Monday 9th Feb and it’s a start of another weeks intensive training for the Arona team as they plan to set sail once again towards the island of Gran Canaria, with the birds safely on board the Fred Olsen ferry heading east for a liberation approx25 nautical miles from the Tenerife coastline, the whole flight home for the 1,520 entrants is estimated total of 85 km.

With the island forecast reporting broken cloud and temperatures estimated to be around19 degrees on liberation the pigeons were released at 09.30 into a light east north easterly wind.

With everything prepared at the lofts ,both the Arona team and participants began the wait for the first sightings of the pigeons on their approach and it was shortly after the hour marker that the first batch pitched the landing board and swiftly entered the trapping compartment.

Marcel Sanger 1st international sea race 4

The leading pigeon for this race was the well known Netherlands fancier Marcel Sangers with his entry street kop timing in at 10.23.42.65 the winning pigeon is a chew tic eyed hen which was also in first position in qualification training race 4 in the early stages of the campaign ,this result takes the winning pigeon into 107th position within the country averages and 1039thoverall,2nd position and the second arrival for team Netherlands goes to the winner of 1st place in sea race one for team Comb Mekes Van Boxmeer at10.23.43.70,3rd,team Germany takes 3rd with mariposa entered by Eric Muller on10.23.47.30,Alono Giovanni Ghiacci for team Italy, and Alenka takes 4th position at 10.23.47.35,5th is pigeon pompom, for team Reiss and Pfeiffer from Germany on 10.23.48.40,6th were team Dickmann Stroetges with the third Netherlands arrival and their pigeon Toronto at 10.23.48.90,7th position goes to the first uk/Ireland entry for team Gosling and Jarvis with pigeon riri,on10.23.48.95,8th goes to the Belgium fancier Vos Mertens and his pigeon wangotango 10.23.49.05,closelly followed by Horst Hein with his pigeon horst 55 in8th, which has been amongst the leading batches in past week on this occasion recording a time of 10.23.49.25,finishing off with 10th going to the Dutch team and team R Van Oss en zon on 10.23.49.70 with pigeon oggy.

1st UK /Ireland 7th international team gosling and Jarvis

So once again the leading pigeons made light work of the journey home ,but like all the sea races in the past there are the casualties as one or two could clearly be seen to have a taken a knock ,maybe this is down to hawk strikes on route or by simply striking wires etc ,however once again from the initial1,520 liberated the loft were still short of some 200 pigeons by night fall recording a percentage rate 87.2% of ,but with this being the 4th sea liberation there was hope that some of these would arrive throughout the following days.

With the weather reported to be closing in over the canary islands over the next few days once again the Arona team brought forward the next race by 24 hours to try and complete sea training race 5 before poor conditions effected the area ,with the 1,301 pigeons that completed race 4 re-basked ,they were once again on their way for a planned liberation from an approx distance of 95klm ,with the pigeons being released so far out to sea it was becoming obvious now that the pigeons had the option of heading towards Gran Canaria now which was much closer than Tenerife and there was always a fear that the pigeons would head for there, rather than look out over the horizon towards Tenerife ,anyhow with the liberation taking place at 09.40 we all eagerly awaited the news from the conveyors as to which way the birds would eventually head after liberation and this was pleasing to know that the main batches could clearly be seen after orientating and slowly making their way towards home.

Once against the home end the usual banter was present amongst the fanciers who logged into the live stream to watch the outcome of the race and everyone was hopeful for yet another successful result.

Francisco Gutierrez 1st Sea race 5

The winning pigeon of sea race 5 was the Seville entry Bernadette for Francisco Gutierrez timing in at 10.47.00 to record its first podium position , this pigeon hasn’t been to far away on numerous occasions in the past weeks with various positions within the first few hundreds ,2nd place is team Matthias Sprang for team Germany with one timing in just behind the winner at 10.47.00.10,3rd is Alexandra Gebel with one of his entries Atlantic 583 on 10.47.02.55,4th were team De Jong and zn with marrit at 10.47.03.75 5th ,was the Czech Republic entry Paris which the first initial training race plus many high profiled positions for team Lubomir Kubacek on 10.47.06.05 ,6th place goes to one of the unactivated pigeons on 10.46.06.25,7th goes to the EEUU entrant aliana for team Marian Taloi from Portland Origin at 10.47.10.45,closely followed by the Netherlands team of Dickman ,Stroetges once again amongst the first batch with their entry Rom timing in 8th at 10.47.11.30 , 9th position goes to team LaroErin and Devis with their pigeon milly on 10.47.12.45 and completing the top ten were the Maltese team of Victory lofts Malta with victory Joanne recording time of 10.47.15.75 for the 1st uk / Ireland pigeon we go down to 13th position for pigeon sir Morgan entered by the distinguished gentleman of the north for team Wales.

Sir Morgan1st uk/Ireland 13th international

So with just one more sea race to overcome in the next few days our biggest fear in sea race five seemed to have been justified as at the close of day just 995 pigeons we rerecorded out of the total entry of 1301 indicating that some 300 + pigeons are deemed to have made the wrong decision and possibly headed in the wrong direction ,but with so many pigeons adrift we assume the lofts will be busy throughout the following day as some take on the challenge of crossing over ,these then may surely be the pigeons to look out for in the forthcoming survival race as they have already conquered their fears by braving the island crossing on their own.

Thursday12th Feb. and the Arona team have reached the island of Gran Canaria with 1.071pigeons remaining within the competition ,with the vessel approaching Gran Canaria harbor the pigeons were now within touching distance of land (Gran Canaria) and in front of them was the island of Tenerife clearly visible on the horizon ,as the vessel reduced power to dock the strings were cut at 09.40 into a 20klmnortherly wind and a slightly overcast sky ,shortly after liberation the main bunch seemed to a make there way further out to sea ,and at the home end, the wait began and after completing five recent sea races successfully with fairly good returns, the wait began full of expectation, it could clearly be seen as we waited the skies were slowly filling in with dark clouds which last a while before brightening up as the wait went on ,it wasn’t until 1 hour 35 min after liberation that TheFirst arrival landed at the lofts ,this was a Netherlands entry for team Anton Van Oort with his entry garra 1 timing in at 11.11.06.55

Team Anton Van Oort 1st international sea race 6th

As a result of knowing the pigeons were about ,we were keen to spot the main bunches as they arrived like in previous training races ,unfortunately this wasn’t to beas it was a clear five minutes later when another solo pigeon returned to take2nd place for team Netherlands with team Sky raiders pigeon Jacky timing in at11.16.57.20 ,and still the wait went considering a release of 1.071 pigeons just the two pigeons had returned, at this most had feared the worst ,three minutes then past before the next arrivals were recorded these were for team Italia in third place with wiske entered by team Elena Camagni at 11.19.08.45 followed by 4th place going to a third arrival for Dutch team with raffa entered by teaseled Ellenbroek 11.19.32.45

it was further six minutes when a number of pigeons landed in a small group and the expectations were once again lifted as most expected a few pigeons had broken away from the release and headed straight for home whilst the remaining pigeons orientated their way home in larger numbers, leading these arrivals was the Netherlands entry Ander yen for last year double car winning entrant Hok M.Reijnen at 11.26.07.00.

Team Christmas and hunter 1st UK 6th international sea race 6

6th place goes to the first uk/Ireland entry for team Christmas and Hunter with charismas sparkle returning to the its leading form from the first few training races timing in at 11.26.10.30,7th and 2nd arrival is Hok M.Reijnen with his pigeon named „I’m not joking“ timing in on 11.26.11.25 ,8th like in previous races it’s a non activated pigeon so no honors are recorded for this brave performance ,9th is Tokyo for the Czech Republic team of Lubomir Kubacek11.26.12.20,and rounding off the top ten is yest another Dutch pigeon this time for team De Jong and zn with marrit timing in at 11.26.12.60

With the top pigeons announced we awaited to see how the remainder of the convoy would return and its fairly clear to be seen that the pigeons had struggled to overcome the fear of such a wide open space of water as they made their way back throughout the day one by one, and at night fall there was only 278 pigeon from 1.071 safely perched, so what was The cause of this..we may well ask ,the answer is simply no one knows , in defense of the Arona team as we all know Tenerife is an island and once the inland training has been done there is only one way they can go to get any distance on the pigeon and tats out to and across the sea to Gran Canaria.

This year the pigeons have been trained harder and more regular than previous years and the results have been rewarding and there no doubting the condition and health of the pigeons that could warrant such poor returns ,so all we can put it down to is the stretch of water between the two islands which most of the pigeons fear to cross after liberation and throughout the day ,Friday morning and as the day opened we were still hopeful for more pigeon as a few more pigeons braved the crossing and returned home ,however upon writing this up out of the initial convoy only 366 pigeons have since been recorded home, a sad day as we say for both entrants and pigeons and of course the Arona derby organization to overcome.. Always remember the Arona one loft race is described as the hardest one loft race in the world for a reason!!!!

So the next stage of the series is to return to Gran Canaria for what is described as the “Survival Race CAR RACE-1″ next weekend, when hopefully the remaining pigeons have overcome their fears and make the journey across without hesitation.

Looking forward to future weeks there’s still three hotspot races to cover come where once again 1st prize in each of these events the winner will receive a new cars advertised then following on from there it’s finals week when there’s the guaranteed, 1st prize of 50,000 euro to the first pigeon that crosses the finishing line,, so good luck to those who still have pigeons remaining within the competition

Presentation/ Gala evening

Tickets for the gala evening are now available for the price of 55 euro per person and are available from the Arona organization details are available via the website at www.derbyatlantic.com

Race Results: http://www.derbyatlantic.com/resultadosderby2015/allresults.htm

Tom harris