ANTIGUANICE YACHTING INSIDER NEWSLETTER

Strong winds but a relatively smooth sea state provided a fast exciting start to the rally.

The fastest boats in the rally, which set out from Lanzarote on December 16th, have about 1200 nm to go to Antigua. The fleet is being lead by Spanish flagged Ocean Phoenix, a Rob Humpreys 77, with Eduard Numan's Dutch Shipman 63, Jinthe close behind.

Eduard is a sports fanatic taking part in hockey, ski-ing, golf and cycling in his home town of Amsterdam. It has been Edu's ambition to sail across the Atlantic and cruising through Patagonia is also high on the agenda for Jinthe. Before the start of the Christmas Caribbean Rally, Jinthe built up a friendly rivalry with Juan Luis Serra, skipper on Ocean Phoenix. For the moment, Ocean Phoenix has the upper hand and Ocean Phoenix also has a secret weapon, First Mate ‘Duna’.  Apparently the 8 year old poodle is handy around the boat and is as wily as an old fox when it comes to the navigation!

Husband and wife, Alan and Terry Ryall are sailing two up on an Island Packet 465, Seminole Wind. The British couple have sailed two-handed before but never across an ocean. Terry has been providing regular blogs since the start of the Christmas Caribbean Rally. From these extracts you can surmise they are clearly enjoying the fast sailing and near perfect tradewind conditions. Below is an extract:

“This was a notion that turned into a dream that worked into plan that got delayed and is now happening - two very lucky people at the start of a new chapter in a blessed life.”
“On the upside too, there's the vastness of the ocean and the depth of the universe We've had a bright full moon for most of the week. At one point when coming up for the midnight watch I thought someone was shining a spotlight into the cockpit. It was so, so bright. When the stars come out they're magnificent as is the Star Walk app that you just point at the sky and it tells you what the stars are. It's brilliant. Incidentally, I've now reached level 106 on Candy Crush Saga!”

Prior to departure, all of the yachts competing in the Caribbean Christmas Rally received Christmas sacks with presents, decorations and even a miniature Christmas Tree all provided as part of the package by the Sailing Rallies team.

The first boats are likely to make landfall in Antigua around the 29th December.

Happy Christmas from all of the team at www.sailingrallies.com