SAILING the PACIFIC ocean - Ep 63

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Sailing the Pacific ocean
Our yacht Javelot is our home, our safe haven, carrying us from island to island, country to country while we make our way sailing t Pacific. No matter what the elements have thrown at us Javelot has insulated us from the storm. We now asks her to protect us once more as we leave the sunkissed shores of Fiji to sail our tiny home towards Tanna Island Vanuatu.
On our way we are reminded that propellers are magnets for ropes and discover we have more then one stowaway on board, each seeking sanctuary to recover from what ails them. A little snowy headed seabird has taken refuge under the cockpit table, while our hitchhiking crew member Heike is recovering from an illness that has all the hallmarks of ciguartera. Unfortunately, all fingers are pointed towards Rob’s fish curry as the number one suspect. But luckily there is a test that sorts the men from the boys, the ciguartera from the gastroenteritis.

Music
Luna Keller – I don’t know where I’m going
Dansu – Say say say instrumental – music bed
JJ Heller – This year happy new year
DE Joie – Smoke and mirrors

Who are we?
In 1997, after a disastrous Olympic rowing campaign, Rob decided to row a seven-metre plywood boat, 2500 miles from Tenerife in the Canary Islands to Barbados in the Caribbean. It took 6 weeks and he and his rowing partner, Phil Stubbs, won the inaugural Atlantic Rowing Race.

Skip forward to 2014, we invested in Javelot a 43 ft Fountaine Pajot catamaran. Armed only with Robert’s 3 years of racing P class yachts from the age of 11 to 13, and Rachel’s non existent sailing knowledge, we set off to learn the ropes of ocean sailing. We broke stuff, replaced stuff and got to know our boat before heading offshore with our three children, Finn 17, Declan 15 and Ivan 12, in tow.
Through trial and error, we have become confident wayfarers, kind of.
Our plan? To sail around the world, meet the locals and record our adventures. Part of the journey will be retracing Rob’s eldest brother Kerry’s travels at sea. Using Kerry’s original letters from the 1970’s we will re trace his movements from Australia through Indonesia and South East Asia to Cambodia where Kerry’s life was cut short after straying into Cambodian waters in 1978. Kerry and two friends were attacked by a Khmer Rouge gun boat, captured, tortured and executed.

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Never stop wandering, never stop wondering.

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