18 days, 23 hours, 24mins and 52 seconds – that’s how long it took us to sail 2910 nautical miles across the Atlantic from Grand Canaria to St Lucia. It’s a long time with two small children in a space no bigger than 21 square metres!

I’m not sure we can say the last section was easy, but after you’ve faced horrendous waves and wind you are eternally grateful when it eases even the teeniest amount.

We played musical instruments, games and had fun. The boys have made about 100 pom poms enroute so they decorated the boat (outside too)!

The chess and draughts board made it out (magnetic) and Paul managed to take loads of sights with the sextant, also teaching Hugo too.

Russell managed to make sour dough bread with the yeast culture we’ve been keeping alive, nicknamed “the empress” and I even did some baking with the boys!

The boys have enjoyed painting every day, huge thanks to my siblings for providing games, audio books and amazing art goodies to help keep the boys occupied. They were all used very well.

The last few days were tough with the wind directly behind us and we felt it was easier to hand steer rather than use the auto helm as it slewed the boat with each wave and created this ping pong rolling motion back and forth. Hand steering is hard work but we needed to avoid accidental gybes which are dangerous and damaging. Soon we were onto the last milestones of 1000nm to go then 500nm and then the magical figure of 167nm (which is about how far we sail in one 24 hour period), so only one more day till the finish line and dry land!

We were all truly knackered (except the children), and if you’ve sailed into Rodney Bay on St. Lucia before, you realise you have to turn and sail into the wind which was a bit of a shock to the system after three weeks of downwind sailing. We even had to tack to cross the finish line. We sailed the last section as fast as possible with the stereo blaring The Greatest Showman, it was all a bit emotional (I blame sleep deprivation)!

We were greeted warmly by the ARC team and fellow Arc friends and families and handed a cup of ice cold rum punch on arrival in the marina. We were over the moon, we had done it. Hurrah. Now it was time to recoup, mend things and have fun (and have a blissful whole nights sleep, or several thereof to recover).

Time to relax and enjoy paradise! We have sailed as a family across the Atlantic. Wow.

“Pretty intense” are the words I have used to describe this section of the journey. Having headed south to pick up the trade winds, we certainly picked them up and headed west. Further north in the Atlantic were various fronts so we had confused seas, over 12ft of swell from the north and 8ft of waves from the north east. Plus we hit the area of squalls so we had wind gusts up to 38kts, Force 8.

Trying to do anything except bruise yourself on another hard surface was impossible. We used the radar to watch for squalls about to hit us at night (red splotches = squall approaching us). I had eight in my four hour night watch alone!

My nice school routine with the boys was shredded and I resorted to Swallows and Amazon’s audio books and letting them play with Lego for hours on end as it hurled across the galley floor. Poor Paul had to tread through this chaos to get to his cabin, I think we all have Lego foot injuries to add to our bruises. Even trying to make a cup of tea was dicing with a potential scalding as boiling water and mugs were hurled all over the place. I have no idea how I managed to cook each day, but it was mainly through gritted teeth! Various bits broke too, first the boys toilet. One last section of pipe we hadn’t replaced as it was impossible to get too, blocked. So I now have a large hole in the heads vanity unit as Paul and Russell has to hack saw through it to find the pipe cable tied in place. No wonder it didn’t pull through. It was a full day plus to repair it, a lot of gritted teeth and sweating in 30 degree heat and to recover from the smell…

Next the water maker broke, the pump blew. Probably trying to cope with the boats motion like us. Then our drinking water turned red, with what we guessed to be rust. Turns out the pump lining had gone.

Either way it was pretty hideous to drink it, but that we did, not a huge amount of choice. Urgghh. Well done to everyone and particularly Paul for putting up with this really tough patch both mentally and physically. Oh and did I mention that the boys started fighting too. Let’s say it was just hideous (although we grinned and joked our way through it) and I shall move on….(the boys still made dens in the saloon)

Sleep was no better as the sound of the thrashing waves hitting the hull, the jerking movements as we were thrown around by the seas meant sleep was exhausted dozes at best. Tiredness for everyone really set in, even though we were on a four hour watch system, it was hard, you can see it in Paul’s face already!

Although top prizes for the boys sleeping through everything and waking up early ready for action. They often joined me on the dawn watch (breaking my one moment of solitude!)

This week the moon appeared in its full glory and lit up the sky at night. We swapped unlimited stars for some night visibility. Russell even saw dolphins swim along side the boat at night, watching their streams of efflorescence.

The start of the ARC Rally was exhilarating with 190 boats all crossing the start line. There were yachts everywhere, racing yachts up front then the catamarans and then the cruising yachts like us. Fenders or pipe lagging were strapped onto the front of everyone’s bows/anchors so no one hit each other, (yes we were that close), and yet this race is for 3 weeks, not 3 hours!

It was pretty choppy and windy and we soon hit the acceleration zone around the island where winds increased by 10+ kts, we were sailing in Force 7 from the start! The first night was busy with a plethora of yachts in very close proximity and it was a hairy night-watch to say the least. We raced on for the next few days with some great winds heading us south towards Cape Verde islands. Amazingly quickly the boats spread out so you could barely see another yacht in the horizon. The AIS started to get patchy too with boats disappearing and then reappearing on our screens. One skipper told us that AIS is unreliable off-shore!!! Not exactly music to our ears.

Soon the wind died much to our frustration and disappointment. We felt it was too early in the journey to be motoring (the fuel was for emergencies in our eyes), so we dropped the dingy, put out a long line and went for a swim! Nothing like swimming with 5000m of Atlantic Ocean below you. It’s pretty unnerving and no one stayed in for long!

We were treated with a minke whale who came to check us out (very close), I have a video of it swimming below our davits. Also we had shoals of dolphins to keep us company too, so something vaguely good out of flat calm weather.

Meanwhile most of the fleet had got fed up with the lack and of wind and motored west to find wind, so we found ourself alone with a few other die-hard sailing-only boats. So that’s why we looked like we were at the back if you followed us on YB races app. But as motoring counts against you in the race, we were actually doing remarkably well and Russell was working hard to keep our speed as high as safely possible at all times, including making us jibe which is hard work with all the preventers and spinnaker pole out.

The first week I even got a good routine going with the boys after the first few days namely school in the mornings and games and art/crafts in the afternoon. Cooking was going fine too, definitely feeling positive at this stage!

So it’s an hour before we leave the marina. The kids have all said goodbye to each other and had our last photos.

Goodbye Grandad, thank you for seeing us off!

If you want to track our progress across the Atlantic (as there will be no blog until I am back on WiFi on land in 3 weeks…) then please use the YB tracker (free App) and click on the ARC race. Search for Kathryn del Fuego under teams. Or click on the fleet map, we are a white/grey-ish yacht symbol…. Instructions in the photo below under Finish Information!

Paul enjoying the start!

Whilst still being busy with an endless list of things to sort, check or do on the boat, the end is very nearly in sight and we made time to join the tradition of painting the rocks in Las Palmas marina with our boat emblem.

The boys painted their own dolphins and we joined up with our friends aboard Pearl and Pacific Pearl to have a painting party and BBQ on the sea wall. The children had a hoot.

One last full nights sleep before we are off tomorrow and the next 18+ days of sailing and shift patterns. Huge amazing thanks to Paul Grundy for kindly joining us on the Atlantic crossing to share the fun, shifts and adventure! (Even bigger thanks to Jo and family for letting him join us for a bit 😊⚓️⛵️🙏). And big thanks for Mac (Grandad) being here to see us off and help with the children whilst we have sorted everything this week. It’s been fantastic.

Time for an early night.

We were treated to full air/sea rescue demonstration in the harbour followed by a pool session of inflating and climbing into a life raft. The children all loved watching the helicopter dropping a person onto a yacht and seeing flares let off.

Also they all got to have fun climbing in and jumping out of a life raft in the pool. Great fun on a sunny day. Let’s hope we never have to do this though!

Then it was time for Paul and I to learn how to set up a sextant and take readings for navigation. Something we hope to be expert in by the time we arrive in St. Lucia. Although we hope the GPS continues to work and no one turns any of the satellites off!!

How much can you fit on a boat? I seem to have bought half of Hipodino, thank goodness they deliver right to the pontoon. I’ve managed to sort everything in a spreadsheet 😎 with a rough meal plan for three weeks+. The hardest part was doing a full stock take to work out exactly what we have on board and precisely where!

I’ve been to the local market which was fantastic, as apparently it’s best to buy fruit and vegetables that haven’t been refrigerated if you want them to last as long as possible (when you have limited fridge space). Martin’s stall is going to deliver our boat, and the meat order is arriving vacuum packed and at -20 degrees to the boat too. Now I just need to find space for it all….

Paul has joined us a crew at a perfect time to help with the last minute preparations. Russell and Paul did a great job washing all the fruit and veg in Milton on the pontoon and we managed not to drop anything transferring to the boat.

Then there is the small matter of cooking it all whilst the kitchen is moving at all angles….

So it’s the final week before we set sail across the Atlantic to St.Lucia, nerves are kicking in now and boat preparation has moved into overdrive. To be fair we’ve been preparing the boat for the last year for this, so we are practically there. Russell has done a fabulous job and in particular with all the safety kit, so much so that on our safety inspection by the ARC officials they stated it was the best prepared boat they’d seen! Phew!

We’ve been attending the ARC seminars and meeting other crews and family boats. There are 50 children crossing in the ARC Rally and we are moored on the family pontoon, so the children are having a riot running from boat to boat and all playing together whatever the language. There is even a kids club in the morning so us parents can get some work, seminars and provisioning done in peace! Thank you ARC organisers, it’s a life saver.

On Sunday we took part in the ARC parade around the marina with everyone walking with their countries flags and a local band playing. All great fun. Crews are starting to arrive now and it’s great to meet new folk and have even more people in the party atmosphere.

There are a great series of parties, sundowners after a day of safety briefings, weather, Atlantic night sky, navigation and downwind sailing tips. The boys are having a ball…

We’ve had an amazing two months cruising the Canary Islands from Graciosa, Lanzarote to Tenerife and Gran Canaria.

We’ve met up again with our friends aboard Oyster Moon and the children had a great week playing together at an anchorage.

We also caught up with friends from home in half term week, fabulous to see Dom, Katy, beautiful Jessie and our gorgeous godson Jasper.

We enjoyed visiting water parks and zoos with them and hiking up to see the famous Nublo rock in the mountains.

Jasper, not yet two, had a go as skipper on a day sail and Katy and Jessie had a great time on the spinnaker boom swing.

We’ve even had our first night out without the boys in 6 months as Katy and Dom babysat 😇😍🥂🍾. We’ve celebrated the boys birthdays and had my sister, Aunty Anne out to visit. Little did she know that she’d be roped into helping sort/bake our way through hosting a double birthday party on board. Who says you need acres of space for a childs birthday party!!

It was lovely to see family and to receive all the goodies from home. Thank you everyone for being so thoughtful and generous. The boys were over the moon with their birthday gifts which will see them fully occupied across the Atlantic. Sarah – the painting and art goodies are amazing. The boys are fascinated by it all and are drawing and painting away.

We’ve been hosted by the Ocean Cruising Club, and met fellow OCC members at the most wonderful BBQ in Agustín’s house. Thank you Agustín, for sorting a diver for the boat and helping with dentist appointments too, you’re the best port officer ever! From Porsito Blanco we sailed north into 30kts of wind to Las Palmas were we continue our preparations for the Atlantic crossing.

It’s been a great month of exploring more volcanic islands, including our first aqua volcano (half submerged cone of a volcano creating a unique green lagoon). We’ve hiked, cycled and gone to ‘Europe’s’ largest water park and also an amazing zoo. All great birthday treats for the boys as we have some land time fun for a change.

A fabulous time and the weather is entirely dependent on which end of the islands you are at!

You can never have too much birthday cake!