WOW! Our Guilty secret a Sailing confession - Ep 77

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WOW! Sailing SWEETHEART’S GUILTY SECRET

A huge thank you to those who help keep our boat afloat by supporting our creative process via Patreon. You can be part of the crew for less than the price of a coffee. https://www.patreon.com/CruisingKiwis

I have a guilty secret, we have been bluewater sailing for five years but 95% of the time that we’re sailing we are using the autohelm. So, while North America celebrates Thanksgiving, we celebrate the fact that we are alive and well and unharmed after our lightning strike. The downside we can’t say the same for the boat. We have lost our electrics. Which means having to steer the boat ourselves, every step of the journey, rather than rely on our trusty autohelm which is regrettably out of action. And for some of us this is a new-ish challenge.
However, a little time behind the wheel and it becomes obvious that some hardships can be blessings in disquise.

Music
Luna Keller – I don’t know where I’m going
By the Coast – I’ll get you home – Musicbed
Goldford -Downside of paradise instrumental – Musicbed
Goldford – Downside to paradise – Musicbed
Mike Mains – Sipping on sunshine – Musicbed
David Mumford – Ball and chain – Creative commons

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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