FIFTY-FIVE yachts will make the inner basin at the Careenage home as a port of call during the Barbados 50 transatlantic rally.
According to Peter Gilkes, consultant with the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI), the rally was a collaborative effort of the BTMI, Barbados Port Inc., and the Customs and Immigration departments.
“This is a special transatlantic rally held to commemorate 50 years since the Independence of Barbados, with an exciting new route linking London to the Caribbean,” he said.
“The rally began in London in July; however, this stage of the rally began from the Cape Verde Islands in Africa on November 9, with the first yacht arriving here on November 20. To date, 25 of the yachts have arrived thus far, and are moored at the inner basin.
“What is significant about this rally is that we have a lot of families engaged in it. The first boat that came in had a mixture of both crew and family members, and there are family members who are following along as the yachts call to port,” Gilkes said.
On this leg of the rally Barbados was the first port of call and at the end on December 31, the sailors will leave Barbados and continue on their Atlantic tour, he said.
“There is another batch set to arrive on December 8. A lot of these yachts are crossing the Atlantic for the first time and this is a start of a world adventure for some of the [sailors]. In some instances some of them have taken three years off from work, sold everything and started their journey around the world,” Gilkes said.
“After they leave here in mid-January they would go on to other Caribbean territories such as Martinique, Grenada, St Vincent and Trinidad and Tobago.” (RA)
