As participants in this year’s Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) were engaged in live flare firing practice on the end of the breakwater, I bumped into one couple from Germany who have ambitions to take part in the ‘friendly race’ in two years’ time – ARC 2010.

Julita and Miro Czajkowski (pronounced Tchaikovsky) have dedicated the second week of their two-week holiday in Gran Canaria to staying in Las Palmas for the start of the ARC.

‘We wanted a holiday and we wanted to see what we might be getting ourselves involved in – so we combined the two,’ said Miro.

They have just sold their 30ft cruiser and are saving hard to get a 38ft catamaran to fulfil their dream of sailing around the world. They anticipate crossing the Atlantic with the ARC 2010. They have spent many holidays chartering on catamarans and are sure that it’s the right boat to get across to the Caribbean.

‘We probably won’t get one in Germany,’ Miro told me. ‘We have been looking around in Gran Canaria, though, and seen nothing. I think we are going to visit Miami next year and look at catamarans there, although if we bought one there, I suppose we wouldn’t do the ARC, we’d just keep sailing west.’

The couple are originally from the island of Uznam on the German Polish border where they both learned to sail in dinghies. Miro has completed one previous ocean passage as skipper delivering a yacht from the Azores to Germany via the UK and has yacht skipper certificates from Poland and Germany.

The 23rd ARC starts on Sunday 23 November, finishing in St Lucia between three and four weeks later.