THE GREAT ATLANTIC GETAWAY

THERE MAY BE NO BETTER TIME TO PRESS PAUSE AND GO SAILING. ELAINE BUNTING MEETS TRANSATLANTIC CREWS DOING JUST THAT

- ELAINE BUNTING

This is the great Atlantic getaway. At the end of a year when the calendar has been mostly crossed out or marked provisional, families who stuck to their transatlantic cruising plans, or even advanced them, were breaking free.

Life in the Canary Islands in November always seems a world away from the darkening days of the European winter, but this year so much more so. It is 25°C and sunny in Gran Canaria, ideal weather for working through the jobs list for a transatlantic crossing. And when you’re done the shops and bars and restaurants are all open, and lively. This feels like the perfect time to escape.

The pandemic derailed the plans of around two-thirds of the crews planning to take part this year in the annual ARC and ARC+ transatlantic rallies from Gran Canaria to St Lucia, but 76 crews made it despite the difficulties (24 in ARC+ via Cape Verde and 52 in the non-stop ARC). These included a number who advanced longer term plans when they realised that going this year might be better than staying.

“COVID is the reason we are here,” says Vinny D’Avena. He and Ayesha, his wife, who are from Northern Virginia, faced a dilemma in the spring. Face-to-face education for their two boys, aged 16 and 14, had stopped.

“The online environment was not good,” says Vinny. “One thing that kept bothering us was that we were projecting the situation forward to next March. We were at our wit’s end. How to keep them engaged and challenged when you can’t hang out with your friends, do sports that motivate you and get the answers you want? They were isolated and withdrawn. It is a devastating cocktail for teenagers and we saw some of their friends struggle with depression.”