Antigua to Portsmouth: the Return Leg Begins

1,818 views | January 8th, 2018

The last leg of the Atlantic Adventure began over the weekend. It started in Portsmouth with the voyage down to the Canaries, followed by the rally across the Atlantic in the ARC 2017 and finally Challenger 2 will sail from Antigua to Portsmouth.

The crew will be adding around 3500+ miles to their log books after this 35 night trip, which is seen as a much tougher voyage than the east-west crossing of the ARC. Below are the first two blogs from the crew who’ve recently joined skipper Neil on the yacht…

Preparations and Supplies (Day 1)

Our time in Antigua is done we have paid the bills run the gauntlet of officialdom the crew have had lunch and are now rushing to the supermarket for last minute supplies.

Challenger 2 is tugging at her warps eager to get out in the open ocean where she belongs. Weather is looking good for the first leg to Horta . we will slip when the crew return (Aprox 45) mins next stop Horta!

Neil, Skipper, Challenger 2

Finally at Sea (Day 2)

Left Jolly Harbour to a tropical downpour which cooled everyone down, watch system was started at 19:00 local time.

Both watches have experienced their first Caribbean squalls at night and the associated rain that comes with them. 3 crew have succumbed to the green meanie but are slowly recovering and getting used the swell.

Everyone seem in good spirits and they are settling into their watch patterns. We have had a good 24 hours with a distance of 150 nm.

Nick, Mate, Challenger 2