Our journey

So, we want to sail around the world, to many this may seem like a crazy idea but to us this felt like the ultimate objective of working so hard. Both of us like to travel and had done a fair amount in a more conventional manner: the old trains, planes and automobiles thing.
In Nick's case he had travelled extensively on business, but like most business travelers while the destination might have sounded exciting, the reality was that the trip typically consisted of a flight, an airport, a nice hotel, a dinner and meeting and then home. Rarely did he ever get a chance to see the sights or experience the true culture of where he was staying. Fran on the other hand had taken every opportunity to see the world, which included most of Europe, backpacking through Australia and living and traveling around N. America again using the more traditional forms of transport. As we reviewed our experiences and added to these the effects of 9/11 had on traditional travel and the idea of a boat seemed to become more and more appealing. 

 

We had some experience of sailing and frankly thought the whole experience was absolutely amazing. There is something about using the power of nature to propel you forward, with or against the direction of the wind at little or no cost, but it was more than this, the advantages seemed endless, for example:

 

• You can travel with far more of your personal belongings than you ever could traveling by car or plane 

• You can reach locations land bound travelers only dream of, that private beach or the inaccessible cove, even an uninhabited island 

• You have the best accommodation in the world. How many people staying in 5-star hotels look out of their room at the yacht moored off the beach and wish they were on the boat, your boat!

• You are not bound by someone else’s schedule (airline schedules or train timetables), no missed connections, no lies from airline staff about weather delays when you know they simply don’t want to fly an empty plane. Or even worse, getting booted off your flight, because they over sold it.  

• If you want to stay longer, you can 

• If you want to leave early you can 

 

Sure, there are challenges, but man has been sailing the oceans for centuries maybe even millennia. Today’s boats are/ can be equipped with satellite communications, global positioning (GPS), water makers, generators, refrigerators and freezers, EPIRB, VHF radio. You can even watch the Superbowl in the Mid-Atlantic if you were so inclined. Laura Decker sailed around the world single handed in 518 days at the age of 16 on a 40ft ketch named Guppy. Laura is unquestionably a remarkable person, but I guess what we are trying to say is that if you want to, sailing round the world today is something most people can do if they really want to.