May 6, 2020
Hi readers! As part of our both heart-warming and painful post-mortem on our year at sea aboard Florence, we though it might be fun to throw out a series of questions and each answer the first thing to came to mind. It was a fun exercise to remember the trip in its entirety, both the good and the bad, and an interesting way to reflect on all we experienced and learned over the course of this crazy year. Enjoy!
Best Moment:
Stephen: Completing our Gibraltar to Tenerife passage – 5 1/2 days at sea, just the two of us. This passage had everything – a super strong foul current through the Gib Strait, fierce electrical storms all through the night our first night out in the open ocean, then alternating periods of gale force winds and near dead calm, necessitating multiple sail changes. It was a definite confidence builder landing in the Canaries having battled so much en route.
Abby: For me, it was getting Florence tied up in Barbados post our Atlantic crossing. What a moment – finally touching land after 2 weeks at sea and having smashed over 2,750 nautical miles. And that first celebratory rum cocktail with our amazing crew :)
Worst Moment:
Abby: Our “engine failure” off the coast of Spain in the middle of the night. We had to call the coastguard for a midnight rescue to tow us to the nearest harbour. It was awful - made worse by the realization after the fact that the issue was just a faulty fuel gauge that was showing our tank still had 200 litres left when in fact it was bone dry. If we had thought to change over the tanks, we could have avoided that entire nightmare. And to add insult to injury, the coastguard towed us to Torremolinos – by far the worst place we’ve been on the trip.
Stephen: Other than the above, which I agree is a standout, the worst moment was nearly getting run down by multiple high speed ferries who were taking no prisoners during our ill-advised crossing between Ibiza and Formentera. This happened on day 3 of us being on our own. This could have been a short adventure…
Biggest Fear Going In:
Stephen: That Abby would HATE IT - and me for convincing her to drop everything and come on this adventure.
Abby: My biggest fear was definitely storms. I’ve seen The Perfect Storm – it doesn’t have a happy ending.
Favourite Anchorage:
Abby: Lochaline in Northern Scotland. This was one of our first stops on the trip and in my mind just the epitome of beauty. The anchorage could not have been more protected - glassy calm water, a mud bottom where we dug perfectly, and the amazing Whitehouse restaurant perched on its shores, all lit up and cozy and beckoning us in to experience its menu of ingredients all sourced from within a 9-mile radius. By that point, we’d done multiple long, cold, overnight passages, and this respite was very very welcome.
Stephen: So many to choose from! My favourite was probably the anchorage off Green Cay and Sandy Spit in the BVIs. It was untouched paradise. A close second would be Cala di Volpe on the Costa Smerelda in Sardinia. Need to get back there.
Worst Anchorage:
Stephen: I’d caveat this question by pointing out that the most beautiful anchorage can be hell in the wrong conditions. And the least attractive can be a godsend if it provides protection and allows you to get the boat safe and maybe even get some sleep. So, with that said, Cala San Miguel on the north side of Ibiza was, while stunning, in my mind the worst. We were there just after a big mistral had blown through, and the anchorage was experiencing all the legacy swell from that blow. It was so rolly and uncomfortable, we almost got seasick just sitting on anchor in the cockpit. After 3 sleepless nights, we had to bail and get a hotel room for the night before we murdered each other – the only time we did that the entire trip.
Abby: Probably our first anchorage in Tenerife. We arrived at 3 AM in total darkness. We found one of the only anchorages on the island’s east side and were lucky to dig on our first try in the pitch black. We were wiped after 5 nights at sea, so we passed right out. The next morning, we woke up super excited to see land for the first time in a long time and stepped on deck to find ourselves anchored right off a waste management plant. The scenery and the smell were not the best welcome to an island I’ve ever had. Bienvenidos a Tenerife!
Hardest thing to get to grips with:
Abby: I struggled getting to grips with the reality that when things break on the boat (and they always do), you can’t just call your building manager to pop by and fix them with his comprehensive toolkit and technical expertise. You need to figure it out yourself. I started this trip as perhaps the world’s least handy person, and now I can troubleshoot and repair a diesel generator! (sort of…)
Stephen: The need to find a safe anchorage for the boat every single night. It’s not always easy, especially when the Mistral is blowing something fierce. A decision needs to be made early each day whether to stay or move on, and this constant decision making can feel a bit relentless to begin with combined with everything else we were having to learn or come to terms with.
Place you most want to go back to:
Stephen: Ile des Saintes – the little archipelago just south of Guadeloupe. It felt like a tiny French paradise, with amazing hikes and French wine to boot. Or Sardinia – I’d sail back to the Costa Smerelda in a heartbeat
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Abby: I’d have to say I most want to go back to the Virgin Islands – both British and US. Our time there got a bit commandeered due to COVID. Ironically, we spent much longer there than we had intended but got to see far less given we weren’t allowed to leave our little anchorage in St john for the better part of 5 weeks. There are so many more islands to explore! I’m hoping we can sail around there again early next year.
Top 3 tips for future cruisers:
Abby:
1. If you are a cruising couple, make sure you and your partner enter into the project on equal footing and have strong communication and mutual respect for one another. Communication is key, especially in this lifestyle where you often face stressful and potentially dangerous situations and need to be able to communicate effectively and make decisions in real time.
2. Choose the right boat. Do your research. And do so with your budget in mind, baking in the inevitable emergency cash needed for unforeseen repairs. The same boat isn’t right for everyone. One of the reasons I think I was able to adjust to this lifestyle was that Florence made me feel safe and comfortable. She is really the best boat for us and became the third member of our floating family.
3. Anyone can do this! If you want to learn and put in the time to gain the requisite knowledge and skills, the sailing life is available to anyone. And we've seen people do this on every kind of budget you can imagine, from a shoestring to a money-is-no-object approach, and the former is actually more common. I had never sailed a boat in my life fewer than 3 years ago, and over the past year, Stephen and I knocked out close to 14,000 nautical miles on Florence.
4. Sorry, can I add a 4th? Collision regulations! Know them. They are perhaps the most important thing we learned for navigating coastal waters, and the number of sailors who either didn’t know them or didn’t care to obey them was surprising to us. It is like driving a car without knowing the basic rules of the road. You wouldn’t’ do it.
Stephen:
1. Learn basic engine and generator maintenance. The engine is your biggest safety feature and your generator is the heartbeat of the boat. A lot of issues will be resolved or avoided if you stay on top of maintenance and can do the basic jobs yourself, like changing impellers, fuel filters, tightening V-belts, etc.
2. The boat will never be 100% ready, so just go and fix the final bits along the way. There will always be a jobs list, and the required completion of which is one of the things that holds people back. As long as the boat is safe and you have the requisite safety gear and tools on board, then set a date, stick to it and just go. You can work on the jobs list in exotic locations instead of the home port!
3: Never, ever be afraid to ask for help, particularly from other cruisers. I have never met a more helpful community of people. Everyone living at sea knows and understands the challenges and as a result is more than willing to lend a hand, lend tools, spare parts or provide advice on any problem you might have. This pay it forward attitude is one of my big takeaways from the trip.
Biggest thing we’ve learned about a relationship:
Abby & Stephen: On this one, we agree: COMMUNICATION is KING. It’s all about how you relate to each other and speak to each other.
One thing I wish I had known:
Stephen: How to sail :)
Abby: How to service a generator.
Best/Worst Immigration Procedures:
Stephen: Best: Dominica by miles – Check in and check out is one stop at one desk and one form. One of the poorest places we went yet they had their immigration procedures down pat.
Worst: BVIs. WTF? I’m still scratching my head thinking about it.
Abby: Best: All of Europe, as I didn’t check in anywhere and no one cared. And worst, I’m with Stephen all the way. BVI immigration felt like being a hamster in a maze running from one desk to another, with what felt like a dozen different forms and fees and fines to settle.
Friendliest Locals:
Stephen: Union Island in the Grenadines. Everyone we met there had such a great attitude.
Abby: For me, it’s Bequia, also in the Grenadines. This island is very welcoming to boaters, with everyone happy to cater to your needs and lend you a helping hand. After a week in Bequia, I felt like I had more friends than I did in London!
Stephen: That should tell you something…
Abby: Shut up.
Best Beach Bar:
Stephen: The Willy T, baby! I’m not sure if you can call it a beach bar, as it’s on an old schooner floating in the bay, but it’s the best. Good music, cheap, strong drinks, and they actively encourage you to jump from the top of the ship into the crystal clear blue water below. Ace.
Abby: Hard to top old Willy, but I’ll go with Jack’s Bar in Bequia. Our favourite spot for happy hour, with a spectacular view right over Princess Margaret Beach, the perfect place to watch a sunset.
Best Bar Bar:
Abby and Stephen in unison: THE PINK ELEPHANT IN TENERIFE! Damian is forever our boy. We spent two weeks in Tenerife prepping the boat for the Atlantic. Long work days were rewarded by cold refreshing beers and meniscus pours of cheap wine in the PE. Great memories! One of those bars you kind of have to dig into to appreciate...
Best Night Out:
Abby: New Year’s Eve in Bequia. After completing our 12 hour sail from Barbados, we made it to Bequia in time to ring in the new year. We danced with our toes in the sand to a live 12-piece steel drum band before sitting on the dock watching fireworks explode over the bay. 2020 started off well :)
Stephen: I’d have to say the closing party at Beach House in Ibiza. We got to celebrate my wife’s birthday (21 again, what are the odds?) while eating beautiful food and listening to great music on the beach.
Best Passage:
We will caveat that this answer excludes the Atlantic crossing, because that experience just can’t be beat.
Stephen: I’d say our passage from Southern Corsica to the Costa Smerelda on the northeast coast of Sardinia. After the mistral had been punishing us relentlessly for over a week, the wind finally worked for us instead of against us, and we were able to complete a long, absolutely stunning passage weaving through the archipelagos off Sardinia’s northern coast all on one tack. The wind was our friend that day.
Abby: I loved that passage. Though my favourite might be our passage from Antigua to Tortola. We didn’t know it at the time, but it was to be our final overnight passage on Flo (thanks, COVID). It took us just over 24 hours, and we were able to sail the whole thing on one tack. We sailed by Monserrat, Nevis and St. Kitts, St. Barths, Anguilla, and St. Marteen before the outermost islands of the BVIs came into focus. Awesome.
Weirdest Moment:
Abby: For me, it was our first overnight passage from Southampton to the Scilly Isles off the coast of Cornwall. Everything we were doing was all suddenly very real. There was officially no going back. I became keenly aware that I didn’t really know what I was doing or more importantly what I was doing there. In honesty, I felt overwhelmed and like I had just made a massive mistake.
Stephen: How wrong you were ;) For me, the weirdest moment was our sail along north coast of Mallorca on our passage from Ibiza in early July. There was no moon that night, so no light. And the north side of Mallorca is mostly desolate, so for the most part we couldn’t see any lights ashore. We could barely see the bow of the boat. It was a super eerie sensation, like ghosting through space.
Best Restaurant:
Stephen: My favourite was Au Bon Vivre on Ile de Saintes. Just incredible French food made with all local ingredients served on a speck of rock in middle of the Atlantic.
Abby: I’d say Jeanne in Antibes. I just loved the concept (and the all-natural wine list). It was founded and run by two young sisters, and I loved their vision, energy, and their astounding wine knowledge. I wanted to nerd out with them about natural wine all night :)
Best thing we ate:
Abby: My vote is for the local blackened mahi mahi, from anywhere in the Caribbean. It seemed to be the most readily available fish, and it was always exceptional. I’d eat that shit every damn night.
Stephen: The street meat in Bequia on NYE. None of the proper restaurants in town would have us without a res, so we went to the locals party, got a couple buckets of BBQ chicken and pork from some very friendly vendors, ate it on the sidewalk with some local beer out of a cooler and were in heaven. The last meal of 2019!
Best wildlife experience:
Stephen: The basking sharks trolling the inner and outer Hebrides of Scotland. They are just these enormous, graceful creatures. They swim in packs and would come right up and swim under the boat. Wild.
Abby: For me, it's snorkelling and diving in Waterlemon Bay in St. John. The place was teeming with sharks, sea turtles, octopus, colourful fish of every size and shape, and even some coral that was actually alive. You won’t find that in the Med. The experience was extremely meditative.
Scariest Weather:
Stephen & Abby: Electrical storms out in the Atlantic off the coast of Africa en route to Tenerife. There was no escaping them - all we could do was to monitor them doggedly on radar and try to outmaneuver them. As the only mast in sight, we were the perfect conductor. In short, it could have been very bad.
Favourite thing about Florence:
Abby: She’s built for speed AND comfort :)
Stephen: I love her lines – she’s such an elegant boat. I’m always proud when I lay eyes on her, and getting compliments on her from other sailors never gets old. Less aesthetically, she has huge fuel and water tanks, approx. 1300 litres of each which, trust me, is very cool!
Best Drink:
Abby: The Pain Killer from Cooper Island Beach Club in the BVIs. They give it to you with a slice of raw sugar cane that you can gnaw on after it soaks up the rum. Yes please!
Stephen: I agree that was definitely the best cocktail, so I’ll go with the best local beer. For me, it’s the Inchusa Unfiltered from Sardinia. A dream. 3 euros from a beach bar, 30 euros from Hotel Cala di Volpe, so be mindful where you order it….
Biggest Regret:
Stephen: Not really learning to fish.
Abby: That the trip is over. I am NOT ready, which is a total 180 from where I was at the outset of this trip, when at times I was just dying for it to be over. How much a person can change in just one year…. I find that inspiring.
Most embarrassing moment:
Abby: Surfacing from a snorkelling trip onto the beach and not realizing my bathing suit top was down by my waist. So amateur. Although it would have been nice if someone had bothered to point it out straight away…
Stephen: Finding out we didn’t have engine failure off the coast of Spain and that we just hadn’t thought to switch over tanks. Hands down the most embarrassing and expensive moment. Double ouch.
What I will miss most:
Stephen: The freedom to up anchor and go wherever you want.
Abby: Being able to wake up, walk up the companionway steps and jump into the ocean to kick off the day.
Biggest takeway:
Abby: That life is what you make it. It is possible to throw a wrench into things, to take risks and to make the unconventional choices, even ones that terrify you as much as they excite you, and to come out the other end feeling enriched. And that life, rather than feeling like a trap as it has at times in my life, should feel full of opportunity. You can do anything you set your mind to.
Stephen: You CAN teach an old dog new tricks. You can learn something significant – like how to sail and how to run a large, complicated vessel without much prior experience. Having done it makes facing future new endeavours and challenges far less daunting.
Parting Mantra:
Stephen: Take any big challenge, break it up into small bits, and start with one of the small bits. The rest follows.
Abby: Life is beautiful. Go live it.
