Why wouldn't you want to sail around the world? Taking the leap!

Well this is something of a trick question as I can't think of many reasons you wouldn't want to travel around the world, on a boat, bicycle, electric plane or on foot if you have the chance, well maybe except for one - Fear.

Fear of the unknown; uncertainty about the lack of job security and income; the strangeness leaving the comfort and security of the 'system' that we are all so used to (but probably don't like to admit it); nervousness about how your relationship will survive and hopefully thrive, worry about family and missing out and leaving friends behind. This is all without mentioning the fear - often inherent for many people - of the hazards of a circumnavigation: boat-crushing waves, hurricane-force winds, broken, sinking boats, rogue whales (!), pirates, murder, drowning, sharks and many more besides put people off the idea of living aboard a yacht, some of these being carrying more truth based in fact than others. Still here? Then you may have balanced things up in the same way we have…

Believing you don’t have what it takes - finances, skills or

This was our number one fear, we didn’t think we had the finances (yachts are millions of dollars, right?), the knowledge (we didn’t know a halyard from a shroud at the start), the jobs (remote working requires mega expensive satellites right?) or in fact, almost anything you need to attain this lifestyle. However, in 2019, as the pandemic started to gain a vice like grip over all our lives, we started to daydream about what else was out there, like many others. Reading the news rampantly we were inspired by the story of Sailing Kittiwake, who took to the seas on a boat that cost them just £12,000 and a lot of elbow grease.

The belief that you don’t have the skills or the finances to get a boat might be true for you now, but with a little careful planning, patience and effort we have found that in fact anything is possible, or so we hope as we enter the final stretch in the process of buying a boat, the last year of saving!

A side note on skills - we have watched a LOT of sailing videos by now and what we have discovered is that almost any skill, nautical or otherwise, can provide a useful skill for your future life aboard. Gone with the Wynns, one of the most popular accounts on YT are professional videographers and have put these skills to good use in their vlogging channel, Sailing Britaly’s Chris is a former RAF engineer by trade and has used these skills to both improve his own yacht and help others in their learning to do the same. If you are a chef you can work as a charter chef or as an accountant you can do the accounts for other yachties' companies, the list is almost endless, but don’t think that because you don’t have yachting skills, that you don’t have relevant skills!

For those willing to overcome these fears (or the lucky few who are fear and worry-free!) the rewards are so high. Turtles in the Galapagos, sailing into NYC past the Statue of Liberty, anchoring off in an isolated bay in the Marquesas or swimming in hidden caves in Niue. Picture yourself in a hammock on the foredeck with a beer/ or tea in hand, whiling away an hour with a book. as the sunsets - these are the dreams that drive us right? You gain the freedom to choose how you want to work or for the very lucky few, not to work at all. Your timeline and your location is of your own making and you don't have to answer to anyone but the wind speed and direction!

So here we are - on day one of our journey, having decided we are going to take to the high seas and circle the globe. If you made it this far I owe you a beer - stick with us and we hope to document our experiences, the fun and learnings in the coming weeks/ months and years: including how we plan to finance both the boat and the life, choosing the right yacht for us, details on budgets, refits and maintenance and crucially, our successes and failures with managing that pesky thing that's still sadly necessary to keep our world a turning and yacht sailing, how we keep afloat financially.

P.S - The picture at the top is genuine, when in a low category hurricane in Barbados, one of our neighbours kindly offered us a mooring ball that he said was safe despite the predicted wind and swell. The next day though obviously devastated for him when his yacht looked like this, we were relieved not to have taken it as we remained on board our yacht through the storm when he thankfully had left his to shelter at home.