Report by Claudia and Richard Hill on their Atlantic crossing

Published 11:52 on 5 Jan 2023

We had been planning the trip to the Caribbean since 2017 and finally signed up to do the ARC+ in November 2020. After a two-year Covid induced delay, we were finally off.

Our crew for the ARC + was ourselves, brother Jonathan Hill and Bill Patterson. We departed Las Palmas in Gran Canaria on Sunday 5 November in a fleet of just under 100 boats at 13:00 local time for the 850 mile trip to Mindelo in the Cabo Verde. We had a superb down-wind journey and completed the trip in five and a half days.

The boat was well prepared, and we had no breakages or damage to fix. However, one or two of the other boats had had some problems (one boat hit a submerged object on the way down) and needed the time to undertake repairs.

Mindelo is an unsophisticated town and after about 5 days of sightseeing we were again ready for the off on the second leg.

Bill had left us in Cabo Verde and we were joined by Andy Clarke for the final 2,200 mile leg to Port Louis in Grenada.

We had strong NE trade winds most of the time and completed the trip in 2 weeks and 3 hours. We had little damage due to conservative sailing, however many boats did have ripped sails and various other breakages to fix once in Port Louis.  It was great fun, sometimes exhilarating and a thoroughly interesting trip. In all we sailed over 5,000 miles since leaving Seaview in July.

The ARC+ participants were a great mix of over 400 crew comprising 27 different nationalities. We continue to bump into them as we cruise the Caribbean.

Richard and Claudia Hill