 The curtains have come down on the 31st edition of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, with organisers and participants satisfied with the staging of the nautical competition amid the challenges of COVID-19. Jesse Laos reports. Events company St Lucia and the St Lucia Tourism Authority brought to the ARC Plus 2020 cruise together to mark the end of their six-week long ocean adventure with a special prize-giving ceremony held at the IGY Rodney Bay Marina. Visiting the stage to collect prizes included those who sailed quickly and tactically. Astelwego from Great Britain claimed line honours for leg two from Mindello to Rodney Bay and on corrected time River Café from Luxembourg topped the multi-hull division and Bohemian from Norway placed first in the cruising division. The smallest boat in the fleet Parker 335 to Huwabohu from Germany covered the well-navigated shortest distance of 2,092.5 nautical miles, whilst TYPR3 from France, a Benito Oceanis 51.1, sailed the most miles of 2,326 nautical miles. Special awards were also given to the six yachts sailed by a double-handed crew and the SSB Net controllers who have been at the heart of the ocean crossing community by running the daily radio net. The fleet's adventures have been followed by thousands of fans and this year the best boat log photo went to Cloudy Bay from Norway for sharing a beautiful picture of a magnificent blue marlin which was released shortly after the picture was taken. Best overall log went to Dave Bishop on Tohuwahabu who described their story of how they asked and received fuel in the middle of the Atlantic from a 130-mile tanker. Each year a special crew or individual is identified to receive the Arc Plus Spirit of the Rally award. Chosen by the World Cruising Club Yellow Shirt Team, it is presented to someone who has significantly contributed to their fellow participants' experience and this year it was actions in port that were recognized. Prior to departure from Mindello delays with PCR tests caused problems for the fleet's departure and Anders and Guinea Ilman from the Yacht Idaalier II from Sweden were able to share their knowledge, commitment and connections to assist with resolving the situation. Andrew Bishop, managing director of World Cruising Club was unable to attend this year but sent a message of congratulations and thanks to all the fleet and organizers of the Rally. It's a great pleasure to know that all of you have safely arrived in St Lucia and are now about to enjoy an evening to celebrate your fantastic achievement of crossing the Atlantic this November and December with Arc Plus. Thank you for choosing to sail with us this year in these particularly difficult times and I hope now that you can enjoy some time in the Caribbean. Via video message Minister for Tourism Honourable Dominic Ferri commended the participants on their ocean crossing achievements and expressed gratitude to the fleet for contributing to St Lucia. Congratulations to all of you for making the journey. I mean it really is special to brave your way across the Atlantic. I can never get over this. One of these days I've been promising I need to try take a sail but thank you guys so much for contributing to St Lucia's economy contributing to St Lucia's tourism and we're very very excited to have you here and really hope you're having a great time. The Arc Plus 2020 prize giving ceremony was held in full adherence to COVID-19 protocols on Seed Dark of the Marina with an 80-foot catamaran gold tangle providing a platform to host the proceedings. For the government information service I am Jesse Leigh-Anne's reporting.