It has been a busy first day at the Rally Office, AKA the fridge - the air conditioning is a welcome relief from the hot temperatures out on the docks! We have now checked in 22 of the 34 boats that are due to take the start on Saturday. Check-in takes around 20 minutes and includes sitting down with either Nicky or Mia and running through some paperwork on the boat and crew, collecting a rally flag and welcome pack and finding out more details on the programme lined up for the week ahead here at Nanny Cay marina.
After check in is completed a Safety Equipment Inspection time is booked and Joel has started to complete many of these today. There is a check list of items that have to be checked prior to departure and includes an array of items from emergency steering gear, flares, EPIRB and man overboard equipment. Below is the yacht Annetine (NOR) who was the first boat checked this morning,
To round off the day there was a Welcome Party on the beach terrace - Live music from the Soca Boys and a fresh breeze off the channel along with rum punches and canapes made a great evening. It was a welcome back for many previous rally participants, there are those that have sailed in the ARC Caribbean 1500, ARC Portugal, World ARC and the recent ARC and ARC+. It's always great to see familiar faces from previous events but a particularly warm welcome was given by everybody to the new boats joining a WCC rally for the first time. So welcome again to:
Aurora (NZL), Ballytrim, Bonnie Lass, Dark Star, Duck, Mystic, Nirvana, Puerki, Sea Eagle and Voila
