Our first year afloat

After many years of planning and preparation, Sunday 4^th July 2021, saw us finally leave Fox’s Marina (Ipswich, UK) and begin our big adventure. This post is a very brief summary of our first year – please check out the older posts for more information and plenty of photos.

Heading south from Harwich, we sailed across the mouth of the Thames estuary and followed the coastline past Ramsgate and Dover. Turning west, we made our way along the south coast, stopping in Eastbourne and the Solent, before heading to Portland Bill. A few days of waiting here and the weather was right for our first Channel crossing to Jersey via the Aldernay Race. From Jersey, it was a long passage around Cape Finisterre and across the notorious Bay of Biscay to make land fall in NW Spain at A Coruna, gateway to the stunning Spanish Rias.

Spending a month in the Spanish Rias, we eventually managed to tear ourselves away and headed south along the Atlantic coast of Portugal. A longer than expected stop in Povoa de Varzim, meant that, from here, we headed straight to the Canary Islands. Our longest passage yet of just over 6 days at sea. Here things started to get serious. We joined another 70+ boats getting ready to start the ARC+ – a rally from Las Palmas (Canary Islands) to Grenada via Cape Verde. Provisioning and boat prep filled our days and get togethers with new friends filled our evenings. Sunday 7th November 2021 was grey and blustery as we made a brisk start towards Cape Verde.

After a passage of almost 7 days, we arrived safely in Mindelo and had a few days to re-provision and sightsee before heading across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. This took us just over 16 days and 2295 nautical miles, we finally made landfall in Grenada on Sunday 5th December 2021. Here we joined our new found friends to celebrate our achievements with several ice cold rum punches.

It took a few days to recover from the passage and then our Caribbean adventures began. The next six months were spent cruising the beautiful islands between Grenada and Antigua and Barbuda.

During the first year of our journey, we have travelled 6,600 nautical miles, visiting over twenty islands in eleven different countries. Throughout this time, we have learnt a lot about ourselves and our capacity to meet new challenges. We have got to know our home, the amazing Escapade of London and become much better sailors. We have seen amazing sights of lush rainforests, towering volcanoes, beautiful beaches and rugged coastlines. We have seen fascinating creatures both above and below the water.

Most importantly, we have met hundreds of people from all over the world. People who have welcomed us, shared their worlds with us and many of whom will be friends for life.

All of this in one year!

We hope that you have enjoyed following our travels so far and will continue to come with us as we journey from the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal and into the Pacific! The journey continues….