. There are two Finnish boats with us (in our radio reporting group and in our class) and we had a radio “party” yesterday afternoon in which satirical acts were played (in Finnish) and Rauni made a good contribution from Ramprasad. At the roll call afterwards Pekka from “Venla” mentioned that Independence is quite an important thing for Finland particularily in view of the violent struggles made to preserve that independence from their large Eastern neighbour (in which his father participated) during the period of the Second World War.

The Windpilot self steering gear was a constant source of fascination for the watchkeeper on duty. It steered us downwind without assistance for about 95% of the time

The Canarian bananas lasted most of the trip. During the 2nd week they were ripening fast and they were finished by the middle of the 3rd week. This is the bare banana stalk before it went over the side.

At 1815 GMT (1415Local) land is spotted on the starboard bow - Martinique. Sam (-as first spotter) claims his prize as a kiss from Rauni! 48 miles from Pointe du Cap, St Lucia. A few minutes later we are sufficiently confident to take a bearing of the mountain top to confirm the GPS position. At 2000 GMT we see another yacht and speak to them on the VHF - they are heading for Martinique. Shortly afterwards we see St Lucia on the port bow. We speak to ARC control a couple a times to let them know when to expect us. As St Lucia gets bigger it gets dark and we head on with a good breeze. In retrospect this would have been a good time to reef the main a slab or two but as we come past Pidgeon Island we do a gybe with some difficulty and jam the mainsheet lower block. We get directions for our final approach from the finish line boat and sail in past a large anchored schooner to finish at 2341 Eastern Caribbean Time.

Finishing the ARC in Rodney Bay, St Lucia on 11th December after 22days 14h 41m 39s. We were 96th overall out of 207 finishers and 221 entered, and 6th out of 15 in Class H (Cruising)

We get our sails down, start the engine and motor through the narrow channel into the lagoon. We go alongside the marina jetty as directed and get a terrific welcome from the ARC welcoming committee including rum punch all round and a basket of fruit. Next day after the arrival formalities we inflate the dinghy and go round to Spinnakers bar on the beach and help with the St Lucia National Day festivities. This is generously sponsored by Heineken and so plenty of beer is drunk!  

Alongside a concrete finger jetty in Rodney Bay marina

Hot off the press (- well not actually :-) Ramprasad finished on 11th December at 23:41:39, having motored for 19.83 Hours since starting from Las Palmas, with a TCF of 0.801, had a corrected time of 19 days 10:28:16, came 6th in Class H out of 15, and 96th overall out of 221 entered. Not bad for an old lump of concrete! We did not win a prize at the main prizegiving but at a previous evenings entertainment sponsored by various companies local and distant, won 4 folios of small craft charts covering Grenada to the Virgin Isles (published by Nautical Publications, Arnis, in Germany) by lottery and also claimed a prize of 4 bottles of Special St Lucia rums for french yacht HivaOaII who were not present to collect! Who said that the ARC is not worth entering !