The World ARC 2014-15 office in Rodney Bay Marina, Saint Lucia opened it's doors today to begin checking in and registering the boats and crews of the next Rally. It's always nice to finally put faces to names after several months of emails back and forth and telephone conversations. The check in process provides further information to crews about how the Rally will operate. It also gives skippers and crews the opportunity to discuss any aspect of the event and enables the Rally team to check important information currently held on the boats, to ensure its all correct.
The first skipper to check in this morning was Peter Shoosmith owner of the Meta Dalu 47 Adela. Having deferred their entry from 2012 World ARC, they are very keen to get going and are excited about the adventure ahead. Peter sailed his boat Adela across the Atlantic with ARC+ in 2013 and have remained in Saint Lucia up to now.
The activity continues throughout the day in the Rally office as 14 more boats complete registration. Safety inspections also begin today on the docks, as each rally boat is to successfully complete a safety check prior to setting sail on World ARC. For those boats who have taken part in a World Cruising event before, this is not a new exercise however it is always important to have a thorough inspection of each boat before every event. To get a brief idea of what is covered during a World Cruising Club safety inspection you can watch this video
here On Monday evening the first official World ARC social function will commence inside Rodney Bay Marina at the friendly Bread Basket Café. This complimentary event allows participants to meet and greet each other before embarking on a trip of a lifetime together around the World. We hope to have the majority of the fleet moored inside the marina by this time.