Christmas Caribbean Rally - The start of a great adventure

by Louay Habib on 7 Oct 2013 The first ever Christmas Caribbean Rally will will leave Marina Rubicon, Lanzarote on Monday 16th December 2013 and the participants will sail the 2850 miles to arrive in Jolly Harbour, Antigua in the New Year for a final welcome celebration on January 11th 2014.

Sailing Rallies' John Simpson explains why he decided to start the Christmas Caribbean Rally.

'Starting from scratch, it takes an enormous effort to get any event like this going. But what has driven us on, and what has made the Christmas Caribbean Rally happen, is that we really love what we are doing and take tremendous pride from making a rally where the only goal is to create a memorable moment in the life of everybody involved. Crossing an ocean is a life changing event, it is something you will never forget and a resource that will help you for the rest of your life. It is that special.

What has really taken us by surprise is the global appeal of the rally, we have yachts from England, Gibraltar, Holland, Antigua, Russia, Spain and even Australia taking part. We have already had several paid up entries for 2104. Some of the boats are crewed by sailors who have crossed the Atlantic many times, others will be making their first crossing. We have offered all of them expert advice from cookery to navigation and even the hardened offshore veterans have said that the assistance has been invaluable. The rally also provides some free berthing in Lanzarote and Antigua.'

John Simpson and Mikaela Meik will be in Lanzarote before the start, to ensure that the send off is well managed but above all a lot of fun. From the second December there will be all manner of social activities including a group discussions on weather, routing, and provisioning with regular musical jam sessions and much Sailing Rallies Website