On a beautifully sunny day, and after a 19 day crossing, the yachts Deiopea and Shuti arrived in Martinique almost at the same time, with barely a mile separating them on the finish line. The crews of the boats which had arrived in the preceding days were all waiting on the pontoon for a moving and warm welcome.
Deiopea arrives near the finish line
A warm welcome committee for Deiopea
Shuti are glad to arrive
At the end of the afternoon the catamaran Happy Koumata, arrived in the marina, followed by mono-hull Lazy Bones just before sunset, both in time to enjoy the second welcome cocktail organised for the Atlantic Odyssey, and to meet up with the 85 participants already in Le Marin marina.
Happy Koumata crew
Lazy Bones crew
The evening’s entertainment came from a Martiniquais group of musicians and dancers, reinforced by Jimmy at the microphone and Nicholas from Alba on the drums!
Jimmy and Nicolas with the musicians at the welcome cocktail
The yacht Paloma was not able to arrive before nightfall, having a problem with their engine. After spending the night at anchor in Sainte-Anne, Marc-Anton discovered to his horror when he dove first thing in the morning to check the hull that a blade of the propeller was missing, and the shaft had been torn away from the hull. A tow was arranged and with the aid of marina staff, the boat and its crew were finally able to make it to the marina in the afternoon.
Paloma had to be towed into the marina, aided by Jean-Marie of Le Marin Marina
The Paloma family were happy to have finally made it
Meanwhile, the catamaran Elessis and the monohull Walden finished their voyage after a comfortablle crossing without any problems.
The family crew of Elessis
Walden’s crew happy to have made it across
This was not the case for Lord Jim, whose autopilot broke down only three hours after leaving Lanzarote. The crew were dedicated enough to decide to continue and hand steer this 40 foot yacht throughout the crossing, totalling an impressive 480 hours at the tiller!
The brave crew from Lord Jim after 30 days hand steering!
Amongst these eight boats, four crews of families were able to bring together 12 children in total, all very happy to find their friends again and spend time stretching their legs on the pontoons!
- You can follow the position of the other boats and check their estimated time of arrival on the tracking map.
- View the arrivals list.
- View more arrivals photos on our Facebook album (no need to login).
