PHOTO BY TIM WRIGHT; MAP BY PIP HURN SAIL MAGAZINE 43
on the Chesapeake.
The following April we sailed up to New-
port, Rhode Island, where Asylum caught a
ride on a DockWise transport ship to Majorca,
Spain. Using DockWise we could float on and
off the ship—no need to take the mast down.
As evidence of how easy the rest of the deliv-
ery was, when we rejoined Asylum in Spain,
we climbed on board and saw I had forgotten
to stow a pill bottle full of pencils. It was still
standing upright on the chart table—a smooth
ride indeed!
We spent June through August cruising
Spain, Corsica and Italy, after which we put the
boat up for the winter at Natura Navigando,
on the Tiber River. Then in May of last year we
returned to the boat and started working our
way west, arriving in the Canary Islands in late
August, where we left the boat in Gran Ca-
naria for two months, went back to work, and
returned as the ARC+ festivities and seminars
were getting underway in late October. The
Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) is so heavily
subscribed the World Cruising Club decided
to split it in two: the ARC proper runs nonstop
from Gran Canaria to St. Lucia, while the new
rally, the ARC+, runs to St. Lucia with a stop-
over in the Cape Verde islands.
During the rally seminars, we discussed
doublehanding as a couple. Two people on
a boat crossing an ocean means fewer hands
on deck and a more rigorous watch schedule.
Fatigue is your biggest enemy, followed by
chafe: or so we were told. With four on a boat,
you can have shorter watch schedules and help
with the cooking and boat maintenance. Still,
Brenda and I agreed we wanted to cross the
Atlantic alone as a couple. During our prior
(albeit shorter) passages, we felt doublehand-
ing strengthened our relationship. I’m the bet-
ter sailor, but Brenda is the better “out of the
box” problem solver. We make a good team.
Eight of the 50 ARC+ boats had crews of
two, so we invited the other doublehanders to
a dinner where we could all get to know each
other. We shared best practices, compared
watch schedules and, most of all, built friend-
ships. Some spoke of how additional crew can
actually create more problems than they solve,
something we’d already observed firsthand
when we arrived in the Cape Verdes, only to see
a number of suitcases being offloaded from a
neighboring boat. The skipper told me that he
and his wife normally sailed doublehanded, but
thought it would be fun to have some friends
aboard for the ARC. After managing the new
crew’s seasickness and keeping them from hurt-
ing the boat or themselves, they were thrilled
when their friends announced that they would
be flying home from the Cape Verdes.LEG ONE: GRAN CANARIA TO
CAPE VERDES—860 MILES
The start of the rally was quite the sight. Our
racing experience is limited, so it was thrill-
ing to see 50 boats romping over the starting
line just outside the harbor. There were two
divisions: Cruising and Open. I almost chose
the non-competitive Open Division, because I
didn’t want my competitive spirit to dominate
our experience, and besides, Asylum had oneof the shortest waterlines in the fleet. But the
rally staff assured me the competition would
be friendly, so I caved to peer pressure, and we
opted for some stiffer competion.
As doublehanders, our watch schedule was
different from most. After an early dinner, we
would watch the sunset together and play an
episode of Modern Family on our big 32in TV
monitor. We would then clean up the galley,
after which I would sleep from 2000 to mid-
night with Brenda on watch. We would then
switch and Brenda would sleep until 0600,
when we would switch again and I would grab
more sleep, until about 0800. That way we
both had six hours of sleep before coffee in theAsylum rounds
Pigeon Island,
heading toward the
finish line in Rodney
Bay, St. LuciaSt LuciaLas
PalmasCape
Verde
IslandsNorth
Atlantic
Ocean