The ARC Europe fleet have had a fantastic time in Bermuda. The first yacht to arrive was Picomole, a Rapido 53XS, who beat their previous record for the trip by 7 hours. The next boats were 1 day, 6 ½ hours later – Skyelark and Narganá were in sight of each other all the way from St Maarten and crossed the finish together.
The fleet was completed in Bermuda, where five boats joined, two who started their rally adventure in Solomons, USA and three who sailed to Bermuda independently.
Crews have enjoyed some great social events on the programme this week kicking off with Pirate night with rum tasting from Goslings who explained the fascinating history of the company and different rums followed by a BBQ hosted at St Georges Dinghy & Sports Club. The fleet also enjoyed sociable Happy Hour events, at Wahoo restaurant in St Georges and at St Georges Dinghy & Sports Club.
The social programme culminated in Prizegiving and dinner which kicked off with a performance from the local Gombey troupe. The Gombeys are a Bermudian cultural dance tradition with roots in African, Caribbean and British cultures. They gave a spectacular performance with colourful costumes accompanied by lively dance and drumming. The prizegiving, which included some fun prizes as well as the more traditional Cruising and Multihull classes was followed by a marvellous buffet out on the lawn.
St Georges Marina organised duty free refuelling for the fleet which happened at Penno’s wharf on Monday. The refuelling was co-ordinated by the yellow shirt team and with wonderful flexibility and cheerfulness from all, 28 boats were refuelled in a record total time of 7 hours.
The Skippers Briefing was held the day before departure at St Georges Dinghy & Sports Club where the fleet was briefed about the start and the passage ahead, and a brief on the weather forecast.
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Start Day began bright and sunny with a gentle breeze, perfect conditions for the start to Azores. Thirty boats took the start with Freedom first over the line, closely followed by Nautilia and Clearlake II. It was a spectacular sight to see the boats making their way through the Cut and out into the ocean on their way to Horta in the Azores, a 1800 nautical mile passage that is expected to take between 11 and 14 days.