Atlantic High

Chris Tibbs on a Dream Atlantic Crossing and a Heavenly Caribbean Winter.

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There is only one adjective that adequately describes our transatlantic crossing with the ARC last year and the season of Caribbean cruising that followed it: fantastic! The rally was my 26th crossing. I’ve raced across, cruised and done commercial deliveries before, but this was the first I had ever done aboard my own boat. I sailed with Helen, my wife (it was her fourth crossing) and two friends who, although very experienced sailors, were doing this for the first time. In December last year I wrote about our preparations in Yachting World. Now, a year later, it feels time to share our experiences and explain what went well and what didn’t.

On a cruising-to-racing scale of one to ten, I would put our efforts on the ARC at about four – slightly nearer cruising than racing. Our Wauquiez Centurion 40S, Taistealai, like most of the non-racing boats, was very heavy, being full of food, fuel, water, and cruising gear. This was noticeable in performance and the feel of the boat, but it is inevitable if the main reason for the passage is cruising at the other end. A few of the cruising class bought dinghies, outboards, and anchor chain in the Caribbean and went across on freeze dried food, but not us.

We kept the boat sailing at an average of 6-7 knots by regularly changing sails, hand steering, and generally keeping the boat moving but with a fairly conservative sailplan. We did two watches of two, which made for pretty easy sailing. Being two-up meant we could change sails without calling the off watch.