Husband and wife round-the-world sailors Pat and Olivia Murphy have been awarded the prestigious Spirit of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) trophy for their role as radio controllers in the largest ever ARC rally. The award was presented to them as the ARC fleet gathered to celebrate Christmas on the Caribbean island of St Lucia, their second port of call since leaving Ireland last July on a four-year round the world trip on their 43 ft yacht, Aldebaran.
The ARC is the biggest transocean event in the world and one of the most exciting, taking hundreds of yachtsmen every year from Europe to the Caribbean. During the rally, daily fleet positions are maintained by Single Side Band (SSB) radio and the Murphys played a leading role in collating position reports that were sent on to the ARC office in Cowes, Isle of Wight, by satellite, and displayed on the ARC website as a map and distance table each day.
Murphy says the SSB radio was one of the best pieces of equipment aboard Aldebaran on the 23-day crossing from Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.
"We had regular chats at various times and the daily roll call was one of the highlights of the day." It was also the SSB which ensured in mid-Atlantic the rescue after 16 hours in the water of the Norwegian skipper of a boat which the ARC would not accept as an entry because it did not meet its safety standards.
The normal north-east trade winds were non-existent until 500 miles from St Lucia. They had very light winds from all directions including from the south-west, which meant they spent some time, quite unusually close-hauled.
For the cruising division this meant a lot of motoring, resulting in a shortage of fuel for many boats including the Irish one. Then 800 miles from St Lucia they got an early Christmas present in the form of 100 litres of fuel from Duchess, another ARC competitor.
During the transfer via cans and an inflatable tender there was not a breath of wind. The Murphys went swimming and cleaned all the growth from Aldebaran's waterline.
The award, for their encompassment of the spirit of the rally, was a popular decision among the fleet of 200 boats. Pat was stuck for words at the presentation ceremony and found it difficult to make even a short, emotional speech.
Murphy, a leading Irish yacht chandler, usually takes a swim on Christmas morning to raise funds for the Clontarf Branch of the RNLI and this year was no exception except for the location, of course. He took his 1999 dip in Rodney Bay, St Lucia, some 5,238 miles from Clontarf.
Their yacht performed above expectations on the 2,700-mile crossing, with damage being limited to a snatch block on the deck.
Progress on the Murphys' round the world trip can be viewed at their sponsors' website: www.vhi.ie
