Las Palmas celebrates the beginning of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

November 1o

Marching music echoes through the streets along the harbor. A band leads the parade, playing timpani and trumpets. As sailors on the ARC Plus 2024, we march along. People cheer for us from the outdoor cafés and restaurants. It feels a bit strange.

“It’s like carnival in the Rhineland,” my parents say, who are visiting us in Gran Canaria. And there is something to that. But there are no festive floats, no sweets raining onto the street. Instead, 94 crews celebrate the start of the rally, waving our national flags. From Estonia to the Cayman Islands and Japan, 38 nations are taking part in the event.

The flags are heavier than they look. Stella takes turns carrying the German one with Luisa from the ship Supergirl. At the head of the parade, our Louisa twirls the flag of the destination country Grenada through the air: it is yellow, green and red, decorated with a nutmeg.

There has been a festival atmosphere in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria since the end of October. The Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) is here all month long - a special time for the holiday resort with its concrete coastline and golden sandy beach. This year, the ARC Plus that includes a stopover (Las Palmas - Mindelo, Cape Verde - Grenada) starts on November 10th and the even bigger ARC (Las Palmas - Saint Lucia) on November 24th.

Founded in 1986 by Jimmy Cornell, it is the largest amateur trans-ocean rally. Every year, hundreds of crews cross the Atlantic this way. This time, it’s 1,300 sailors. With Alex, our crew member for the next weeks, there are five of us now.

What has motivated us to pay the participation fee (which depends on the boat size and number of people on board) and commit to a fixed start date to cross the ocean with the ARC?

The ARC comes along with parties, workshops, and even a tree planting event.

They help you prepare your ship: For anyone like us, who has been sailing the Baltic Sea and North Sea so far, 2,700 nautical miles are quite a journey. The ARC sends you pages of requirements for participation before the start, which helps you to get your ship ready.

Security checks via video call and a mandatory on-site inspection in the marina follow along the way. We get last minute tasks, like fitting our lifebuoy with a capsize light. We also have to hang up a laminated map of Asja with all of our fire extinguishers and fire blankets. Every task has a deadline. It’s a bit annoying. but afterwards you feel really well prepared.

Safety in numbers: The participants communicate with each other, and with the rally management, via email and numerous WhatsApp groups. They do it very actively. Sometimes, I look at my phone to find 50 new group messages. People discuss their equipment, look for a dog sitter in the chat. Or they ask if anyone still flying in crew who can bring spare parts.

Hopefully none of us will have to ask for help on the Atlantic, but it might be easier in our set up. Is it? Maybe the rally just conveys a feeling of more safety - but it makes a difference.

Community: We are taking a long break, which is quite unusual in our environment in Germany. In Frankfurt, we didn't know anyone with plans like that. In the marina Las Palmas, suddenly everyone has similar goals and dreams.

Those sailing with children get to know lots of other families through the ARC. When we reach Las Palmas on November 1st, we are among the last ARC Plus participants to arrive. The entire S-jetty consists of family boats. Many are still decorated with pumpkins and ghosts, there had been a halloween parade. When we arrive, Kevin from the family ship Chillalot helps us into our narrow space.

During the ARC Plus, the S jetty is reserved for family ships.

In Las Palmas, we are located between a Norwegian monohull with a teenager on board and a Canadian cat with 5-year-old twins. The mood is open, our new neighbors are helpful, just like in our community in Frankfurt.

Laundry flutters over the ropes, the HyperDino supermarket delivers provisions by the dozen directly to the jetty. The boat cat from SV Myrto visits the neighbors on SV Yggdrasil. Children tumble across the footbridge. The adults make small talk over the sea fence. You have to bury yourself in your cabin to avoid socializing.

Five days before the start, the tension slowly increases. Everyone has a common theme: “What’s still broken on your ship?” For one crew, the engine is leaking, or the furler is making noise. At Asja, the bathrooms are wet. Nobody is ready to start... which doesn't stop us from going to the workshops and the parties that are part of the program.

After a glass of white wine, with a Patatas Bravos skewer in your hand, you get the feeling that everyone is in the same boat - regardless of whether they are sailing in a classic Hallberg Rassy, an aluminum boat or a chic offshore apartment by Outremer.

It's hard for me to quantify how much the community factor is worth. At least at this point. Making friends takes time. And you also get to meet nice people while sailing without the ARC. Just not that many, and clearly not that many families.

Finally, the participants are ready to go.

At the start of the ARC Plus Rally on November 10th, marching music will again blow over the pier of Las Palmas. The sky is so blue, as if someone had turned up the saturation. Crews in shirts with boat names on their chests pull up their dinghies and fold down the bathing platforms. The whole bridge vibrates with excitement and anticipation. It’s incredible to finally start after all this time.

Let’s go. In a giant procession, one yacht after another pushes towards the harbor exit. From all jetties, at walking pace, the time slots for leaving and starting are prescribed. There's a party going on on the pier. Unfortunately I can't find my parents in the crowds, but ARC employees in their yellow shirts shout "have a nice trip" over to us.

Everyone still has to wait for their time slot. Which means: bobbing back and forth with 94 other rally ships in the defined area in front of the outer harbor. On the plotter, the symbols of the yachts pile up in a psychedelic chaos.

“Pull up the sails,” says Alex, the only one of us with regatta experience. There is almost no wind, just a slight southeasterly breeze blowing. Would we have sailed towards Cape Verde today if we hadn’t joined the ARC? Probably not.

The countdown for the catamarans is announced via loudspeaker. Fifteen minutes later, the monohulls are allowed to set off, now of course all under sail. We witness a few near collisions. And after so much socializing, I'm looking forward to some solitude with our crew. The Atlantic is waiting for us. Our first big crossing.

Marina Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Huge marina close to Las Palmas city center
Good infrastructure with dry dock, ship chandlery and sailing stores
Restaurants and beach nearby
Very reasonable prices
HiperDino, El Corte Ingles and other supermarkets deliver directly to the jetty
Showers are easy, either too hot or too cold. Paper is constantly missing from the toilets
Grumpy harbor masters

Joining the ARC: Is it worth it?

Two weeks on the Atlantic Ocean

Close Call