The smiles say it all in Grenada!

There’s plenty of happy faces and a real buzz around the docks at Camper & Nicholsons Port Louis Marina now that over 50 ARC+ boats have finished their Atlantic crossing.

After all the excitement of the arrival of the super-fast multihull, Jean Jullien’s Outremer 55-2 Enjoy the Silence, after just over 10 days, the next big celebration was the first family boat, Dawnbreaker - the Swedish Kanter 64 monohull - skippered by Karl Nerman, who arrived two days later. It was a fantastic achievement for the 2002-built Kanter 64 which has thousands of nautical miles under her keel - with father Lars having sailed his beloved boat to far off places for many years. The passing of the baton has certainly continued, with Karl, his wife Anna and their three young children persuading Lars to join the family-orientated ARC+ for their Atlantic circuit.

Another Scandinavian family boat, Ursa Major - sailing in the Cruising B Division - has also had a very good rally. Raymond Saelen’s Norwegian Beneteau Sense 50 was crossing for the first time with his family, including Storm 4 and Bjorn 8. He decided to buy a bigger boat a year ago, especially for the ARC+ and was very pleased with her performance: “The best part for me was being out on the ocean - it’s been really nice and was very enjoyable,” he said after a typical dockside welcome at Port Louis. “There was less wind than we had hoped for some of the time, but mostly it was perfect conditions. We haven’t got any plans yet, but we will spend some time exploring Grenada and this area. 

Also arriving in under 14 days, was the first doublehanded team to reach Grenada, Eveline - Lynn Eve and Anders Krogholm’s Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 50DS. On arrival they laughed: “It was too short. We like to be on the ocean. It was really nice and we are happy we did it in under two weeks.” They are both regatta sailors back home in Norway and said their heavy displacement boat was not ideally suited for the relatively light air conditions but did achieve 10-knots of speed for an extended period during the final 24 hours. The duo is planning to sail north along the US coast to Canada and then to Greenland to experience ice conditions. "We have a preference for colder weather sailing environments,” they smiled.

Another doublehanded team very happy to arrive in Grenada was Kara and Yuksel on their Australian Hallberg-Rassy 43 Kara D. Kara jumped up and down on the boat with excitement as the marina team from Camper & Nicholsons helped them dock, before the typical rally welcome of ice cold rum punches and greetings from the yellowshirt, Grenada Tourism Authority and Port Louis Marina Manager Zara Tremlett. 

We look forward to welcoming all the remaining boats over the next few days, and to everyone enjoying the shoreside social programme to help celebrate their achievement.