Xquisite X5 - The boat I will sail 10,000+ NM across the South Atlantic from South Africa to the USA

Ep172. In this episode of Cruising Off Duty, we are taking a test sail of the Xquisite X5 Catamaran at the end of the Annapolis Sailboat Show. I have been invited to take the inaugural sail of hull #7 of this 50′ Catamaran from Cape Town South Africa, 10,000+ nautical Miles across the South Atlantic, across the equator to the Caribbean and then on the East Coast of the USA. This voyage will take at least 6 weeks to complete and will surely have us sailing through all sorts of sailing conditions, from the doldrums near the equator to times where there will surely be in high winds and high waves.

It will be the adventure of a lifetime and I will be filming the entire journey to share on the Cruising Off Duty channel and website. There are anticipated stops, to replenish supplies, at Namibia Africa, St Helena Island and Ascension Island (2 of the most remote islands in the world, in the middle of the South Atlantic) then 4,000 NM across the equator to the southern tip of the Caribbean before making our way North through the islands to Florida and up the east coast to North Carolina.

At well over 10,000 nautical miles, I am sure this will be one of the longest sailing passages I will ever complete in my sailing life. With such a long passage there are risks of sailing through some extremely hair raising conditions but that makes the passage that much more exciting and should make for some great future episodes.

Along the way, when I have access to the internet, I plan to send short video updates to Patrons of the channel. Find out how to become a member of the COD patron crew at www.Patreon.com/CruisingOffDuty. From the boat, we should have an Iridium Go satellite modem that will allow basic photos to be sent. If that possible, I will be uploading them to the Cruising Off Duty Facebook page, so follow the page so you can see those photos updates as we progress across the Ocean.

Hopefully, you will find this voyage as exciting as I do and will follow along by subscribing to the Cruising Off Duty Youtube channel at:
www.Youtube.com/CruisingOffDuty or at the website at www.CruisingOffDuty.com

A live episode should be produced within the next week where you will see Janice and I talking about this voyage and you can ask any questions to us at that time. Perhaps ask Janice how she feels about me going on this trip alone. Somehow she doesn’t seem nervous about it? Not sure why because even I feel a bit nervous with all the unknowns.

More excitement coming soon to the channel.
Craig

If you would like to see the full guided tour of the inside and outside of the Xquisite X5, check out the episode we made at last years Annapolis Sailboat Show by clicking this link: