Pura vida...Evita's voyage to the Seven Seas

Some 40 miles north of Santo Antao in the Cape Verde Islands, on the first night of our passage to Horta, we crossed the track in the sea that we had laid down back in December 2010 and completed our circumnavigation.

Since leaving the UK earlier that year, we have put 36,000 miles under Evita's keel, in a little over three years on the boat. By comparison with many of the other boats we have met along the way, three years is a short time in which to go all the way around - the Vendee boats of course do it in around 70 days but that's a different game. Amongst the cruising fraternity six years is more the norm. In all we have spent 257 nights at sea, which, if we are comparing to races, is of a similar order of magnitude to the time taken by Robin Knox Johnson on his circumnavigation back in the 1960s; he of course was alone on his boat, sailed the Southern Ocean and didn't stop so that also is not really comparable either. We, on the other hand, have stopped 270 times, in 33 different countries or territories in 5 continents and 3 oceans, and while there left the boat and visited another 6 countries. Eva and I, who still carry the same passports we had when we left, are relieved to be back in Europe as we have been struggling to find spaces for stamps the last few times we have stopped.

For the analytical, the vital statistics are:

Miles logged: 35,947
Time spent underway: 301 days, 3 hours
Proportion of time sailing: 64%
Average speed: 5.0 knots
Longest passage: 2,956 miles; Galapagos to Marquesas
Number of passages over 1,000 miles: 8, of which 3 were over 2,000 miles
Best 24 hour mileage: 178 miles; between East London & Mossel Bay, South Africa (current assisted)
Worst 24 hour mileage: 40 miles; day 4 Panama to Galapagos, stuck in the Doldrums with engine problems
Nights on passage: 262
Nights at anchor: 413 in 188 places
Nights moored: 92 in 13 places
Nights in marinas: 359 in 40 places
Nights on shore: 86
Ocean crossed: 5 - Atlantic 3 times, Pacific, Indian
Great Capes rounded: 1 (2 left for next time!)
Countries/territories visited: 39 - France, Spain, Portugal, St Lucia, Martinique, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Grenada, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador (Galapagos), French Polynesia (Marques Islands, Tuamotus, Society Islands), Cook Islands, Niue, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore*, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos*, Cambodia*, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Chagos, Mauritius, Reunion, Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa, Botswana*, Zimbabwe*, Namibia*, St Helena, Brazil, Cabo Verde (*visited only by land).
Number of times the watermaker failed: 4
Number of other mechanical/technical problems: too many (more of this in a subsequent post)

The stats are of course not the real story. That is found in the places and the people and the unique and unforgettable experiences thrown at us by this amazing way of life. And to have done it all together, as a shared endeavour; the contrast to normal family life (in our case as least) where everybody is busy, everybody has their own activities, and time doing stuff together is limited, could not be more stark. I reckon we probably had more of what is commonly labelled "quality time" in these three years than most families have through the entire childhood of their kids. I have to admit that there have been times (quite a few of them) where the quality was not high and the urge to throw one or the other of the crew members overboard had to be suppressed - and no doubt the captain was the object of such urges at times too - but in hindsight those moments fade away to insignificance.

As for highlights, rather than it just being my opinions, we asked each crew members to describe their own highs and lows of the adventure, and here they are:

Favourite places:

Eva:
Chagos, "because the fishing was fun and so was running around on the beach getting nibbled by crabs"
Southern Africa, "because I liked watching lions eat an elephant and impalas springing"
Hoga, Indonesia, "because I like swimming and having the fear of sitting on a sandfish. The underwater world is amazing."

Oskar:
Chobe National Park, Botswana, "because of the pure isolation and wilderness that I will remember for the duration of my life"
Rio de Janeiro, "which struck me with its floury beaches and wonderful views"
Nosy Hara, Madagascar, "which marked my memory with its lovely hikes and smashing waters"

Raul:
Indonesia, "for its culture, food, diving, history and monuments (Borubudur, Prambanan)"
Sri Lanka, "for its food, culture, scenery, history and religion"
Madagascar, "for its people, culture, art and scenery"

Paula:
Madagascar; "a place so close to nature with an uncomplicated way of life"
San Blas Islands, Panama; "felt like discovering an untouched civilisation from 100 years ago"
Indonesia; "utterly exotic. One of the few places we have been where language was a barrier, but the people make up for that. The only place where we ever got the feeling of being the only sailors."
Sri Lanka; "for culture, history, religion"
Marques Islands, French Polynesia; "first glimpse of the amazing South Pacific Islands, its people so foreign to us."

Ian:
Chagos; "a unique opportunity to live in a watery wilderness for a month"
Madagascar; "wild, natural and warm people"
Marques Islands, French Polynesia; "lush, fertile islands that provided us with our most spectacular landfall after 3,000 miles of ocean"
Indonesia; "huge, varied, beautiful and exotic, and still with unspoiled places"
Fakarava, Tuamotus, French Polynesia; "a coral atoll with the most spectacular underwater life I have ever seen"

So, in the straw poll, the winners were Madagascar and Indonesia with four votes, followed by Sri Lanka, Chagos, southern Africa and the Marquesas each with two. It has to be said that the places we went to on our first trip didn't get much of a chance, as the kids' memories didn't go back that far!

The other thing that was interesting was the highs and lows:
Eva; "I most liked learning different ways of life in the places we visited and swimming in tropical waters. I least liked the toilet on the boat" (and she shared ours not the boys' one!)
Oskar; "I most liked the fun and suspense of fishing and learning exotic languages. I did not like seeing the suffering of the poor people we saw in many places."
Raul; "My positives were absorbing and learning about the culture, history and way of life in a diverse range of exotic environments, visiting such beautiful places, sailing and opening up my eyes to the poverty in which many people live and the realisation of how lucky I am. Negatives were that there was never enough time, that we spent too much time motoring in light or no wind, and missing family at home."
Paula; "I most liked being able to reach such amazing faraway places and to meet people from all walks of life. In the end it is not the scenery, the remoteness or the beauty of the place; it is always the people that make the journey. They are what makes the difference. Biggest downsides were having to teach three wonderful, but very different, kids on a boat, and living in a permanent state of fear on most passages."
Ian; for me the best is all about the sense of freedom to go and do what you want, (weather permitting) when you want and where you want, and to have the time to absorb the surroundings. And to spend all this time in such beautiful, and normally hard to get to, places - both on land and on the ocean - and to live a life whose rhythm is determined by nature - essentially weather - rather than any other human imposed deadlines. No day is ever the same as the day before. The downsides: number one has been the number of technical breakdowns, which are part and parcel of the enterprise but do prevent us doing what we really came here to do. And, slightly contradicting my earlier positive, to feel like we are always rushing. There is always a short term (i.e. within year) timetable set by weather patterns, but maybe this feeling comes about from being with other sailors with much more time than we have allowed ourselves. And maybe it is more intense at the moment because we have been up against the wire on our timing to get back to Europe this year.

And what next? How do you go back to living reality when you've lived your dream? I don't think I have an answer to that. It's not to say that there aren't any more dreams to go for, and not to say that they don't involve sailing either (Patagonia springs to mind). Soon, however, Evita will be allowed to have a rest, the kids will go back to more conventional schooling, which they are all quite excited about, we will return to our life in London to work out what the next challenge will be. But for the immediate future, we are still out here in the ocean, and there are still miles to sail....