We are a family of four British / Australians who up until recently called Melbourne, Australia home. Alex is a keen sailor and the rest of the family love a good adventure and as a family we have sailed the Bay of Islands, New Zealand and the Whitsunday Islands in Australia (twice) on charter yachts.
Alex spent two of his teenage years cruising the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and the East coast of the USA and crossing the Atlantic Ocean while being home schooled by his parents on their Westerly Oceanlord 41, Thaisa. This gave him a love of the ocean and sailing that has stayed with him his entire life.
Charlotte’s Dad used to work in the Merchant Navy on ships that would travel between the UK and New Zealand and throughout the Pacific Islands. From his nautical tales Charlotte always wondered what it would be like to transit the Panama Canal and visit some of the more remote Pacific Islands.
The idea to set off on our journey was spawned during a 120 day Covid lockdown in mid 2020. I’m sure the fact we were prohibited from travelling more than 5km from our home for months on end would have contributed to our grand plans to explore the world once it opened up again.
Our initial plan was to buy a boat in Australia, cruise to New Zealand and then up to French Polynesia and back through the South Pacific to Australia as our good friends the Carters had done before us. The down side of this plan was two very challenging passages early in our journey, a week long crossing of the Tasman Sea and a 3 week sail through the Roaring Forties to Tahiti. Plus, we both wanted to experience the Panama Canal and the Galapagos Islands which wouldn’t be possible on this route. An alternative plan to buy a boat in either Europe, USA or Caribbean started to gather momentum.
Fast forward 12 months and we became the rather nervous owners of a boat we’d never seen located in a country we’d never been to while living in a country that was prohibiting its citizens from leaving. Gulp!
Our plan is for Alex to pick up the boat in Panama, deliver it to Florida with his cousin Tom at the end of the 2021 hurricane season and then meet Charlotte, Hugo and Jasmine there for the start of our adventure. Over the course of 12 months, we plan to sail through the Bahamas as a bit of a shake down cruise, hop across to Panama, transit the canal and then sail to the Galapagos Islands and follow the traditional “coconut run” through the South Pacific all the way back to Australia entering at Lord Howe Island and finishing our journey in Sydney Harbour.
Well that’s the plan anyway!
Sailing Kilauea 