THINGS HAVE CHANGED IN THE BLUEWATER CRUISING WORLD, AS ELAINE BUNTING DISCOVERED MEETING ARC CREWS IN SAINT LUCIA
“The moon is waxing and rising later now, so there are magnificent star-spotting opportunities,” the crew of Adina blogged. “The Plough, Orion’s Belt and Venus have been joined by the Crux, Mitaxa and Hyades.”
“The sky at night is epic,” reported another crew from the ARC rally. “We saw shooting stars and a meteorite that streaked orange across the sky one night last week.”
Seeing a night sky teeming with stars, or the moon lighting your path across the sea, are some of the most unforgettable sights of ocean sailing. Like landing a pelagic fish, enjoying a sundowner at dusk, or encountering your first tradewinds squall, these are timeless experiences that come with every Atlantic crossing.
How people sail their boats and live on board does change, however, and the 2023 ARC transatlantic rally was a year in which some significant technological and social trends converged. The expression I kept hearing from crews and organisers alike was ‘a gamechanger’.
Bigger boats, younger crews, much better batteries and more power, revolutionary communications – all have come together in a step change for the ARC rally, just as the organiser company itself (World Cruising Club) has changed hands and looks to the future. The ARC rallies continue to grow, with numbers split between the main event direct from Las Palmas to Saint Lucia and the slightly earlier ARC+ to Grenada via the Cape Verde Islands. Although record numbers in the ARC have been higher than the 2023 event’s 152 starters, there are many more catamarans, which occupy more marina space. That’s a trend that doesn’t look like changing and will continue to be felt globally in marina capacity.
While the ARC+ rally, with 95 starters this year, increases every year the facilities in Mindelo in the Cape Verdes also continue to develop. It tends to be the rally of choice for family crews with children and people with more time to explore, and is already almost full in advance for 2024.
The Cape Verde route takes boats down towards more established tradewinds, while the original ARC route can see quite varied conditions and present some interesting routing decisions.
VARIABLE CROSSINGS
The first yacht to finish the 2023 ARC in December was Italian sailor Marco Rodolfi’s Swan 90 Berenice Cub
