21st ARC 2006 Leaving Day 26th November
Chaser 2
Yvonne Chapman
Mon 27 Nov 2006 10:21
|
It's 1000hrs 27th November 2006 our
position is 26.50.00N 16.50.00W
We left the marina in Las Palmas at
1200 hrs, it was an unforgettable experience, emotional too, having to say
goodbye to Susie and Billy on the pontoon. Our Spanish friends
came along too wish us well, we said goodbyes to all the other participants
that we had met, and so we departed. There was bands playing hooters and
sirens blasting. The harbour walls and main promenades of Las Palmas were full,
there were thousands of people turned out to wave us off. A truly wonderful
sight.
The start line was made up of an
large yellow buoy near the shore and the ARMAS ferry (our committee boat) which
was anchored a mile out to sea. The racing division consisting of about 30 boats
started first to cross the line at 1240hrs. We, the remainder (cruising
division) crossed the line at 1300hrs. There were many boats in the harbour
entrance watching, filming and wishing us bon viaje. Our Spanish friend Pablo
and his son Javier and family came along side us in their Dehler 42 sailboat to
again wish us a good voyage. The ARC organisation was excellent and anyone
thinking of crossing the Atlantic should consider doing it this way. The
value for money, advice, weather info. and quality and safety checks are so
worthwhile no matter how much experience you've had, apart from all that
you get guaranteed berths and large discounts, so a big thankyou goes to Andrew,
Jeremy and the rest of the ARC team.
We had a good first night, albeit a
bit eventful with a couple of big gusts that broke a couple of fittings We fixed
them this morning so hopefully they'll hold up. Several boats had similar
problems, some worse and Fritz and Chris had to return to a nearby port because
of some damage to their rig, hopefully they'll get it repaired today so they can
rejoin the rally and not be too far
behind.
I have to email the ARC with my
position at 1200hrs, they keep track of us and put it on the ARC website www.worldcruising.com
under ARC then positions.
All for now. These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google. Try it out here: http://picasa.google.com/ |
