ARC Europe fleet making fine progress

Leg 2 for the ARC Europe yachts has been a complete mixed bag of events., sailors have experienced the lot. The sad news of yacht Outer Limits hit the rest of the ARC Europe fleet hard. The daily logs that followed after hearing the news were truly moving. 

Crew from Scolomanzi wrote ‘we are struggling to comprehend the extent of the sadness and emotional strain that one of our ARC Fleet Yachts Outer Limits crew must be going through!’ Outer Limits hit a submerged object, believed to be a whale, when the yacht was sailing about 300NM North-east of Bermuda. The crew were retrieved from nearby Merchant Vessel MR Melbourne. Rally Control’s Lyall Burgess spoke to the Captain onboard via a Satellite phone and then was passed on to Joost Gehrels, skipper of Outer Limits, giving his regards to Joost and his crew. 

The ARC Europe yachts are now rapidly approaching the Azores, with the fastest in the fleet, namely Sookie & A lady a mere 700NM to the finish line in Horta. This said, even the smaller yachts in the fleet have been clocking 200NM days, with Aniarra II breaking their 24hr distance record as well as their speed record, an impressive 12.6knts. ‘I can tell you it was tough, rough and wet out here, but so were we’ – Aniarra II. The fleet have now just finished what must have been a long night at sea with some hefty squalls prevailing, but are now enjoying again some super sailing conditions. Rally Control’s Kieran and Lyall look forward to seeing you all very soon.