ARC Rally Europe 2024

The day has finally come, we are heading to Europe with the World Cruising Club ARC Rally. We have had such a good time in St Maarten, it has now become my favorite island. I suppose every place we go will become my favorite until the next place. 😬

There are so many amazing restaurants here and the people are the most friendly people we have met so far. It has even been a pleasure, yes pleasure, driving on this island. Everyone is polite, people will let you out into the road and then wave to you, as if they were actually happy to do it. And no honking! Blows my mind. Also, the grocery stores are the best we’ve been in since HEB in Texas. And the food is relatively inexpensive. The wine and liquor is actually inexpensive. We will most certainly come back here.

We have learned what a small community cruising really is. When spew we’re in Ft Lauderdale, we met a very nice couple, Kate and Clay, through our neighbors on the dock, Sean and Melissa. Kate and Clay have the same boat as us and the set sail to Bahamas and Caribbean several months before we did. Well we met up with them again in Grenada, but only for a short time. Then one day we were hanging out at Hog Island and we met a couple, Christian and Jen. It turns out that they are friends with Kate and Clay and they told them about us and that we should meet. I guess we did and became friends. Even ended up ding the same hash in Carriacou. Fast forward several months. We are sitting in the Dinghy Dock Bar here in St Maarten and a couple co es in and sits at the bar just a few seats down from us. Well the bar owner and a customer have some sort of disagreement and the customer gets kicked out. Name calling ensued. We all thought the whole thing was hilarious AND juvenile. So we got to chatting with this couple, Josh and Tamara. Turns out they are crew on a boat in the ARC Rally. Furthermore, they are also friends with Kate, Clay, Christian, and Jen. Needless to say, we got along fabulously. So just like that we have become part of a very awesome group of friends.

I digress, back to the Rally. Today, we leave beautiful St Maarten and head for Bermuda. It should be entertaining getting 15 boats off the dock at once to get through the 10:30 bridge opening out of the lagoon. Once outside the lagoon, we will actually start the race, although it’s not a race in the competitive way. From there we will head north and spend 6-7 days on the water before landing in Bermuda. If you would like to follow the Rally, please download the YB Races app. On the home page you can Add Race, and choose the ARC Rally Europe 2024 race. Then you will be able to see us and all of the other boats on the routes that will end up in either Portugal or UK.

I will post along the way. Hope you follow us.