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University days.

As a mature student, well in age anyway, I found myself in halls of residence with a fantastic crowd who were all keen sports enthusiasts. Over the time at Uni I found myself playing football, golf and a number of racket sports for my Hall, and during the long periods of recess a group of us would go down to either Cornwall or Wales to surf or sail – both wind and dinghy. Not being an accomplished windsurfer, many times I would be found dragging the board hundreds of yards back to my starting point. However sailing up and down the Camel estuary I would intentionally try to capsize the Laser dinghy with the thought of getting my passenger flying out from the stern of the boat, something she did magnificently well on her own when we were sailing at Windsford Flash lake and their club captain had ‘demanded’ that the boat come to shore as they were starting the races for the day. The picture of her ending up in the water while the dinghy went half way up the shore remains with me to this day. My only experience of getting into larger boats / yachts came when her father offered to take us over to France in his yacht. We all duly set off from their house in Exmouth, got to the boat and sat waiting for the tide to turn so there was sufficient water below the keel for us to leave. While waiting the shipping forecast was heard and all plans were soon put on hold. Gale force winds were imminent and, with an inexperience crew, me, it was decided to wait until the forecast improved. Back to the shore, house and a few drinks. The following day the weather seemed to improve so we returned to the yacht and set off, not for France but to Torbay. Yes, the weather had improved but it was still blowing a good 6. The main sail was fully reefed and it was quite an experience getting into the harbour at Torbay. A good sleep and the return leg were made under engine power. Hardly a drop of wind all the way back. So, it was decided, I would take up sailing.

 
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The circumnavigation.

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My journey started in June 2018 when I left Preveza, Greece, in my Bavaria37C, a monohull bound for Gibraltar. I had decided to cross the Atlantic with the ARC and had declared that Gibraltar would be my stepping point in order to prepare the boat for this passage. I had ordered a Hydrovane self steering mechanism to complement my autopilot. I also ordered a water maker as I thought that with four crew on board and only holding 300 litres of water, I would need to make some during the trip. The person I had asked to carry out this work was, let’s say, rather slow, cut corners and, to be honest, never finished the work. An ongoing project between Gibraltar and Cape Verde. From Cape Verde we sailed with the ARC to St. Lucia. The boat was left on the hard in St. Lucia over the winter of 2018 before I sailed her back to Greece in 2019. At that point I knew I wanted to go further but needed to think about the type of boat required to sail round the world. At this point I decided that a catamaran would be the best type of boat for this passage so sold my Bavaria and bought a Lagoon 380 S2. The boat was based in St Martin so it was sailed from there down to Trinidad in May / June 2022. It was left there for quite a bit of work to be carried out before setting off again in January / February 2023. Leaving Trinidad to head through the Panama Canal across the Pacific I left my last crew member in Bora Bora. From there I sailed solo up to Sri Lanka where the boat was left once more over winter. In January 2024 I will return to Sri Lanka to complete the last leg of the circumnavigation, heading up the Red Sea, through the Suez Canal and back into the Mediterranean. All of the daily blogs have been written and placed on my website.

The legs

Greece to St. Lucia via Gibraltar, Gran Canaria and Cape Verde.

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St Martin to Trinidad.

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Trinidad to Sri Lanka.

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Sri Lanka to Greece.

Change of Boats

In order to complete the circumnavigation I had decided that a 'larger' boat was needed. Not necessarily in length but wider, a catamaran. Also my old boat only had one heads (toilet) and a second was required. So, from a monohull, a Bavaria 37 Cruiser a Lagoon 380 S2 was bought.

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