A fine first rendezvous on the beach with 5 Atlantic Cup boats

It was a lovely evening in Nanny Cay last night, as crews from both Atlantic Cup and ARC Europe mixed at the marina beach bar and shared stories of their winter adventures. Five of the nine Atlantic Cup boats checked in with the Rally Office yesterday, with the rest of the fleet expected in the next day or two.

The majority of the fleet have participated in previous World Cruising events, either on the trip down from the Eastern seaboard of the US with Caribbean 1500, or with the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, having made the journey across from Europe last november. 

The two catamarans in this year's Atlantic Cup have both arrived in Nanny Cay already, and unusally are identical boats. Without previously knowing each other, Mark Silverstein's Field Trip and Neil Sullivan's Escapade,  had both sailed from South America to the Caribbean with their Antares 44's, and have since become good friends and share their pro's and con's of their new yacht designs.

Other boats from the fleet to check in yesterday were Tom Hynes's Sabre 426 Comocean, Clive Woodman's Sweden 38 Cosmic Dancer V, and Charles Hodge's Little Harbour 44 Surprise. Trillium and Kia Orana both arrived late last night and will be checking in with Rally Control this morning.