First of the ARC Bahamas fleet arrives in Marsh Harbour!

by World Cruising on 13 Nov 2016 As we awoke this morning and checked the YB feet viewer, several boats had whittled their DTF (Distance To Finish) down to the single digits. We jumped up, made some coffee and headed down to the dock with champagne in hand to scan the horizon for the first of the finishing boats in the fleet.

The first boat, “Exit Strategy” arrived at Harbour View Marina at around 09:15. Owner, Robert Hansen had this to say about their arrival “We followed a ship through the cut at first light, then anchored over at Man-O-War Cay and took a dip!” The crew were all smiles with champagne in hand. We then welcomed 'New Vision' a few hours later.

I asked their skipper, also named Robert, what his agenda was now that he had arrived in the islands “first we will relax, second we will take a shower!” he said. It’s not hard to relax with the almost perfect weather we’ve been having for the last few days, temperatures near 80F, light winds and clear skies. You cannot ask for better than that!

Now its near 15:00 and four of the six boats are tied up and finishing up checking in. 'Breeze On' & 'Desiderata' arrived within an hour of each other in the early afternoon. Tonight there’s a happy hour over a Snappa’s bar which I’m sure will be a lively event, given the rate that the champagne was disappearing earlier today!

Tomorrow is another happy hour under the gazebo at Harbour View Marina. Speaking of Harbour View, we’d like to send a big thank you to them and their staff for being so accommodating to the rally. Saturday night is the final day of programming that concludes with the Awards dinner, again hosted by Snappa’s. The fun doesn’t stop Saturday though, most boats are continuing on through the Bahamas and further the east and south. Onward!