ARC Boat number 227, Silver Bear, has just arrived in Saint Lucia to an incredible reception from dozens of other ARC participants.

Their Atlantic crossing has been an emotional one, after skipper Ray Lawry and his crew on Silver Bear took the brave decision to slow their boat down to shadow some fellow sailors for over 1500 miles.

The tiny 25ft Saddler Star Fire was also making the Atlantic crossing at the same time, but after 1000 miles, snapped their rudder after colliding with something in the water.

Tom and Alan, double-handling the Saddler, had fashioned a new rudder out of pieces of cupboards from their boat, but were making very slow progress when they came in radio contact with Silver Bear. Despite Star Fire not being an ARC boat, Ray decided to be a good samaritan and offered to follow them all the way across the Atlantic in case they had any more problems.

As they entered Rodney Bay marina, Silver Bear, followed closely behind by Star Fire, were greeted with almost continous fog horns, sirens, screaming and whistling all the way to their side-by-side berths, where they received three cheers of "hip.. hip.. hooray!!" from a very welcoming and respectful ARC crowd on the pontoon.