We crossed the ARC finish line in Rodney Bay, Saint Lucia at 7:10 am local time on December 7th, a few hours shy of 18 days after we started in Gran Canaria.  We sailed 3177 nautical miles, roughly 370 miles further than the rhumb line (the shortest distance between two points), making our way significantly southward to find the trade winds before we turned west.  We motored a total of 25 hours, mostly during the first three, very light air days.  Our average speed for the entire trip was 7.3 knots.  During the ARC awards ceremony we were pleasantly surprised to learn that we had been awarded the prize for first family boat on corrected time and Seth was awarded the World Cruising Club Junior Cup for our performance.  We were also excited to see that our friend Joerg on Kincsem won the whole shebang, finishing first on corrected time in our 22 boat division.  

Our crew for the crossing consisted of Guillemette and Seth, as well as our friends Matt and Henning.  Each crew member contributed something unique to our overall experience and we are so incredibly grateful to Matt and Henning for their taking time from their family, work and friends to share our experience with us.

We are also grateful for the entire ARC community and in particular, for the other family boats with kids on board, for the friendships and comraderie that we found.  From the time that we arrived in Las Palmas in September until now, as I write this post in February in Martinique, we have been surrounded by wonderful families of sailors from around the world, all sharing their cruising experience. 

Matt and Henning at the helm.  Thank you!  

Some photos from the awards ceremony:

Most of the crew.  Matt, Matt!   Where's Matt?

A very proud Seth receiving his World Cruising Club Junior Cup award on the podium.

There were 20 kids sailing 12 yachts from eight different countries.  Each participant received a certificate recognizing their achievement at sailing across the ocean.  

We were especially proud of our friends Petra and Wolfgang on SV Gian for receiving the Spirit of the ARC award.  They were the defacto grandparents for all of the ARC and ARC Plus kids.

Seth with a few of his ARC friends.