Two years ago my friend and mentor Tony died. He had cancer and decided not to take any treatment. My Dad Steve was friends with Tony for years and met through the flying world. When I was about 5, my Dad, Tony, and another family all bought a yacht together so that they could do their sailing qualifications and take family and friends sailing around Brixham and Dartmouth. Tony decided to go sailing around the world 15 years ago, so both families sold their share to Tony. Over the years we managed to sail with Tony. When he died we found out he had left Cariad for me in his will. The crazy chap.
Tony is the one on the left, then my Dad, me, my brother Dan and my mum Mary back in 2012 cruising with Tony on Cariad.
Tony going around the world!
This happened in Nov 2019, so Al and I planned and booked to fly out to the Caribbean where Tony had set up a life for himself and Cariad in March 2020. Yep, you guessed it...COVID hit and we were locked down. We didn't try in 2021 as we knew numbers would be high again after Christmas. So here we are in 2022 getting ready to fly out to Grenada and then catch a ferry to Carriacou. So the plan is to get out to the Caribbean and do a major refit. Al's Uncle Pete is flying out with Al in early Feb to help smash out part of the refit - legend. I'm flying out a week after that to give us an over lap because Al is doing two big expeds this year, the second one where in May he is climbing the Cassin on Denali in Alaska with our pal Ali Rose.
Then if all is good and safe to go we will be setting off to Antigua in early April to do a big shakedown and test everything. We are then picking up our crew and pal for the first leg Harry!! We will then stock up with anything else we need in Antigua, then set off to the Azores for an exploration and holiday.
My parents might come and say hey in the Azores, oh to be retired. With our extended leave (I have built up lots of leave over two years) Harry is then flying home and pal Emily Mulligan is flying in! Epic! If Al is getting stuck on time here if we get delayed, Al will also be flying home to go on his next exped. Then Azores back to the UK via Ireland to drop off Emily and swap her with my Dad and then sail Cariad back to Glencoe where there is a mooring waiting for us!
Tony had a great friend called Paul who we got to know the last time we were out there, luckily he knows Cariad and is a surveyor so is helping us start the refit whilst we are stuck in the UK waiting to fly out. Cariad is out of the water, her hull has been pressure washed and an engineer Jeorg has checked out the engine.
Cariad's rigging has been taken off and is being replaced. Yep, most of my savings are being used on this! When me and Al sold Yacht Xarifa (Sadler 25) that we used to own together (2017-2020) when I moved to Scotland and lived on her we are psyhed that Cariad is a Sadler 34 so the same make and big enough to stand up in woo. Al owns a percentage of Cariad so any work we are doing on her we are splitting on this epic adventure.
After all of this planning, I hope it all comes together and that we can leave the Caribbean and try and bring her home to Glencoe/Ballachulish and I will be smiling like in this picture!
We have had some epic spreadsheets, reading, and advice the last few years of planning this trip.
I can't go across the Atlantic without measuring something scientific. So after a great conversation with Laura who runs weswimwild and who I have been a waterlogger with and a microplastic "consultant" for the past two years, she has kindly donated some sampling kit...hopefully we don't find too much! The best bit is, is that I sampled from Glencoe source last year, so bringing Cariad back from the Caribbean to Glencoe we are going sea to source!!
Keeping in touch!
I will try and update this blog when I can! When we are on the two big crossings we will have a satphone which we will be using to track the weather and come up with some good routing. If you want to get in touch and email us a short message we will send out the email address nearer the time. The Fenton's have kindly let us borrow the RowAround Scotland spot tracker, so hopefully every day I will be updating our position from April! Thanks also to Goch for giving us loads of advice and helping us to buy some kit and also to Highwatersails who have given us some sail offcuts and other bits and pieces.
Two skippers on a boat ...who are a couple...this is going to be some experience!! Don't worry we are going to be smiling just like this photo I am sure. :)
